Postgraduate Dissertation
I have completed my Masters in Publishing. I have therefor decided to post my Masters dissertation. This is a completely different style of writing from my undergraduate piece. This is much more academic, with a more serious tone. It is a comparative analysis of publishing during World War II, looking into the United States and the United Kingdom. This proved to a be a difficult piece for me to write, not only because I have never written something like this before, but because of what a broad subject it was. However, it was interesting to research and hopefully as interesting to read.
Publishing During World War II: A Comparative Analysis of the United States and the United Kingdom
Abstract and Keywords
This piece is based off of several research questions. This inquiring mind was interested mainly in what publishing was like during World War II. Originally, Germany was going to be included, along with Great Britain and the United States, but, due to language restrictions as well as word count restrictions, the decision to leave Germany out and focus on the other two was made. The main goal of this piece is to delve into the world of publishing during one of the most turbulent times in the world's history, and see what it was like. What was the working environment like? What were the restrictions in the industry due to the war? Was the war in any way beneficial to publishers? All these questions were answered throughout the piece, with the assistance of research.
The research conducted did not include any interviews or surveys. The main material used was most certainly books. I gained a vast majority of my information from five books that I read. Some books were most certainly more helpful than others, but even the books that were not necessarily full of information gave a good base for what I needed to look for. For example, Wartime America: The World War II Home Front by John W. Jeffries did not have much related directly to publishing, but he did write a bit about issues such as America not being as directly touched by war as Great Britain. This point brought up other issues to look into, such as rationing and how different the war actually was for both countries, and what effect that had on the publishing industry. Other materials, such as the journal article A Paperback Guide to Progress by Nicholas Joicey was focuses solely on Penguin Books, but that led to an interest in other companies that were around during World War II, such as Scribners, and what they went through during the war.
As far as findings having done the research, there were two man authors who contributed greatly to writing this paper. The first is Valerie Holman, author of Book Publishing in England 1939-1945. This is where I found a vast majority of the information needed to write “Chapter 1: Great Britain at War.” Within this chapter, many things are discussed in regards to the war and what it was like in Great Britain for the publishing industry. Other things are explored, such as the role of the Ministry of Information and how much influence the government had over the industry. In regards to the government, they had much more of an influence over the industry than originally thought, especially when the MoI became involved. The second author was John B. Hench with his book Books As Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. This is where I got a majority of the information in “Chapter 2: The United States Enters the War.” This chapter looks into the publishing industry in the United States. The United States certainly faired better than Great Britain and was more successful during the war, which would be expected due to the fact that the continental United States so virtually none of the war, except from what they heard over the radio and what they read in books.
The main conclusion reached after conducting research was that the United States' publishing industry was more successful during the War than Great Britain. Great Britain certainly faired worse. They dealt with events such as the Blitz and the pure fact of their location so close to actual battles, things that the United States only heard about. Their publishing industry suffered numerous blows, including literally being blown apart by bombs from the Blitz. They lost millions of tons of back stock and supplies, as well as human lives. Despite all of this, though, the civilians of Great Britain banded together to volunteer for various jobs, including air raid wardens, but also editors and authors, to help in any way they could with the war effort. Hench writes about how books “won the war,” and whether that is true or not is a matter of opinion, but they certainly played a major role in keeping the morale up and keeping both countries in a frame of mind to win a war against an enemy who knew the power of books, the power of which warranted book burnings. Books were soldiers in their own right, silently fighting a war of their own, against all odds.
Keywords: publishing, World War II, books, publishing houses, Great Britain, United States
The research conducted did not include any interviews or surveys. The main material used was most certainly books. I gained a vast majority of my information from five books that I read. Some books were most certainly more helpful than others, but even the books that were not necessarily full of information gave a good base for what I needed to look for. For example, Wartime America: The World War II Home Front by John W. Jeffries did not have much related directly to publishing, but he did write a bit about issues such as America not being as directly touched by war as Great Britain. This point brought up other issues to look into, such as rationing and how different the war actually was for both countries, and what effect that had on the publishing industry. Other materials, such as the journal article A Paperback Guide to Progress by Nicholas Joicey was focuses solely on Penguin Books, but that led to an interest in other companies that were around during World War II, such as Scribners, and what they went through during the war.
As far as findings having done the research, there were two man authors who contributed greatly to writing this paper. The first is Valerie Holman, author of Book Publishing in England 1939-1945. This is where I found a vast majority of the information needed to write “Chapter 1: Great Britain at War.” Within this chapter, many things are discussed in regards to the war and what it was like in Great Britain for the publishing industry. Other things are explored, such as the role of the Ministry of Information and how much influence the government had over the industry. In regards to the government, they had much more of an influence over the industry than originally thought, especially when the MoI became involved. The second author was John B. Hench with his book Books As Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. This is where I got a majority of the information in “Chapter 2: The United States Enters the War.” This chapter looks into the publishing industry in the United States. The United States certainly faired better than Great Britain and was more successful during the war, which would be expected due to the fact that the continental United States so virtually none of the war, except from what they heard over the radio and what they read in books.
The main conclusion reached after conducting research was that the United States' publishing industry was more successful during the War than Great Britain. Great Britain certainly faired worse. They dealt with events such as the Blitz and the pure fact of their location so close to actual battles, things that the United States only heard about. Their publishing industry suffered numerous blows, including literally being blown apart by bombs from the Blitz. They lost millions of tons of back stock and supplies, as well as human lives. Despite all of this, though, the civilians of Great Britain banded together to volunteer for various jobs, including air raid wardens, but also editors and authors, to help in any way they could with the war effort. Hench writes about how books “won the war,” and whether that is true or not is a matter of opinion, but they certainly played a major role in keeping the morale up and keeping both countries in a frame of mind to win a war against an enemy who knew the power of books, the power of which warranted book burnings. Books were soldiers in their own right, silently fighting a war of their own, against all odds.
Keywords: publishing, World War II, books, publishing houses, Great Britain, United States
Introduction: The World Goes to War
Adolf Hitler, a name that strikes fear in the hearts of millions, even today, came into power in 1934. By 1937, he was meeting with his top military aides to discuss an aggressive movement on Europe. Two years later, in 1939, Hitler ordered his military to invade Poland, causing France and Great Britain to declare war on Germany.1 Great Britain was plunged further into war the same year that Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, when German bombers appeared over the city of London on September 7, 1940. Renowned journalist Ernie Pyle had this to say about the Blitz, “There was something inspiring just in the awful savagery of it. […] About every two minutes a new wave of planes would be over. The motors seemed to grind rather than roar, and to have an angry pulsation, like a be buzzing in blind fury.” 2 Life for the British quickly turned militant as they were forced to retaliate. As the Blitz continued on Great Britain's biggest cities in 1941, on December 7 of that year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his famous “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy” speech, in which he states, “the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”3 This “date which will live in infamy” forced the United States to join the war and come to the aid of Great Britain as their ally. This dissertation will focus more specifically on the state of publishing than the war itself, and not only within these two countries, but in a world wide sense as well. Chapters 1 and 2 will explore each country individually, delving deeper into what the industry was like and the events that occurred during the span of the war. The third chapter will be a comparative analysis between the two countries in which the similarities and differences, successes and failures will be discussed.
In regards to the countries that will be explored throughout this dissertation, both Great Britain and the United States faced trials and tribulations throughout the war, from rationing, to the unspeakable loss of life, to a monumental shift in country dynamic. Great Britain was much more directly affected due to its location, just across the Channel from some of the most major battles of the war. There was a shift felt through the entire country. Winston Churchill, newly elected Prime Minister just as the Blitz was ravaging London, believed civilian support was the best way to win the war. In 1940, an organization called the Home Guard, which was made up of 1.5 million British men, helped in the war effort by collecting items such as scrap metal for the expected onslaught of German attacks. Women played a crucial role throughout the war. They were called to service in many aspects, from mechanics to engineers, fire truck drivers to air raid wardens. Upwards of 80,000 women joined the Women's Land Army to help with the recovery of the country after the Blitz. Women also preformed tasks such as reusing and recycling, assisted with rationing, and even cultivated their own gardens.4 As the History Chanel states, “Rationing was another unwelcome yet necessary fact of life. Before the war, Britain had imported 55 million tons of food each year; by October 1939, this figure had fallen to just 12 million.”5 Rationing was applied to more items than just food, though. Everything was rationed; rubber, metal, paper, all were strictly distributed according to government standards.
The United States tried to remain neutral as Great Britain was unwillingly thrown into war. Having had numerous skirmishes in its short one hundred and sixty-five year history, it was understandable that Roosevelt was trying to keep his country off the front lines. As an author at the History Chanel explains,“In September 1939, the ideological affinity between the USA and Britain was unquestionable, yet large swathes of the US public, media and politicians were deeply isolationist. With hindsight, many people resented America’s involvement in the First World War. The desire to ‘avoid foreign entanglements’ and focus on domestic issues was widespread.”6 However, after the attacks by the Axis country of Japan, he had no choice, much like Great Britain, but to enter the war. There were many parallels between the United States and Great Britain as far as the home front war effort was concerned. Rationing affected the entire country. All American citizens regardless of age or social standing, like in Great Britain, received a ration book dictating how much metal, rubber, food, and so on, that they were allotted. Women were recruited to work in factories, building planes, making bullets, as there was a lack of labor due to the men being called into service. A History Chanel author writes, “Indeed, with tens of thousands of American men joining the armed forces and heading into training and into battle, women began securing jobs as welders, electricians and riveters in defense plants. Until that time, such positions had been strictly for men only. A woman who toiled in the defense industry came to be known as a 'Rosie the Riveter.'”7 Women were essential to the war effort, which affected their lives greatly. More affected than women, however, were the Japanese living in America. “Just over two months after Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) signed into law Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the removal from their communities and the subsequent imprisonment of all Americans of Japanese descent who resided on the West Coast.”8 Despite this clear discrimination, many Japanese-American men still entered the United States military and fought bravely for their country on the front lines, in the air, and at sea.
