European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1947, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Hip pocket Library armed services retiring from Active duty soon with a record of combat on every War were As popular in the Philippines As along the Rhine a combat after ser vice All Over the willbe out of action by october this vet saw service in the Battle of the m the drive across the in the the in the planes that flew the on every and behind every the vet is the armed services those books gis slipped into their hip pockets when the army thought up some Odd thing like a patrol to interfere with their popular the books were torn in half so two could read the Book at the same a bit for that meant one Reader had to Start in the Middle of the like walking into the movies in Middle of a in the Long process of sweating it out the Little books played a big they were snapped up at units and hospitals As soon As they and Chow lines were abandoned to grab the books so popular were the store that when a lieutenant m a combat Engineer battalion once found himself with ten books for fort four that Young Solomon solved the problem by ordering the books to be read aloud in the but those shorthanded Days have Long since american special services librarians in the occupied zones now have enough of the pocket sized editions for everyone who wants to read and although they Are scheduled to Stop coming off the presses october their the Book kits Are already arriving in the kits contain Standard sized clothbound books with titles ranging irom Emily posts etiquette to the latest and a Selec Tion of topics from travel to the kits Are distributed to All of the 272 libraries operated in Europe by special services and Are available in the libraries of the Large communities and the Bookmobiles that visit the Kittle when editions for the armed Ier vices nonprofit by the out of it will have printed of from Plato to Thorne under the old new program came in when demand for the booklets after the fighting dropped to about eighteen thousand copies for each new Cost to the army was cents per that included a Penny Royalty on each ing the Cost of according to Stahley manager of armed ser vices was cents a leaving a difference of three Mills a from this surplus armed ser vices editions built up a Reserve of goo too therefore the last seven months of armed sen ices editions life will Cost the army and Navy one in these last seven months More than copies of books will Roll off the All for that one and even after Thompson he still Hopes to be Able to return to the treasurer of the United states costs have hit the royalties Are now six cents a copy and paper and Lubor and other items Are Way the Overall Cost is now eighteen cents a that what s causing the discharge of this the army and navys budgets Are being the pocket books had their birth in the desire of general Dwight Eisen in to get a copy of lord Louis Mountbatten combined operations into the hands of every Amer ican Ike sent a representative to the states to see what could be he found that the idea was impossible to put into but out of it came the plan to print Little books on Magazine in a format that would permit them to be slipped into a hip the Council on books in consisting of writers and which supervised All publishing during the War it has been in operative since last january put the idea into it set up the editions for the armed to handle the on the advisory committee for the armed services editions were such Bookman As critics Lewis Gannett and Harry Hansen and author publisher Philip Van Doren first Manger of editions for the Arm 3d the committee consulted with army and Navy librarians on what books would be there were forty titles a now the number has fallen to twelve during the whole vast Ven Ture no publisher Ever attempted to Palm off his old books on the Many books that Are accepted classics were sent but for the most the troops got new forever Amber was the Al time even though four of her lovers had to be edited out of the text for reasons of there were still enough lovers left in so that there were no audible complaints from the in books with sex situations were the most popular for the Whiting away of the woman less even no Book was selected unless it had other sometimes men who grabbed books like is sex necessary and lust for life were the fanciful sex situations in Thorne Smiths books made him the most popular As far As individual authors go there was always a clamor for westerns and mysteries in the while sailors went big for stories of the there was a time immediately preceding the presidential election of 1944 when certain books were banned because of senator tafts amendment to the soldiers vote the Amend ment promised heavy penalties to anyone who circulated to soldiers books which contained political argument or the army interpreted this literally and there is still suspicion that it intended to Force repeal of the amendment by carrying out its provisions to their ultimate of the grounds that it contained political Whites one mans meat was banned be cause it mentioned whigs and Charles beards the scholarly discussion of american poli tical struck from the lists the clincher must have been the army Banning one of its own official guide to the army air because it contained a picture of its commander i chief Franklin who was then running for once in a while some of the editions were banned on other John jerseys a Bell for Adano was toe midget books travel Europe with i readers refused distribution by the Navy on the grounds that it might be considered a reflection on certain aspects of the the however went right ahead and sent it to us own the Navy also rejected Amber and All the books of Ernie Pyle except his Home at one time the armed services editions was accused by a Congress Man of distributing subversive mate rial and quoted passages from Louis Adamic natives the con was unaware that the objectionable material had been edited out of the Book before it was armed services editions woes were not All one letter declared if it is your Mission in this War to cheer the lives of members of the armed forces by your armed services you May consider yourselves As far As i am in i am greatly gnats putting it the cause of my Wrath is the gaunt in the most exciting part of this Fine novel at least Twenty five pages were not torn mind but never put in the Book during the i was so Dis gusted with the whole sordid affair that i threw the Book from now i dont know if the hero got the girl or got the one taking umbrage at what he considered imperialistic propaganda in Alan Bro Dencks North demanded to know who was the fifth column in armed services v but there were More than Brick bats there were honest pleas for in one lieutenant wrote asking where he could get a copy of marriage the information was sent to an artillerymen i Lay there with All hell bursting Loose and Noth ing i could do about so i dug a copy of Lytton Strachey Queen Vic Toria out of my pocket and began Reading about Victorias dear dear Beautiful and his soft flowing at the end of its armed services editions can look Back on a tour of duty that carried it into every Little Corner of every theat revery Corner save in gis saw a sign absolutely no Reading matter May be taken bookends there is certainly a Good i Deal of talk going on these Days about soviet Russia judging from the number of recent books on the general most of it is going Down on there is one rather striking in the tone of voice being used in Stree Corner is inclined to be just Plain Leary of soviet the tone of most 6f the seems to be aimed mostly at trying to explain and justify the motives if not to eliminate the John Fischer Why they behave like russians harpers is probably one of the More hostile of the recent books about the and even Fischer states that the reds Are prob ably impelled More by fear of attack from the Western Powers than by any other National he go on to say that such a fear is the same Basic interpretation underlies Edgar snows Brief Stalin must have random the Snow speaking As an experienced student of Asiatic and european is much More concerned with build ing up her retarded internal Economy than with territorial he also this concern is tempered by a feeling of need for John Strohms series of direct newspaper collected now As just Tell the truth differs from most of the current in that it attempts to find no Strohm merely attempts to Tell photographically what he saw in a few weeks among the Farmers of the the factory workers in the and the War survivors and returnees in the War ruined quite different from any Book about the soviet within recent memory is Over at Uncle Joes Oriana atkinsons admittedly superficial account of an american woman ten months inside the atkinsons strongest claim to being an expert on Russia is the statement that she knows More about Russia than any body who Hast been what she found distasteful about life in the soviet was less a matter of politics than of simple american House wifely and even though she says god forbid to the idea of being a permanent resident of the she declares without Hesi tation that i could live in Moscow and get along with the muscovites quite a recent Book and manuscript auction was marked by considerable apathy on the part of the a Sherwood Anderson for example went for drawings for an american signed he brought Only and a Auden manuscript for during the bidding for a pair of Henry Wallace manuscripts went up to 19