Services Editions Guide to the Beverly Rogers Collection ...

Guide to the Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions

This finding aid was created by UNLV Special Collections and Archives staff. This copy was published on March 08, 2022. Please contact special.collections@unlv.edu for questions regarding this collection. Persistent URL for this finding aid:

? 2022 The Regents of the University of Nevada. All rights reserved. University of Nevada, Las Vegas. University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives. Box 457010 4505 S. Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-7010 special.collections@unlv.edu

Guide to the Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions

Table of Contents

Summary Information .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Historical Background .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Scope and Contents Note ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Arrangement ............................................................................................................................................................ 5 Administrative Information ................................................................................................................................ 5 Related Materials .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Names and Subjects ............................................................................................................................................... 6 Collection Inventory .............................................................................................................................................. 7

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Guide to the Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions

Summary Information

Repository:

Creator: Collector:

Title: ID:

Date [inclusive]: Date [bulk]: Physical Description: Physical Description:

Language of the Material: Abstract:

University of Nevada, Las Vegas. University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives. Council on Books in Wartime Rogers, Beverly, 1950Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions MS-00913 1943 to 2003 1943 to 1947 48.60 Cubic Feet (47 boxes, 1 cabinet)

34.51 Linear Feet

English

The Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions includes one thousand two hundred and forty-two of the original paperback Armed Services Edition titles published between 1943 and 1947 used by World War II service members in the United States Army and Navy, as well as four later editions from the Legacy Project published in 2003 and one from the Pocket Books Inc. series published in 1944. The original Armed Services Editions include works of fiction and non-fiction in their unabridged forms.

Preferred Citation

Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions, 1943-2003. MS-00913. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Historical Background

The original publication of Armed Services Editions (ASE) books was a project that provided reading material for World War II service members between 1942 and 1947. During this time, the United States Navy and Army (including the Air Forces) received a total of 122,951,031

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Guide to the Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions

mass-produced paperback volumes of over 1,300 titles. In 2002, the Legacy Project revived ASE publications for American troops abroad at the time.

Formed by a group of publishers, booksellers, authors and libraries, the Council on Books in Wartime (CBW) worked to support World War II efforts of the U.S. Army and Navy with the publication of non-fiction and fiction. Titles include books about war, humorous books, popular fiction classics, and anthologies of stories and verses. The CBW used the slogan "books are weapons in the war of ideas" to emphasize the need not only for entertainment, but also for education regarding political, historical, and military issues. These publications predominantly, but not exclusively, featured contemporary best sellers.

The CBW initially sold ASE books to the Army and Navy at the cost of manufacture (approximately six cents per volume) plus ten cents for overhead costs. In the ASE's development, the CBW focused on the books' portability first and foremost, as they had to fit into a soldier's pocket. As such, the CBW printed the books as "two-ups," or as pairs, one above the other, in a single magazine that was cut horizontally in half to create two separate pocket-sized books. They typically measured 14 centimeters by 10 centimeters after slicing, with longer books measuring 16.5 centimeters by 11.5 centimeters.

The CBW published the first ASE book in 1943. In the original publication run, the CBW organized the ASE titles numerically by monthly series until Series "HH," the thirty-fourth and last monthly series of the original ASE project in 1946. After WWII, the CBW agreed to continue the paperback prints, running until Series "TT," the last print series delivered in September 1947. Beginning in 2002, Andrew Caroll, author and archivist, revived the ASE's publication with the Legacy Project prints, denoted by the Series "LP." These issue numbers appear on the spines and/or front covers of the ASEs.

Sources:

Cole, John Y., ed. Books in Action: The Armed Services Editions. Washington, D. C.: The Center for the Book, Library of Congress, 1984. Accessed April 22, 2019. a473543.pdf

Gable, John A., ed. The Man in the Arena. 1st ed. Washington, D.C.: Legacy Project, 2003.

Gussow, Mel. "Literature Re-enlists In the Military; Pilot Project Is Sending Books to American Ships And Troops Abroad." The New York Times, November 7, 2002. Accessed April 19, 2019.

U.S. Library of Congress. "Armed Services Editions." Library of Congress Catalog. Accessed April 19, 2019. .

Wolff, H. and Stefan Salter. Editions for the Armed Services Inc.: A History Together With the Complete List of 1324 Books Published for American Armed Forces Overseas. New York: Council on Books in Wartime, 1948.

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Guide to the Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions

Scope and Contents Note

The Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions includes one thousand two hundred and forty-two of the original paperback Armed Services Edition titles published between 1943 and 1947 used by World War II service members in the United States Army and Navy, as well as four editions from the Legacy Project published in 2003 and one from the Pocket Books Inc. series published in 1944. The original Armed Services Editions include works of fiction and nonfiction in their unabridged forms. The Legacy Project prints include contemporary best sellers. The collection also includes a custom cabinet donated by Beverly Rogers to house and display a portion of the Armed Services Editions. Duplicate copies exist and are noted at the file level of this inventory. ^ Return to Table of Contents

Arrangement

Titles are physically arranged by original issue number. ^ Return to Table of Contents

Administrative Information

Access Note

Collection is open for research. Cataloging of these titles is ongoing. All titles are listed in this inventory. Many of the titles have also been described individually in more detail in the University Libraries' catalog.

Publication Rights

Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.

Acquisition Note

Materials were donated in 2019, 2020, and 2021 by Beverly Rogers; accession number 2019-010.

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