There was an impressive outpouring of patriotism from both countries. Americans began listening to patriotic music on the radio, displaying flags on their homes, and joining in the war effort every way they could. The British reacted similarly, doing their patriotic duty by joining local committees and groups that assisted in the home front efforts, such as becoming air raid warrens and ration officers. One of the most important phenomena of World War II was propaganda. “Throughout the war, the Ministry of Information,” the History Chanel explains, “tried to boost public morale through propaganda campaigns. It also frequently prevented (or at least delayed) the press from publishing information that would damage public spirits, such as photographs of bomb-damaged houses in poor parts of London.”9 Propaganda was not strictly for the home front, though. Much of it was spread to the soldiers to help their morale, as well as other countries. Some was even sent to Axis countries, including Germany and Italy. Although all industries were affected in one way or another by the war, the publishing industry was affected in a unique way due to many issues, including rationing of materials vital to the industry such as paper and metal, especially in Great Britain, but also very much so in the United States. “'Books,' declared Winston Churchill, 'offer the means whereby civilization may be carried triumphantly forward.' Yet however potent their symbolism, books are first and foremost material objects whose very existence depends on the availability of raw materials, manpower, and machinery.”10 During World War II, both countries saw the shortage of vital publishing supplies. This would not deter them, however, from creating propaganda. There were ways around paper rationing which publishing houses like Penguin discovered.
Great Britain had to combat the propaganda efforts of the Nazi party, which were seemingly unparalleled and incredibly successful. Author Valerie Holman states that, “By the time the war did break out, the German Propaganda Ministry, set up in 1933, had had six years of experience.”11 Great Britain was under an immense amount of pressure to compete with the German propaganda that had been spreading around Europe for over half a decade. “Nazi propaganda represented all that a democratic Britain had to be seen to oppose, but at the same time, it offered models of effectiveness that would challenge both policymakers and those in charge of propaganda production in the UK.”12 This fell into the hands of the Ministry of Information, which essentially took over much of the British publishing industry. The MoI will be discussed in more detail further on in this dissertation.
Publishing in America during World War II faired much better than it did in Great Britain. Much like Great Britain, though, many valued staff members were called upon to serve in the military. However, due to the vast size and number of the population, the industry in the United States did not suffer nearly as much as in Great Britain. Publishers were making great gains during the war from the sales of Bibles and other religious items, especially once more soldiers were called out to fight in the European theater.13There were certainly less restrictions in the United States publishing industry than in the other countries. Although the United States went through a period of rationing, and it affected the industry, it did not cripple it. As aforementioned, there was a significant difference due to the population. However, much like Great Britain, book publishing was not considered an “essential activity,” like newspapers and magazines because they were not “'devoted primarily to the dissemination of public information,'” which meant that their employees could be called up at any point and there was not much to be done about it.14 Later on in the war, the publishers tried to help the war effort by creating new series and other books, such as the Overseas and Transatlantic Editions, as well as Armed Services Editions. They also helped in the effort to reeducate liberated countries with American titles and titles approved by the government.
Great Britain and the United States were never necessarily at odds with one another, they did cooperate many times throughout the war, but there was a bit of sibling-like rivalry. One of their cooperative efforts was a landing of books on Normandy beach. Much like the human soldiers who landed a few weeks before them, these “book soldiers” landed on the beach in crates weighing upwards of eighty pounds each and containing between and ten and twenty-seven copies of twenty-four different American and British titles. This was done to help the morale of the book-starved countries, and get these titles into the hands of the people in those locations.15 There were some similarities between the two countries in regards to committees. This will be explored in more depth later on in this piece, but just to give an example, Great Britain establish their Ministry of Information, and the United States later created the Office of War Information. There seemed to be a lot of bouncing ideas back and forth between the two countries, whether intended or inadvertently, the similarities are striking.
Throughout this dissertation, the state of the publishing industry in the United States and Great Britain during World War II will be discussed. The first chapter will give a more in depth look into what was happening throughout the world and how it affected both countries. The second chapter will focus solely on Great Britain. The quality of life outside the publishing industry and how the publishing industry helped this state of living will be discussed, as well as how the economy faired, and the publishing industry itself will be explored more thoroughly. Chapter three will discuss what was happening in the United States. The main focal points will include home front life and the economy, as well as propaganda and the publishing industry. The fourth chapter will be a comparative analysis of the two countries, including matters such as British publishing houses with American branches, how effective propaganda was in both countries, and the similarities and differences between how each country was affected. The concluding statements will include information about how both countries faired post-war, as well as summing up the previous chapters and suggestions for further research.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1Meier, David A. "Adolf Hitler's Rise to Power." Hitler's Rise to Power. N.p., 2000. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/Holocaust/hitler.html>.
2"The London Blitz, 1940." EyeWitness to History.com. N.p., 2001. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/blitz.htm>.
3"Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation." American Rhetoric: Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation (12-08-41). Ed. Michael Eidenmuller. American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches, 2001. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm>.
4"British Home Front." World War 2 on History. The History Chanel, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/british-home-front.html>.
5Ibid.
6"US Entry & Alliance." - World War 2 on History. The History Chanel, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/us-entry-and-alliance.html>.
7"The U.S. Home Front During World War II." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.com/topics/us-home-front-during-world-war-ii>.
8Ibid.
9"British Home Front." World War 2 on History. The History Chanel, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/british-home-front.html>.
10Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 197. Print.
11Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 199. Print.
12 Ibid.
13 Hench, John B. "The US Book Trade in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 21. Print.
14Hench, John B. "The US Book Trade in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 22. Print.
15Hench, John B. "Introduction: Books on the Normandy Beaches." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 1. Print.
In regards to the countries that will be explored throughout this dissertation, both Great Britain and the United States faced trials and tribulations throughout the war, from rationing, to the unspeakable loss of life, to a monumental shift in country dynamic. Great Britain was much more directly affected due to its location, just across the Channel from some of the most major battles of the war. There was a shift felt through the entire country. Winston Churchill, newly elected Prime Minister just as the Blitz was ravaging London, believed civilian support was the best way to win the war. In 1940, an organization called the Home Guard, which was made up of 1.5 million British men, helped in the war effort by collecting items such as scrap metal for the expected onslaught of German attacks. Women played a crucial role throughout the war. They were called to service in many aspects, from mechanics to engineers, fire truck drivers to air raid wardens. Upwards of 80,000 women joined the Women's Land Army to help with the recovery of the country after the Blitz. Women also preformed tasks such as reusing and recycling, assisted with rationing, and even cultivated their own gardens.4 As the History Chanel states, “Rationing was another unwelcome yet necessary fact of life. Before the war, Britain had imported 55 million tons of food each year; by October 1939, this figure had fallen to just 12 million.”5 Rationing was applied to more items than just food, though. Everything was rationed; rubber, metal, paper, all were strictly distributed according to government standards.
The United States tried to remain neutral as Great Britain was unwillingly thrown into war. Having had numerous skirmishes in its short one hundred and sixty-five year history, it was understandable that Roosevelt was trying to keep his country off the front lines. As an author at the History Chanel explains,“In September 1939, the ideological affinity between the USA and Britain was unquestionable, yet large swathes of the US public, media and politicians were deeply isolationist. With hindsight, many people resented America’s involvement in the First World War. The desire to ‘avoid foreign entanglements’ and focus on domestic issues was widespread.”6 However, after the attacks by the Axis country of Japan, he had no choice, much like Great Britain, but to enter the war. There were many parallels between the United States and Great Britain as far as the home front war effort was concerned. Rationing affected the entire country. All American citizens regardless of age or social standing, like in Great Britain, received a ration book dictating how much metal, rubber, food, and so on, that they were allotted. Women were recruited to work in factories, building planes, making bullets, as there was a lack of labor due to the men being called into service. A History Chanel author writes, “Indeed, with tens of thousands of American men joining the armed forces and heading into training and into battle, women began securing jobs as welders, electricians and riveters in defense plants. Until that time, such positions had been strictly for men only. A woman who toiled in the defense industry came to be known as a 'Rosie the Riveter.'”7 Women were essential to the war effort, which affected their lives greatly. More affected than women, however, were the Japanese living in America. “Just over two months after Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) signed into law Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the removal from their communities and the subsequent imprisonment of all Americans of Japanese descent who resided on the West Coast.”8 Despite this clear discrimination, many Japanese-American men still entered the United States military and fought bravely for their country on the front lines, in the air, and at sea.
There was an impressive outpouring of patriotism from both countries. Americans began listening to patriotic music on the radio, displaying flags on their homes, and joining in the war effort every way they could. The British reacted similarly, doing their patriotic duty by joining local committees and groups that assisted in the home front efforts, such as becoming air raid warrens and ration officers. One of the most important phenomena of World War II was propaganda. “Throughout the war, the Ministry of Information,” the History Chanel explains, “tried to boost public morale through propaganda campaigns. It also frequently prevented (or at least delayed) the press from publishing information that would damage public spirits, such as photographs of bomb-damaged houses in poor parts of London.”9 Propaganda was not strictly for the home front, though. Much of it was spread to the soldiers to help their morale, as well as other countries. Some was even sent to Axis countries, including Germany and Italy. Although all industries were affected in one way or another by the war, the publishing industry was affected in a unique way due to many issues, including rationing of materials vital to the industry such as paper and metal, especially in Great Britain, but also very much so in the United States. “'Books,' declared Winston Churchill, 'offer the means whereby civilization may be carried triumphantly forward.' Yet however potent their symbolism, books are first and foremost material objects whose very existence depends on the availability of raw materials, manpower, and machinery.”10 During World War II, both countries saw the shortage of vital publishing supplies. This would not deter them, however, from creating propaganda. There were ways around paper rationing which publishing houses like Penguin discovered.
Great Britain had to combat the propaganda efforts of the Nazi party, which were seemingly unparalleled and incredibly successful. Author Valerie Holman states that, “By the time the war did break out, the German Propaganda Ministry, set up in 1933, had had six years of experience.”11 Great Britain was under an immense amount of pressure to compete with the German propaganda that had been spreading around Europe for over half a decade. “Nazi propaganda represented all that a democratic Britain had to be seen to oppose, but at the same time, it offered models of effectiveness that would challenge both policymakers and those in charge of propaganda production in the UK.”12 This fell into the hands of the Ministry of Information, which essentially took over much of the British publishing industry. The MoI will be discussed in more detail further on in this dissertation.
