A big draw for me, regarding the Rancho Mirage Library is its everchanging, very interesting exhibits. The current one stopped me in my tracks.
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The Best-Read Army in the World: The Power of the Written Word in World War II, curated by Molly Guptill Manning, tells one of those stories I never learned in history class. During World War II—a time of rampant propaganda, censorship, and Nazi book bans in Europe—the United States military sent troops into battle armed not only with weapons, but also with ideas. The U.S. publishing industry created pocket-sized paperback books called “Armed Services Editions,” as well as petite issues of domestic newspapers and miniature “overseas” editions of popular magazines. In total, more than 1 billion periodicals and 123 million paperbacks were distributed to 16 million American troops. In the words of the New York Post in 1945, the United States had “the best-read Army in the world,” and these readers returned home with an unquenchable reading habit, revolutionizing the book and magazine industries.
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When the Victory Book Campaign commenced in January 1942, posters advertising the book drive appeared across the country—in train stations, grocery stores, public libraries, schools, courthouses, and office buildings. This poster by C.B. Falls was a huge success. By the summer of 1942, 10 million books were collected and donated to the military.
Even children assisted the Victory Book Campaign. Pictured are two boy scouts collecting books in Detroit. The girl scouts and campfire girls also undertook book collections. The efforts of young Americans made a considerable impact: one group collected 10,000 books during a single day’s door-to-door campaign. Aside from youth organizations, most public schools had book drops, and children regularly gathered books from home and their neighbors to donate at school.At ports of embarkation, the Victory Book Campaign often provided crates of books so that troops could grab reading material for their weeks-long journey to a theater of war. Most ships also had their own libraries. Stocked with books purchased by the Army and Navy, as well as Victory Book Campaign donations, these libraries bragged of incredibly high circulation rates and a constant need for more books.
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But the troops wanted more than books: They also wanted magazines. Each month, sets of special overseas editions of 28 different magazines were shipped to wherever troops could be found: hospitals, headquarters or individual units. Some of these titles were Sporting News, Newsweek, Detective Story Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Outdoor Life, and more.
These overseas edition magazines were a bit different from the editions back home. They were printed on lightweight paper, and they had no ads. They also didn't include serial stories (Imagine if the story ended with "To Be Continued!"), and they didn't include "exclusively feminine items," such as fashions and shopping.
In 1945, almost 70,000 sets of magazines were shipped each month. Because some magazines were weekly, and sometimes popular magazines got extra copies, that's about 6,850,000 magazines shipped out every month. Where are they now. I want to find some!
Shout out to the USPS. The United States Postal Service helped spread the word about the Victory Book Campaign. Alongside the postage is an advertisement for the book drive, “Our Men Want Books, Send All You Can Today.” Curiously, the Victory Book Campaign ended in 1943; yet, this 1944 letter still reminds the public of the need to donate books.
The Rancho Mirage Library is 65 miles from our house. What a worthwhile journey. Walter Savage Landor said it best, "Nothing is pleasanter than exploring a library."
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