Publishing in America during World War II faired much better than it did in Great Britain. Much like Great Britain, though, many valued staff members were called upon to serve in the military. However, due to the vast size and number of the population, the industry in the United States did not suffer nearly as much as in Great Britain. Publishers were making great gains during the war from the sales of Bibles and other religious items, especially once more soldiers were called out to fight in the European theater.13There were certainly less restrictions in the United States publishing industry than in the other countries. Although the United States went through a period of rationing, and it affected the industry, it did not cripple it. As aforementioned, there was a significant difference due to the population. However, much like Great Britain, book publishing was not considered an “essential activity,” like newspapers and magazines because they were not “'devoted primarily to the dissemination of public information,'” which meant that their employees could be called up at any point and there was not much to be done about it.14 Later on in the war, the publishers tried to help the war effort by creating new series and other books, such as the Overseas and Transatlantic Editions, as well as Armed Services Editions. They also helped in the effort to reeducate liberated countries with American titles and titles approved by the government.
Great Britain and the United States were never necessarily at odds with one another, they did cooperate many times throughout the war, but there was a bit of sibling-like rivalry. One of their cooperative efforts was a landing of books on Normandy beach. Much like the human soldiers who landed a few weeks before them, these “book soldiers” landed on the beach in crates weighing upwards of eighty pounds each and containing between and ten and twenty-seven copies of twenty-four different American and British titles. This was done to help the morale of the book-starved countries, and get these titles into the hands of the people in those locations.15 There were some similarities between the two countries in regards to committees. This will be explored in more depth later on in this piece, but just to give an example, Great Britain establish their Ministry of Information, and the United States later created the Office of War Information. There seemed to be a lot of bouncing ideas back and forth between the two countries, whether intended or inadvertently, the similarities are striking.
Throughout this dissertation, the state of the publishing industry in the United States and Great Britain during World War II will be discussed. The first chapter will give a more in depth look into what was happening throughout the world and how it affected both countries. The second chapter will focus solely on Great Britain. The quality of life outside the publishing industry and how the publishing industry helped this state of living will be discussed, as well as how the economy faired, and the publishing industry itself will be explored more thoroughly. Chapter three will discuss what was happening in the United States. The main focal points will include home front life and the economy, as well as propaganda and the publishing industry. The fourth chapter will be a comparative analysis of the two countries, including matters such as British publishing houses with American branches, how effective propaganda was in both countries, and the similarities and differences between how each country was affected. The concluding statements will include information about how both countries faired post-war, as well as summing up the previous chapters and suggestions for further research.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1Meier, David A. "Adolf Hitler's Rise to Power." Hitler's Rise to Power. N.p., 2000. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/Holocaust/hitler.html>.
2"The London Blitz, 1940." EyeWitness to History.com. N.p., 2001. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/blitz.htm>.
3"Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation." American Rhetoric: Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation (12-08-41). Ed. Michael Eidenmuller. American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches, 2001. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm>.
4"British Home Front." World War 2 on History. The History Chanel, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/british-home-front.html>.
5Ibid.
6"US Entry & Alliance." - World War 2 on History. The History Chanel, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/us-entry-and-alliance.html>.
7"The U.S. Home Front During World War II." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.com/topics/us-home-front-during-world-war-ii>.
8Ibid.
9"British Home Front." World War 2 on History. The History Chanel, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/british-home-front.html>.
10Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 197. Print.
11Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 199. Print.
12 Ibid.
13 Hench, John B. "The US Book Trade in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 21. Print.
14Hench, John B. "The US Book Trade in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 22. Print.
15Hench, John B. "Introduction: Books on the Normandy Beaches." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 1. Print.
Literature Review/Methodology
Publishing during World War II is not a vastly researched area. Although there are books and journals that discuss it “in passing” so to speak, there are very few books that focus solely on that subject. There is plenty of information in regards to publishing houses themselves and their histories, as well as publishers during that time frame and what they went through. As aforementioned in the “Abstract”, the two most helpful authors were certainly Valerie Holman and John B. Hench. Their books, Book Publishing in England 1939-1945 and Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II, respectively, were the only two books which focused entirely on this era.
Holman's book was incredibly informative in regards to Great Britain during World War II, which helped in writing “Chapter 1: Great Britain at War.”. She discusses every aspect of publishing from the start of the war in 1939 to the end of it in 1945. She leaves no stone unturned so to speak, and goes into depth about organizations such as the Ministry of Information and the role the government played in the publishing industry. She also drew comparisons between the United States and Great Britain which helped with “Chapter 3: Great Britain and the United States Relations.” This is certainly the most complete and well rounded piece I found on this particular subject. The only concerning part about this book is that it was published in 2008, which means it is nearly six years out of date. However, because World War II is not necessarily a recent event, it would be safe to say the information included will not have changed substantially.
Hench's book focused mainly on the United States, but he also provides information about two of the Axis countries, Japan and Germany; in turn, he brought in information about Great Britain. He discusses a vast amount of information in a two-hundred and sixty odd page book. The main discussion is the United States and how their publishing industry faired much better than the likes of Great Britain and even Germany. This book was published in 2010, which makes it two years newer than Holman's book, but it is still a three, nearly four, year old book. But again, seeing as World War II ended sixty-five years ago, it is a piece of history, and it will not change much.
All in all, any of the books I found were no older than the 2000's, which makes it fairly up to date. Hench's book was certainly the newest of all the information I found. One interesting thing I discovered while conducting the research was that the journals tended to be more out of date. For example, Nicholas Joicey's “A Paperback Guide to Progress” was published in 1993. It seems that with every decade there comes a renewed interest with World War II.
In regards to actual research methods, the way I conducted my research changed substantially from when I submitted a research proposal. Originally, when Germany was going to be included, I thought I might be able to contact historians in Germany via email and discuss my topic with them, I was going to use this same method for both historians in the United States and Great Britain as well. However, this was changed due to the fact that Germany was cut from the roster, and there is a certain unreliability in emails. I decided to rely solely on books and journals. I read five books, including the two books aforementioned, which are drawn on heavily throughout this piece. The limitations of my research was certainly time. Reading and making notations has taken up ninety-five percent of the time allotted to complete this piece, when really it should have only taken maybe eighty percent, in my opinion. Another limitation is the fact that this is not a highly researched area, so there were not many options as far as material that covered everything needed between its covers.
Holman's book was incredibly informative in regards to Great Britain during World War II, which helped in writing “Chapter 1: Great Britain at War.”. She discusses every aspect of publishing from the start of the war in 1939 to the end of it in 1945. She leaves no stone unturned so to speak, and goes into depth about organizations such as the Ministry of Information and the role the government played in the publishing industry. She also drew comparisons between the United States and Great Britain which helped with “Chapter 3: Great Britain and the United States Relations.” This is certainly the most complete and well rounded piece I found on this particular subject. The only concerning part about this book is that it was published in 2008, which means it is nearly six years out of date. However, because World War II is not necessarily a recent event, it would be safe to say the information included will not have changed substantially.
Hench's book focused mainly on the United States, but he also provides information about two of the Axis countries, Japan and Germany; in turn, he brought in information about Great Britain. He discusses a vast amount of information in a two-hundred and sixty odd page book. The main discussion is the United States and how their publishing industry faired much better than the likes of Great Britain and even Germany. This book was published in 2010, which makes it two years newer than Holman's book, but it is still a three, nearly four, year old book. But again, seeing as World War II ended sixty-five years ago, it is a piece of history, and it will not change much.
All in all, any of the books I found were no older than the 2000's, which makes it fairly up to date. Hench's book was certainly the newest of all the information I found. One interesting thing I discovered while conducting the research was that the journals tended to be more out of date. For example, Nicholas Joicey's “A Paperback Guide to Progress” was published in 1993. It seems that with every decade there comes a renewed interest with World War II.
In regards to actual research methods, the way I conducted my research changed substantially from when I submitted a research proposal. Originally, when Germany was going to be included, I thought I might be able to contact historians in Germany via email and discuss my topic with them, I was going to use this same method for both historians in the United States and Great Britain as well. However, this was changed due to the fact that Germany was cut from the roster, and there is a certain unreliability in emails. I decided to rely solely on books and journals. I read five books, including the two books aforementioned, which are drawn on heavily throughout this piece. The limitations of my research was certainly time. Reading and making notations has taken up ninety-five percent of the time allotted to complete this piece, when really it should have only taken maybe eighty percent, in my opinion. Another limitation is the fact that this is not a highly researched area, so there were not many options as far as material that covered everything needed between its covers.
Chapter 1: Great Britain at War
“'Books,' declared Winston Churchill, 'offer the means whereby civilization may be carried triumphantly forward.'”1 Despite this sweeping statement, the Second World War was a time of uncertainty and difficulty for British publishers, authors, editors- anyone that might be involved with creating items such as books, pamphlets, or newspapers. Many of them were called up, having to leave their places of work behind to go into the unknown to serve their country. There were innumerable issues with seemingly normal expectations, such as having enough paper to print, and having the man power to do so. Women were called upon to assist in the industry due to the lack of literal “man” power, as a majority of the nation's men were called to serve in the military or the government. This chapter will explore the difficulties that British publishers faced throughout the war and the aspects of the war that formed their experiences.
Britain entered the war in 1939 after Germany invaded and attacked Poland, one of their allied countries. Holman discusses just when the news was broken to Great Britain, telling them that they were at war, saying “The news that Britain was at war with Germany was announced by Neville Chamberlain in a radio broadcast at 11:15am on Sunday 3 September.”2 What followed were some of the hardest times in history, from thousands of men being shipped to all parts of the globe, to industries failing, to rationing greatly restricting those that survived as well as civilian life in general. All industries across the country were touched by the hands of war, and publishing was no exception.Holman explains why there is not a vast amount of information on this period of time, which is because “In most house histories of publishing firms, very few pages are devoted to the war years, which are simply presented as an aberration, a time of lost stock, mobilized staff, and (because of shortages) failure to meet the unprecedented demand for books.”3 However, there were many wartime committees that formed throughout the war, and a lot done for the publishing industry throughout the six years of the war. One of these committees, which was formed on the suspicion of imminent war, was the Publisher's War Emergency Committee. This was formed to “safeguard the essential interests of book publishers in wartime,” and “had five members: Geoffrey Faber, the President of the Publisher Association; G. Wren Howard of Jonathan Cape, Vice President; Walter Harrap, Treasurer; Kenneth B. Potter of Longmans, and Harold Raymon of Chatto and Windus.” Although this group, like many of the others, was formed on uncertainty, they were called upon only four days after war was declared because “the Bookseller gave details of new Government legislation in three areas that would have a long-term impact on the publishing industry: Trading with the Enemy regulations; the establishment of a department at the Ministry of Supply called the Paper Control; and a War Risks Insurance scheme under the Board of Trade.”4 The effect that the Paper Control had was seen almost immediately.
Esparto grass, one of the main components of making high-quality paper, was being produced in forty-one British paper mills, including some in Scotland, which had become very skilled in its production for paper.5 “One of the first acts of the Paper Control was to ensure that no raw materials for paper making could be acquired except under license, nor any buying and selling of paper carried out in the UK at a price higher than that specified in the Government schedules.”6 Soon thereafter, they advised the various members of the industry to gather together all the information they could in regards to their paper consumption, for example how important esparto grass was in their production, in the likely event of a paper rationing.7 A few months after this, the Paper Control issued an order that prohibited paper producers from using more than sixty percent of their weight of paper used in the twelve month period prior to the war, between the September 1, 1938, and August 31, 1939. This meant if, for example, a publisher used 1000 tons of paper the previous year, they could only use 600 tons from there on out. This act did not apply to the Government yet as they were considered an “essential industry,” and used the extra rations to produce propaganda, and needless to say, it “shaped relationships between Government and industry, and the future of the individual publishing firms for the next nine years.”8 More likely to cause unrest and argument than the paper rationing act, though, was the War Risks Insurance, “which was fixed at 0.5 per cent of the value of goods over £1000.”9 This was not enough to cover the stock and supply within even the smallest publishing houses. However, there came into being a committee that was beneficial to publishers, but only if the publishers were beneficial to them; this committee was the Ministry of Information. Holman explains what they Ministry did: “The newly established Ministry of Information had acquired responsibilities which reinforced the need, 'not merely to remedy the present grave decline in the book export trade, but to secure a development considerably beyond that normal in the years before the war.'”10
The Ministry of Information had a fairly split audience. Some people believed it to be a wonderful establishment, while others thought it to be a stain on the freshly pressed suit of the Government, and therefore more of a nuisance than anything. Holman discusses how the MoI was viewed and the size of it, saying “...at the height of its activity, it employed 2950 staff in the UK and 3600 overseas. Accused of incompetence, deviousness and over-staffing, it was housed in the University of London's Senate House, immortalised by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four as 'Minitrue' (the all powerful Ministry of Truth).”11 The fact that this one organization employed 6550 employees at a time when industries such as publishing were struggling for staff, would be enough to be widely disliked. Stanley Unwin writes, “'The chief feature of wartime publishing has in fact been the prolonged struggle in defense of books with one government department after another.'” However, as Unwin explains, “This is only partially true, for what remains unsaid is that a number of publishers benefited from MOI policy, and for some, the links they forged proved financially rewarding.”12
On the negative side, the effects of over-staffing are expressed by author Graham Greene, who “vividly recreates the amateurish atmosphere and sense of uselessness among employees that he himself had experienced: 'The huge staff of the Ministry accumulated like a kind of fungoid life- old divisions sprouting daily new sections which then broke away and became divisions sprawling in turn.'”13 The reason for this negativity could have been the fact that if it were a “fungoid” type of establishment, there would be a major lack of communication, disorganization, and ill-informed employees. However, “By the end of 1939, it had become apparent that the MOI needed to recruit not just professionals with experience in production and publicity, and creative writers, but also people who could assess and select from material already published what might be useful to the ministry.”14 They took a turn around and started becoming a bit more organized of an establishment.
The one thing, the big pink elephant in the room, that affected all publishers- associated with the Government or not, the MoI, Penguin- was paper rationing.
Whether in the Forces or the blackout, people read avidly and no longer needed to be persuaded to buy books as had been the case during World War I. Just as demand for reading matter was rising, however, supplies of raw materials for papermaking were increasingly coming under threat. Through poster and leaflet campaigns showing to what uses salvaged material, especially paper, would be put, MOI explained that one ton of paper jointing was used in every mile of concrete runway for British bombers, while 'twelve old letters' would make a cartridge box for a rescue launch. Salvage leaflets and posters themselves, however, would account for nearly seventy tons of paper used by the MOI between June 1940 and July 1941. Paper was crucial for war-related purposes as well as for books, and obtaining it was to become the single most intractable problem faced by professional publishers and government departments alike.15
There were many grievances and problems that arose from this rationing. Publishers were not getting the supplies they needed to meet the demands of the industry. Stock and supplies were continually being destroyed in the incendiary raids by German bombers. An incredible example of the effects of such a raid, and a phoenix from the ashes, lies in the now “legendary” tale of Longmans.
One of the worst affected firms was Longmans, but, paradoxically, it was the effect of December's incendiary raid that marked out the firm as an exceptional enterprise. Its losses and the speed of its recovery quickly became legendary...from one day to the next, a catalogue of six thousand titles was reduced to twelve, but within the next twenty four hours the first orders for reprint had been sent out to printers and a week later Longmans had set up an emergency trade counter complete with trestle tables and overhead lighting suspended from looping wires.16
This is an example of success, but there are many examples of near failure and total failure as well. Whole companies were destroyed in these raids, due largely to their location in London.
From the sixteenth century onwards, members of the English book trade had sited their offices and warehouses cheek by jowl in a small area of the city, with Paternoster Row at its heart. Such a heavy concentration of premises, stock and equipment was to prove disastrous in the Blitz when over a million books were lost to German bombing in a single night on 29 December 1940, and the premises of no fewer than seventeen publishing firms were totally destroyed.17
There was more loss and disappointment for the publishers of Paternoster Row, as the firefighters tried to fight the blaze from the raids, they were simultaneously destroying any remaining records an stock. This traditional publishing quarter, which was situated around St. Paul's Cathedral in London, was affected permanently and “changed the geography of the publishing trade.”18 Along with the destruction caused by the Blitz, the loss of manpower to the war effort drastically affected the publishing industry.
There was a national and mandatory call to service across Britain in which men aged 20 and 21 were asked to complete six months of military service; this was eventually raised several more times reaching ages as high as 50 to 51. However, there was an act passed call the Reserved Occupations, which allowed for men of certain skilled labor jobs to remain in their position and avoid service. Some of these jobs included engineers, railway and dock operators, agricultural workers, and teachers.19 However, when the act was published in 1939, and did not include anything related to publishing. “The following November a further category was added, exempting from military service 'individuals engaged in work of national importance,” but those engaged in publishing still failed to qualify.20 This lead to thousands of men being called up for service, leaving their vital publishing positions behind; “In March 1940 the total number of employees in the book-publishing industry was 6752, of which 4388 were men- 583 of them under 20, 206 aged between 20 and 25, and 523 between 25 and 30.”21 It is fairly easy to see, with statistics like that, the overwhelming amount of men missing from the publishing industry. If they were not being called up for military service, they were being called up for Government service; men skilled in editorial positions were particularly valuable to the government.22
To use Longmans, who had seemingly no luck during the war, as another example, they lost a large number of employees to the war effort, a number which grew as the war did; “31 in 1940...40 in August 1941, to 60 in August 1942 (including 13 women), and to 67 in May 1943. By February 1945, 52 men and 17 women from Longmans, that is nearly 70 members of a single firm's normal completion of staff, were absent, four of them now prisoners of war.”23 This is an example of just one firm. There were so many more affected in a similar way.
Due to the lack of man power, the remaining workers were called upon to do double duty, some working for the government as well as their publishing house. Holman discusses one of the publishers who preformed such duties during the war: “Burns was one of the many publishers and editors who, in wartime, led a double life, spending half their time in the book world, and half in the dim light of ministerial bureaucracy.”24 Not only were many of them working two jobs, but the hours they worked we long and arduous, “...it would be hard to justify a working week of less than forty-four hours in the summer months.”25 Women were eventually called to work when the supply of man power ran dry. Due to the age of conscription being raised to all men aged forty-one to fifty-one, unmarried women between the ages of twenty and thirty were required to sign up for war work, either for the services, civil defense (such as air raid wardens), or industry (such as munitions or tank building).26 One of the most affected aspects of the publishing industry was printing and binding, a sector in which women were hired more regularly after the age to enlist was raised. The rebinding of books was “a specialist operation carried out by fives firms in the UK who did 95 per cent of the work. In the largest, Cedric Chivers of Bath, the number of skilled men had fallen from 192 to 113, but the number of skilled women had risen from 111 to 140.”27 Although the women who worked in the publishing industry were reserved- which meant they would not be called upon to work in factories, but only until 1942- those working in the printing and binding sectors were not. They were part of a massive percentage of employees whose positions, after vacated, were not filled again, which took away from the industry in many ways. For example, the lack of manpower in the printing and binding sector meant that after the warehouses where all the books were stored were destroyed, trying to replenish it was nearly impossible. Holman explains what an important part of the industry the binding sector was, explaing that “In 1939, the firm [Cedric Chivers] had been sending out 17,000 rebound books a week, but by 1942 this had fallen to 10,345, less than 80 per cent of the prewar figure, because, 'The time taken to rebind a book has increased from a month or six weeks up to from twice as much as four times that period. The inference is that the demand is too great for the supply.'”28 As the war went one, the call for rebinding of books only grew, as they became warn out from constant and repetitive use.
Despite all of this going on around them, despite the bombing, despite other successes such as Longmans, the biggest success story of the war would undoubtedly be Penguin. Their avian logo and simple cover designs appealed to the war audience. Nicolas Joicey's article, “A Paperback Guide to Progress,” explains the success of Penguin, saying that it was “Launched in 1935 by Allen Lane as a series of six-penny reprints, Penguin expanded during the late 1930s and Second World War to become Britain's leading popular publisher, and under its guidance a new reading public seemed to emerge.”29 This audience was diverse and enjoyed not only fiction, but also the educational Pelicans and Penguin Specials, which were used as a form of subtle propaganda. Ironically enough, Lane actually based his design on a German model. Joicey explains where Lane got the idea: “Yet the format and design of the books had become outdated by the 1930s, leading to the launch in 1932 of the Albatross Modern Continental Library in Hamburg. With its distinctive ornithological symbol and name, plain colour covers, and an emphasis upon contemporary titles, it was this library which provided the model for Lane's cheaper books.”30 These cheaper books, paperbacks, became synonymous with Lane and Penguin. They were the perfect size to fit in the pocket of a soldier's uniform which made them a great morale booster, both abroad and on the home-front. “Penguin played a prominent role in the supply of books to the armed forces and between October 1942 and October 1943 operated the Forces Book Club...The Forces Book Club eventually emerged through negotiations between Penguin and the Army Welfare Department. The agreement that emerged, whereby Penguin would print 75,000 book sets each month of subscribing units, allieviated this problem since it carried with it a considerable increase in the size of Penguin's paper allowance.”31 Although this was an exceptional effort that Penguin was making for the forces, not everyone agreed. “The project naturally aroused the opposition of other publishers, who correctly believed that Penguin was being given an unfair trading monopoly and an additional paper ration.” This point was disputed by W.E. Williams who said, “'Allen Lane in this matter is mainly a philanthropist, he wants to give the services priority in book supplies and he wants to mitigate for them the consequences of the impending book famine.”32 Which, as the aforementioned evidence shows, was a real possibility.
There have been many subjects covered within this chapter. Beginning with Britain entering the war in 1939, all the way up to Penguin helping with the war effort in the best way they could. Britain went through quite a lot in the war years. All industries and just about every life was changed, if not touched directly, by the hand of war. Millions of priceless books were lost in incendiary raids, tons of stock was burned, historic sites destroyed- but that did not stop them from rebuilding. Longmans is a great success story from the war; after being bombed out and reduced down to only twelve titles, they built themselves back up as much as they could the very next day. There was a lack of manpower that affected the whole industry, to the point that they hired women in a time when women were still considered substandard workers. All in all, though, despite the setbacks, the British publishing industry faired quite well during the six years of war. The United States had a much different experience, as will be discussed in Chapter 2.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 197. Print.
2Holman, Valerie. "Fabulous Creatures." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 12. Print.
3Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 200. Print.
4Holman, Valerie. "The Immediate Impact of War." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 13. Print.
5Ibid.
6Holman, Valerie. "The Immediate Impact of War." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 14. Print.
7Ibid.
8Holman, Valerie. "The Immediate Impact of War." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 14-15. Print.
9Ibid.
10Holman, Valerie. "Unsalaried Trade Represtatives." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 19. Print.
11Holman, Valerie. "The Many Faces of the Ministry of Information." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 91. Print.
12 Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 200. Print.
13Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 204. Print.
14Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 205. Print.
15Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 207-08. Print.
16Holman, Valerie. "From the Black-Out to Blitz." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 31. Print.
17Holman, Valerie. "From Black-Out to Blitz." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 30. Print.
18Ibid.
19"Fact File: Reserved Occupations, 1939-1948." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 30 June 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652019.shtml>.
20Holman, Valerie. "Manpower." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 33. Print.
21Ibid.
22Ibid.
23Holman, Valerie. "Manpower." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 35. Print.
24Ibid.
25Holman, Valerie. "Manpower." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 37. Print.
26Ibid.
27Holman, Valerie. "Manpower." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 38. Print.
28Ibid.
29Joicey, Nicholas. "A Paperback Guide to Progress." Twentieth Century British History 4.1 (1993): 25. Print.
30Ibid.
31Joicey, Nicholas. "A Paperback Guide to Progress." Twentieth Century British History 4.1 (1993): 40. Print.
32Ibid.
Britain entered the war in 1939 after Germany invaded and attacked Poland, one of their allied countries. Holman discusses just when the news was broken to Great Britain, telling them that they were at war, saying “The news that Britain was at war with Germany was announced by Neville Chamberlain in a radio broadcast at 11:15am on Sunday 3 September.”2 What followed were some of the hardest times in history, from thousands of men being shipped to all parts of the globe, to industries failing, to rationing greatly restricting those that survived as well as civilian life in general. All industries across the country were touched by the hands of war, and publishing was no exception.Holman explains why there is not a vast amount of information on this period of time, which is because “In most house histories of publishing firms, very few pages are devoted to the war years, which are simply presented as an aberration, a time of lost stock, mobilized staff, and (because of shortages) failure to meet the unprecedented demand for books.”3 However, there were many wartime committees that formed throughout the war, and a lot done for the publishing industry throughout the six years of the war. One of these committees, which was formed on the suspicion of imminent war, was the Publisher's War Emergency Committee. This was formed to “safeguard the essential interests of book publishers in wartime,” and “had five members: Geoffrey Faber, the President of the Publisher Association; G. Wren Howard of Jonathan Cape, Vice President; Walter Harrap, Treasurer; Kenneth B. Potter of Longmans, and Harold Raymon of Chatto and Windus.” Although this group, like many of the others, was formed on uncertainty, they were called upon only four days after war was declared because “the Bookseller gave details of new Government legislation in three areas that would have a long-term impact on the publishing industry: Trading with the Enemy regulations; the establishment of a department at the Ministry of Supply called the Paper Control; and a War Risks Insurance scheme under the Board of Trade.”4 The effect that the Paper Control had was seen almost immediately.
Esparto grass, one of the main components of making high-quality paper, was being produced in forty-one British paper mills, including some in Scotland, which had become very skilled in its production for paper.5 “One of the first acts of the Paper Control was to ensure that no raw materials for paper making could be acquired except under license, nor any buying and selling of paper carried out in the UK at a price higher than that specified in the Government schedules.”6 Soon thereafter, they advised the various members of the industry to gather together all the information they could in regards to their paper consumption, for example how important esparto grass was in their production, in the likely event of a paper rationing.7 A few months after this, the Paper Control issued an order that prohibited paper producers from using more than sixty percent of their weight of paper used in the twelve month period prior to the war, between the September 1, 1938, and August 31, 1939. This meant if, for example, a publisher used 1000 tons of paper the previous year, they could only use 600 tons from there on out. This act did not apply to the Government yet as they were considered an “essential industry,” and used the extra rations to produce propaganda, and needless to say, it “shaped relationships between Government and industry, and the future of the individual publishing firms for the next nine years.”8 More likely to cause unrest and argument than the paper rationing act, though, was the War Risks Insurance, “which was fixed at 0.5 per cent of the value of goods over £1000.”9 This was not enough to cover the stock and supply within even the smallest publishing houses. However, there came into being a committee that was beneficial to publishers, but only if the publishers were beneficial to them; this committee was the Ministry of Information. Holman explains what they Ministry did: “The newly established Ministry of Information had acquired responsibilities which reinforced the need, 'not merely to remedy the present grave decline in the book export trade, but to secure a development considerably beyond that normal in the years before the war.'”10
The Ministry of Information had a fairly split audience. Some people believed it to be a wonderful establishment, while others thought it to be a stain on the freshly pressed suit of the Government, and therefore more of a nuisance than anything. Holman discusses how the MoI was viewed and the size of it, saying “...at the height of its activity, it employed 2950 staff in the UK and 3600 overseas. Accused of incompetence, deviousness and over-staffing, it was housed in the University of London's Senate House, immortalised by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four as 'Minitrue' (the all powerful Ministry of Truth).”11 The fact that this one organization employed 6550 employees at a time when industries such as publishing were struggling for staff, would be enough to be widely disliked. Stanley Unwin writes, “'The chief feature of wartime publishing has in fact been the prolonged struggle in defense of books with one government department after another.'” However, as Unwin explains, “This is only partially true, for what remains unsaid is that a number of publishers benefited from MOI policy, and for some, the links they forged proved financially rewarding.”12
On the negative side, the effects of over-staffing are expressed by author Graham Greene, who “vividly recreates the amateurish atmosphere and sense of uselessness among employees that he himself had experienced: 'The huge staff of the Ministry accumulated like a kind of fungoid life- old divisions sprouting daily new sections which then broke away and became divisions sprawling in turn.'”13 The reason for this negativity could have been the fact that if it were a “fungoid” type of establishment, there would be a major lack of communication, disorganization, and ill-informed employees. However, “By the end of 1939, it had become apparent that the MOI needed to recruit not just professionals with experience in production and publicity, and creative writers, but also people who could assess and select from material already published what might be useful to the ministry.”14 They took a turn around and started becoming a bit more organized of an establishment.
The one thing, the big pink elephant in the room, that affected all publishers- associated with the Government or not, the MoI, Penguin- was paper rationing.
Whether in the Forces or the blackout, people read avidly and no longer needed to be persuaded to buy books as had been the case during World War I. Just as demand for reading matter was rising, however, supplies of raw materials for papermaking were increasingly coming under threat. Through poster and leaflet campaigns showing to what uses salvaged material, especially paper, would be put, MOI explained that one ton of paper jointing was used in every mile of concrete runway for British bombers, while 'twelve old letters' would make a cartridge box for a rescue launch. Salvage leaflets and posters themselves, however, would account for nearly seventy tons of paper used by the MOI between June 1940 and July 1941. Paper was crucial for war-related purposes as well as for books, and obtaining it was to become the single most intractable problem faced by professional publishers and government departments alike.15
There were many grievances and problems that arose from this rationing. Publishers were not getting the supplies they needed to meet the demands of the industry. Stock and supplies were continually being destroyed in the incendiary raids by German bombers. An incredible example of the effects of such a raid, and a phoenix from the ashes, lies in the now “legendary” tale of Longmans.
One of the worst affected firms was Longmans, but, paradoxically, it was the effect of December's incendiary raid that marked out the firm as an exceptional enterprise. Its losses and the speed of its recovery quickly became legendary...from one day to the next, a catalogue of six thousand titles was reduced to twelve, but within the next twenty four hours the first orders for reprint had been sent out to printers and a week later Longmans had set up an emergency trade counter complete with trestle tables and overhead lighting suspended from looping wires.16
This is an example of success, but there are many examples of near failure and total failure as well. Whole companies were destroyed in these raids, due largely to their location in London.
From the sixteenth century onwards, members of the English book trade had sited their offices and warehouses cheek by jowl in a small area of the city, with Paternoster Row at its heart. Such a heavy concentration of premises, stock and equipment was to prove disastrous in the Blitz when over a million books were lost to German bombing in a single night on 29 December 1940, and the premises of no fewer than seventeen publishing firms were totally destroyed.17
There was more loss and disappointment for the publishers of Paternoster Row, as the firefighters tried to fight the blaze from the raids, they were simultaneously destroying any remaining records an stock. This traditional publishing quarter, which was situated around St. Paul's Cathedral in London, was affected permanently and “changed the geography of the publishing trade.”18 Along with the destruction caused by the Blitz, the loss of manpower to the war effort drastically affected the publishing industry.
There was a national and mandatory call to service across Britain in which men aged 20 and 21 were asked to complete six months of military service; this was eventually raised several more times reaching ages as high as 50 to 51. However, there was an act passed call the Reserved Occupations, which allowed for men of certain skilled labor jobs to remain in their position and avoid service. Some of these jobs included engineers, railway and dock operators, agricultural workers, and teachers.19 However, when the act was published in 1939, and did not include anything related to publishing. “The following November a further category was added, exempting from military service 'individuals engaged in work of national importance,” but those engaged in publishing still failed to qualify.20 This lead to thousands of men being called up for service, leaving their vital publishing positions behind; “In March 1940 the total number of employees in the book-publishing industry was 6752, of which 4388 were men- 583 of them under 20, 206 aged between 20 and 25, and 523 between 25 and 30.”21 It is fairly easy to see, with statistics like that, the overwhelming amount of men missing from the publishing industry. If they were not being called up for military service, they were being called up for Government service; men skilled in editorial positions were particularly valuable to the government.22
To use Longmans, who had seemingly no luck during the war, as another example, they lost a large number of employees to the war effort, a number which grew as the war did; “31 in 1940...40 in August 1941, to 60 in August 1942 (including 13 women), and to 67 in May 1943. By February 1945, 52 men and 17 women from Longmans, that is nearly 70 members of a single firm's normal completion of staff, were absent, four of them now prisoners of war.”23 This is an example of just one firm. There were so many more affected in a similar way.
Due to the lack of man power, the remaining workers were called upon to do double duty, some working for the government as well as their publishing house. Holman discusses one of the publishers who preformed such duties during the war: “Burns was one of the many publishers and editors who, in wartime, led a double life, spending half their time in the book world, and half in the dim light of ministerial bureaucracy.”24 Not only were many of them working two jobs, but the hours they worked we long and arduous, “...it would be hard to justify a working week of less than forty-four hours in the summer months.”25 Women were eventually called to work when the supply of man power ran dry. Due to the age of conscription being raised to all men aged forty-one to fifty-one, unmarried women between the ages of twenty and thirty were required to sign up for war work, either for the services, civil defense (such as air raid wardens), or industry (such as munitions or tank building).26 One of the most affected aspects of the publishing industry was printing and binding, a sector in which women were hired more regularly after the age to enlist was raised. The rebinding of books was “a specialist operation carried out by fives firms in the UK who did 95 per cent of the work. In the largest, Cedric Chivers of Bath, the number of skilled men had fallen from 192 to 113, but the number of skilled women had risen from 111 to 140.”27 Although the women who worked in the publishing industry were reserved- which meant they would not be called upon to work in factories, but only until 1942- those working in the printing and binding sectors were not. They were part of a massive percentage of employees whose positions, after vacated, were not filled again, which took away from the industry in many ways. For example, the lack of manpower in the printing and binding sector meant that after the warehouses where all the books were stored were destroyed, trying to replenish it was nearly impossible. Holman explains what an important part of the industry the binding sector was, explaing that “In 1939, the firm [Cedric Chivers] had been sending out 17,000 rebound books a week, but by 1942 this had fallen to 10,345, less than 80 per cent of the prewar figure, because, 'The time taken to rebind a book has increased from a month or six weeks up to from twice as much as four times that period. The inference is that the demand is too great for the supply.'”28 As the war went one, the call for rebinding of books only grew, as they became warn out from constant and repetitive use.
Despite all of this going on around them, despite the bombing, despite other successes such as Longmans, the biggest success story of the war would undoubtedly be Penguin. Their avian logo and simple cover designs appealed to the war audience. Nicolas Joicey's article, “A Paperback Guide to Progress,” explains the success of Penguin, saying that it was “Launched in 1935 by Allen Lane as a series of six-penny reprints, Penguin expanded during the late 1930s and Second World War to become Britain's leading popular publisher, and under its guidance a new reading public seemed to emerge.”29 This audience was diverse and enjoyed not only fiction, but also the educational Pelicans and Penguin Specials, which were used as a form of subtle propaganda. Ironically enough, Lane actually based his design on a German model. Joicey explains where Lane got the idea: “Yet the format and design of the books had become outdated by the 1930s, leading to the launch in 1932 of the Albatross Modern Continental Library in Hamburg. With its distinctive ornithological symbol and name, plain colour covers, and an emphasis upon contemporary titles, it was this library which provided the model for Lane's cheaper books.”30 These cheaper books, paperbacks, became synonymous with Lane and Penguin. They were the perfect size to fit in the pocket of a soldier's uniform which made them a great morale booster, both abroad and on the home-front. “Penguin played a prominent role in the supply of books to the armed forces and between October 1942 and October 1943 operated the Forces Book Club...The Forces Book Club eventually emerged through negotiations between Penguin and the Army Welfare Department. The agreement that emerged, whereby Penguin would print 75,000 book sets each month of subscribing units, allieviated this problem since it carried with it a considerable increase in the size of Penguin's paper allowance.”31 Although this was an exceptional effort that Penguin was making for the forces, not everyone agreed. “The project naturally aroused the opposition of other publishers, who correctly believed that Penguin was being given an unfair trading monopoly and an additional paper ration.” This point was disputed by W.E. Williams who said, “'Allen Lane in this matter is mainly a philanthropist, he wants to give the services priority in book supplies and he wants to mitigate for them the consequences of the impending book famine.”32 Which, as the aforementioned evidence shows, was a real possibility.
There have been many subjects covered within this chapter. Beginning with Britain entering the war in 1939, all the way up to Penguin helping with the war effort in the best way they could. Britain went through quite a lot in the war years. All industries and just about every life was changed, if not touched directly, by the hand of war. Millions of priceless books were lost in incendiary raids, tons of stock was burned, historic sites destroyed- but that did not stop them from rebuilding. Longmans is a great success story from the war; after being bombed out and reduced down to only twelve titles, they built themselves back up as much as they could the very next day. There was a lack of manpower that affected the whole industry, to the point that they hired women in a time when women were still considered substandard workers. All in all, though, despite the setbacks, the British publishing industry faired quite well during the six years of war. The United States had a much different experience, as will be discussed in Chapter 2.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 197. Print.
2Holman, Valerie. "Fabulous Creatures." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 12. Print.
3Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 200. Print.
4Holman, Valerie. "The Immediate Impact of War." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 13. Print.
5Ibid.
6Holman, Valerie. "The Immediate Impact of War." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 14. Print.
7Ibid.
8Holman, Valerie. "The Immediate Impact of War." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 14-15. Print.
9Ibid.
10Holman, Valerie. "Unsalaried Trade Represtatives." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 19. Print.
11Holman, Valerie. "The Many Faces of the Ministry of Information." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 91. Print.
12 Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 200. Print.
13Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 204. Print.
14Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 205. Print.
15Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 207-08. Print.
16Holman, Valerie. "From the Black-Out to Blitz." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 31. Print.
17Holman, Valerie. "From Black-Out to Blitz." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 30. Print.
18Ibid.
19"Fact File: Reserved Occupations, 1939-1948." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 30 June 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652019.shtml>.
20Holman, Valerie. "Manpower." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 33. Print.
21Ibid.
22Ibid.
23Holman, Valerie. "Manpower." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 35. Print.
24Ibid.
25Holman, Valerie. "Manpower." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 37. Print.
26Ibid.
27Holman, Valerie. "Manpower." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 38. Print.
28Ibid.
29Joicey, Nicholas. "A Paperback Guide to Progress." Twentieth Century British History 4.1 (1993): 25. Print.
30Ibid.
31Joicey, Nicholas. "A Paperback Guide to Progress." Twentieth Century British History 4.1 (1993): 40. Print.
32Ibid.
Chapter 2: The United States Enters the War
December 7, 1941, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt accurately described it in his “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy” speech, is in fact a date which has continued to live in infamy. This is the day that the United States was torn from its isolationist state and propelled into World War II. Unlike the European and Pacific theaters, which saw actual combat and the physical devastation that war can cause, the continental United States was not affected in the same way. Journalist Marquis Childs was shocked to see how things were nearly the same, seemingly untouched by the effects of war, in the United States after returning from an overseas trip to war-torn Europe.1 However, American citizens did experience many of the same things as their European counterparts, such as black outs, rations, and men being called to arms. This chapter will explore what these things meant for the publishing industry.
World War II was a pivotal time for the world, many changes were made, there were new inventions, but there was also destruction; there were new ideas, but an indescribable sense of loss. Washington Post writer Haynes Johnson wrote in his “Remembering World War II” (1995) article, “socially, politically, economically, militarily, culturally, racially, sexually, demographically, even mythologically, World War II was the crucible that forged modern America. It was the transforming event that reshaped all who lived through it, and continues to affect those born after it.”2 There was a question as to whether or not this was a “Good War.” Historically, it seems to be remembered as a shining moment for the United States, especially after the Great Depression, with employment at an all time high, a rise in the standards of living, and over all prosperity of the people.3 The success of the United States during the War was largely due to the fact that they had manpower to spare. The mobilization effort was immense, and although it was slow moving, it was incredibly effective, “and by 1944, the United States was producing 60 percent of Allied munitions and 40 percent of the world's arms.”4 Not an unimpressive statistic considering they entered the war nearly two years after Europe, and it was financially beneficial as well, which stimulated the economy in a way that many other countries could not do for themselves.
The question remains, what does this mean for the publishing industry? Trysh Travis writes on the subject,“The war, with its opportunities for patriotic invocations of free speech, a free press, and informed democratic participation, allowed bookmen ample opportunity to distinguish themselves from the hucksters of leisure who crowded the market, degraded the public taste, and sent book revenues plummeting.”5 Books were an essential part of the war. They provided a means of escape for terrified civilians, a boost in morale for soldiers thousands of miles away from home, and even fought battles of their own, bearing propaganda among their pages.
President Roosevelt created the Office of War Information (OWI) in 1942 in response to a need for more powerful and effective way to spread information regarding the war. They used every means they could to do so, including movies, radio broadcasts, and the press. Of course, there was information withheld from the people, such as the death toll in Europe, descriptions and photographs of destruction, chaos, and death, as to keep the morale high. They wanted the war effort and the American way to be portrayed in the most positive light. They believed a high morale among the people involved in the war effort would help win the war.6 Although this was a very small military operation, it was still an important one, so important, in fact, that some of the decisions made were made by the most highly ranked men in the country, such as Douglas MacArthur and President Roosevelt himself. They and the other members of OWI believed that the best way to change the world's view, including and most importantly the views held by the Axis countries, was to distribute millions of American books. It was widely believed that the world was starving for information and creativity, and OWI decided this distribution would help this emergency seemingly plaguing the world. A similar organization to OWI was the Council on Books in Wartime (CBW). Created in 1942, “The council's programs were aimed at building and sustaining morale among the civilians at home and the troops abroad as well as increasing awareness of the issues brought on by the war- issues that books, the publishers argued, were uniquely suited to illuminate.”7 The partnership between these two groups was a long-term strategy put in place during the “consolation phase” of the war, when they sat out to gain the support and amicability with both the Allied and Axis countries. Hench explains the role of these programs: “Aided and underwritten by the government, these programs represent an economically minor but culturally significant aspect in the general expansion, even domination, of US culture overseas in the second half of the twentieth century.”8
The job of the CBW was to choose books that they believed would help in the war effort. Similarly to many other industries during the war, publishers wanted to help in the war effort as much as possible. The best way for them to do this would be to disseminate information in a way that would be beneficial to the American war effort and morale. Publishers had a strong opinion on what should and should not be published. According to Editor Frederic G. Melcher:
urged bookmen to turn aside from their emphasis on publishing profitable but often vacuous books of 'information and diversion' and meet their professional responsibilities by being 'fiercely in earnest about the selection, production, and distribution of books of ideas, not because of the delight they give the reader, but because of the direction such books will give to our own thinking on processing problems, problems which must be answered promptly and answered right.9
Also in this same vein, Author John Hench sites Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle as saying, “too much information, especially technological information was the bane of modernity, and urged that the modern embrace of a 'literature of information' be replaced by 'a literature of power,' which 'move[s] the spirit of men...[and] reaches to the very wellspring of the human soul.'”10 The point that they were trying to make in all of this was that society during the war needed books of substance, not frivolous topics that did not engage the minds of the people, but topics that overshadowed the clutter of information floating around, and to promote reading. Reading was the best way to disseminate information, and people were doing a lot of it, so of course a council such as this would want to emphasize the vitality of books and literature.
A few weeks after the soldiers landed on the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, an odd cargo landed as well. These boxes, some of which were as battered and weather beaten as their human counterparts, weighed around eighty pounds (thirty-six kilograms) and contained anywhere from ten to twenty-seven copies of various books and leaflets from the Allied countries of the United States and Great Britain. They were sent to be distributed to not only French book stores, but distributed to civilians throughout Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The books were sent to these people as a way to help free their minds from the harsh reality that surrounded them, as well as aid them as they themselves became liberated.11 Before this could happen, though, innovations to the industry needed to, and were continuing to, be made. What led to the landing of the books at Normandy was a combination of a few things in years prior to the war, including the establishment of the Modern Library, the Book-of-the-Month Club, and the early mass-market success of both Pocket Books and the US branch of Penguin with their paperbacks.12 These three things were the answer to a lot of problems, both at home and abroad. For example, the Book-of-the-Month Club, founded by Harry Scherman in 1926, helped with the issue of distribution across the United States. Such a vast country with an uneven population distribution led to an equally uneven distribution of places to acquire books. Scherman solved that with his Book Club.13
Not only were groups influential, but individuals were as well. Some of the most influential and important people were refugees from the countries overrun by Nazis. Although they settled in other places such as Mexico and Argentina, Germans and Austrians were among the most influential of these refugees. Within the United States, there were between twenty-two and twenty-five thousand refugees. They formed a symbiotic relationship with the American publishing industry, especially in important anti-Nazi literature from their home countries and other countries such as Sweden and Switzerland, both neutral during the war. An example of success among these refugees were Isaac Molho and Vitalis Crespin who opened a French bookstore in Manhattan to provide a safe haven for writers and intellectuals displaced from their home country of France by the effects of the war. They later opened their own publishing house which catered specifically to French refugees as well as the rest of the French-reading population who were cut off from books and literature by the war.14
Although the book trade was trying and succeeding in doing well for the world, it did not come out unscathed or without issues. One of the main affects of the war on the publishing industry was the calling to arms. Hench explains where these men were called up to, saying“Many valued staff members, from top management to copy editors and office clerks, were away serving in the armed forces or in civilian jobs in Washington. Those left behind often had to preform the tasks of their missing colleagues as well as their own.”15 Book publishers suffered the loss of staff more than that of newspaper or magazine publishers. Hench explains why: “The government's stand on the book-publishing industry was especially galling to publishers because the newspaper and magazine industry had been classified as essential activities because they were 'devoted primarily to the dissemination of public information.” What this meant for book publishers was that their staff were not secured and could be called to join the forces or government positions, which was something the magazine and newspaper publishers did not necessarily have to worry about.16 On top of the lack of staff, there was a ration on paper which forced publishers to make do with seventy-five percent of the paper they would have normally used before the war. The combination of these two factors, as well as a growing need for books for civilians and soldiers alike put a strain on the industry. They were forced to order smaller print runs, which meant less of an inventory, thus a more book-thirsty crowd. Hench writes about the manager of the Schriber Book Store, who “was asked late in the war how he coped with the rush of customers he said, 'Oh, at 9 o'clock we just open the doors and jump out of the way.'”17 This was just a small example of a large scale need and desire for books, but it was not just civilians who desired these books, but soldiers, too.
Random House did a survey of thirty-one camps, in which soldiers were stationed for various things including boot camp, and discovered that soldiers actually had more down time for reading than civilians did. The GI's in the training camps were eager to get their hands on seemingly any type of reading material as the were introduced to this new “hurry-up-and-wait” lifestyle that is so typical of the army- meaning basically that they are called to arms, thrown into basic training where they were made to wait for things like inspections and tests, trained, and then sat again, waiting patiently to then be thrown into war. Publishers specialized marketing schemes towards GI's and sold either individual copies to them, or bulk copies to the army itself to be placed in camp libraries. One of these marketing schemes actually got one publisher in trouble with the government. Hench discusses Bible sales in his article “War Baby, War Books,” saying:
Bibles for soldiers were strong sellers, including a steel-encased edition that promised to combine saving grace with physical protection to any grunt who stashed it in the pocket over his heart. The government, however, charged the publisher with false advertising for its claims of protection and with unauthorized use of thirty-one thousand pounds of steel.”18
Bibles, prayer pamphlets, and other religious materials were incredibly popular sellers with the military as well as their families, and the publishers of these materials reaped the benefits. Not only did publishers reap benefits from soldiers, but it worked vice versa as well. The CBW ran a program called Armed Services Editions and they were published by “a specially incorporated subsidiary of the council to provide books for recreation and enrichment to US service personnel abroad.”19 This was not the first of these types of publishing schemes, nor would it be the last or only, but it was certainly the most successful. The first of these failed book campaigns was called the Victory Book Campaign from 1942 to 1943, and it was sponsored by the USO, the Red Cross, and the American Library Association. It began as a means of letting civilians feel like they were helping in their own small way by donating these books to local bases and camps within the United States. However, in both the Armed Services Edition and Victory Book Campaigns, about 10 percent of the books collected were sent overseas.20 The potential reason for its failure was the fact that it relied on civilians to donate books, which could mean the books were donated for various reasons other than just being patriotic. For example, some of the books were more than likely gifts or books that had been read and were not of good quality, therefore they were handed along. But if the civilians did not want to read these books then the soldiers definitely would not want to either.21
The Armed Services Editions were exceptionally successful, and benefited both the soldiers and the publishing industry. Even at the beginning of the Campaign publishers were finding success, as it “resulted in the sale and shipment of some twenty-five thousand books, at a cost to the publishers of thirty-five hundred dollars.”22 Another reason for the failure of the Victory Book Campaign was the fact that there was no standard size for the books, as they were donated by civilians and would thus come in varying shapes, sizes, and weights. This factored into how the Armed Services Editions were uniquely produced. “...the ASEs were lightweight, mostly oblong, paperbacks printed 'four up' and then thrice guillotined o create four books with the series characteristic, non-standard orientation. They were printed on a roll-fed rotary press used in peacetime for magazines and catalogs, which had capacity in excess of the demands of civilian life. They appeared in twi different trim sizes- 6 ½ x 4 ½ inches...and 5 ½ x 3 ½ inches which made packing and shipping comparatively easy.” Shortly after the end of the war, the ASEs were described as “'the greatest mass publishing enterprise of all history,' a judgement that remains unchallenged more than sixty years later.”23
Women as part of the war effort- an idea that took some getting used to as there was still a stigma against women working in male-dominated industries, but eventually became widely accepted. Rosie the Riveter is one of the most iconic images to come out of World War II and is incredibly recognizable. However, her patriotic image is not entirely false, but not entirely true, either. Author Maureen Honey explains why this is, saying that “The predominant media portrayal of women war workers was that they were young, white, and middle-class; furthermore, that they entered the labor force out of patriotic motives and eagerly left to start families and resume full time homemaking,” but, according to historians, this image is almost entirely inaccurate, “Contrary to popular belief, the women who entered war production were not primarily middle-class housewives but working-class wives, widows, divorcees, and students who needed the money to survive a reasonable standard of living. Most of them had prewar experience in the labor force.”24 The government's attitude toward hiring women was that they were hiring women who were not working as it was, and would be able to return to homemaking or menial jobs such as cashiers and waitresses after the war. They assumed that women understood that they would be replaced when the men returned home from the war. This, however, was not the case and there were many women angered over being displaced from their jobs after the war.25
Where does publishing play in to this, though? To begin with, they were involved with creating this false image in the first place, alongside the OWI and other propaganda campaigns. These false portrayals were a scheme to get women to see a glamorous side to industry work, and to keep the economy running as smoothly as possible. One way that the government did this was by using fiction writers to their benefit. The Magazine Bureau used magazines as a means of delivering these propaganda stories, and it was approved by the OWI, who “saw no problem with fiction writers weaving home-front campaigns into romances and adventure stories, suggesting that even the most mundane government regulation could be the premise of a popular story plot. For example, the government's plan to conserve rubber through gasoline rationing could be supported by developing fantasies around characters who used a carpool.”26
Part of the reason for these stories was a recruitment campaign later on in the war when there was a labor shortage. These writers glamorized industrial jobs to entice women to enter those fields. Women were even the stars of these romantic stories. This effort was ironic, considering they were trying to break down traditional views of women but using demeaning ways of doing so by portraying them as love sick creatures who hope that if they ration their gas they might meet prince charming.27
Organizations like the Office of War Information were a necessity in war time. They disseminated information that boosted the morale of the people as well as keeping them as appropriately informed as they could. They even assisted publishers with the task of getting books to soldiers and other countries around the world. The Armed Services Editions were a good example of these kinds of morale boosting, information spreading campaigns. They were not the first nor the last, bit certainly the best of the campaigns, and the most successful. As far as women were concerned, they were being hired into government and industrial jobs at a rate like never before, with the help of authors who enticed them into work with their fictional stories of love and excitement. There was a lot happening in the world of publishing during the war, and although there were some failures, there were many more success stories. One of the success stories to come out of the war was the relationship between Great Britain and the United States, which will be discussed in Chapter 3.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1 Jeffries, John W. "1: Wartime America: Frameworks and Meanings." Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 7. Print.
2 Jeffries, John W. "1: Wartime America: Frameworks and Meanings." Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 4. Print.
3 Jeffries, John W. "1:Wartime America: Frameworks and Meanings; A Good War?" Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 10. Print.4 Jeffries, John W. "2: Mobilizing the Economy; Managing War Mobilization." Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 26. Print.
5 Travis, Trysh. “The Man of Letters and the Literary Business: Re-viewing Malcolm Crowley.” Journal of Modern Literature. XXV, 2 (Winter 2001-2002). 7. Indiana University Press, 2002.
6 Jeffries, John W. "8: Glimpses of War, Visions of Peace; Information and Images." Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 176-77. Print.
7 Hench, John B. "Books on the Normandy Beaches." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 2-6. Print.
8 Hench, John B. "Books on the Normandy Beaches." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 8. Print.
9 Hench, John B. "The Creation of the Council on Books in Wartime." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 46. Print.
10 Hench, John B. "Part II: Books As "Weapons in the War of Ideas"; 3: Publishers Organize for War and Plan for Peace; The Creation of the Council on Books in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 46. Print.
11 Hench, John B. "Books on the Normandy Beaches." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 1-2. Print.
12 Hench, John B. "Part 1: Cultivating New Markets; 1: Modernizing US Book Publishing." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 11. Print.
13 Hench, John B. "Part 1: Cultivating New Markets; 1: Modernizing US Book Publishing- Problems of Distribution." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 12. Print.
14 Hench, John B. "Part 1: Cultivating New Markets; 1: Modernizing US Book Publishing- A 'Dunkirk' for European Refugees." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 16-17. Print.
15 Hench, John B. "2: War Changes Everything-Including Books; The US Book Trade in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 20. Print.
16 Hench, John B. "2: War Changes Everything-Including Books; The US Book Trade in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 22. Print.
17 Hench, John B. "2: War Changes Everything-Including Books; The US Book Trade in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 20. Print.
18 Hench, John W. "War Baby, War Books." Sewanee Review 121.1 (2013): 134. Project Muse. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. Web. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sew/summary/v121/121.1.hench.html>.
19 Hench, John B. "Part II: Books As "Weapons in the War of Ideas"; 3: Publishers Organize for War and Plan for Peace; Armed Services Editions and Other Books for the Forces." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 51. Print.
20Idem.
21Idem.
22 Hench, John B. "Part II: Books As "Weapons in the War of Ideas"; 3: Publishers Organize for War and Plan for Peace; Armed Services Editions and Other Books for the Forces." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 52. Print.
23Idem.
24 Honey, Maureen. "1: Creation of Myth." Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1984. 19. Print.
25 Honey, Maureen. "1: Creation of Myth; Government Attitudes Towards Women Workers." Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1984. 24-27. Print.
26 Honey, Maureen. "1: Creation of Myth; Popular Fiction and Propaganda." Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1984. 41-42. Print.
27 Honey, Maureen. "1: Creation of Myth; Middle-Class Images of Women in Wartime." Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1984. 61. Print.
World War II was a pivotal time for the world, many changes were made, there were new inventions, but there was also destruction; there were new ideas, but an indescribable sense of loss. Washington Post writer Haynes Johnson wrote in his “Remembering World War II” (1995) article, “socially, politically, economically, militarily, culturally, racially, sexually, demographically, even mythologically, World War II was the crucible that forged modern America. It was the transforming event that reshaped all who lived through it, and continues to affect those born after it.”2 There was a question as to whether or not this was a “Good War.” Historically, it seems to be remembered as a shining moment for the United States, especially after the Great Depression, with employment at an all time high, a rise in the standards of living, and over all prosperity of the people.3 The success of the United States during the War was largely due to the fact that they had manpower to spare. The mobilization effort was immense, and although it was slow moving, it was incredibly effective, “and by 1944, the United States was producing 60 percent of Allied munitions and 40 percent of the world's arms.”4 Not an unimpressive statistic considering they entered the war nearly two years after Europe, and it was financially beneficial as well, which stimulated the economy in a way that many other countries could not do for themselves.
The question remains, what does this mean for the publishing industry? Trysh Travis writes on the subject,“The war, with its opportunities for patriotic invocations of free speech, a free press, and informed democratic participation, allowed bookmen ample opportunity to distinguish themselves from the hucksters of leisure who crowded the market, degraded the public taste, and sent book revenues plummeting.”5 Books were an essential part of the war. They provided a means of escape for terrified civilians, a boost in morale for soldiers thousands of miles away from home, and even fought battles of their own, bearing propaganda among their pages.
President Roosevelt created the Office of War Information (OWI) in 1942 in response to a need for more powerful and effective way to spread information regarding the war. They used every means they could to do so, including movies, radio broadcasts, and the press. Of course, there was information withheld from the people, such as the death toll in Europe, descriptions and photographs of destruction, chaos, and death, as to keep the morale high. They wanted the war effort and the American way to be portrayed in the most positive light. They believed a high morale among the people involved in the war effort would help win the war.6 Although this was a very small military operation, it was still an important one, so important, in fact, that some of the decisions made were made by the most highly ranked men in the country, such as Douglas MacArthur and President Roosevelt himself. They and the other members of OWI believed that the best way to change the world's view, including and most importantly the views held by the Axis countries, was to distribute millions of American books. It was widely believed that the world was starving for information and creativity, and OWI decided this distribution would help this emergency seemingly plaguing the world. A similar organization to OWI was the Council on Books in Wartime (CBW). Created in 1942, “The council's programs were aimed at building and sustaining morale among the civilians at home and the troops abroad as well as increasing awareness of the issues brought on by the war- issues that books, the publishers argued, were uniquely suited to illuminate.”7 The partnership between these two groups was a long-term strategy put in place during the “consolation phase” of the war, when they sat out to gain the support and amicability with both the Allied and Axis countries. Hench explains the role of these programs: “Aided and underwritten by the government, these programs represent an economically minor but culturally significant aspect in the general expansion, even domination, of US culture overseas in the second half of the twentieth century.”8
The job of the CBW was to choose books that they believed would help in the war effort. Similarly to many other industries during the war, publishers wanted to help in the war effort as much as possible. The best way for them to do this would be to disseminate information in a way that would be beneficial to the American war effort and morale. Publishers had a strong opinion on what should and should not be published. According to Editor Frederic G. Melcher:
urged bookmen to turn aside from their emphasis on publishing profitable but often vacuous books of 'information and diversion' and meet their professional responsibilities by being 'fiercely in earnest about the selection, production, and distribution of books of ideas, not because of the delight they give the reader, but because of the direction such books will give to our own thinking on processing problems, problems which must be answered promptly and answered right.9
Also in this same vein, Author John Hench sites Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle as saying, “too much information, especially technological information was the bane of modernity, and urged that the modern embrace of a 'literature of information' be replaced by 'a literature of power,' which 'move[s] the spirit of men...[and] reaches to the very wellspring of the human soul.'”10 The point that they were trying to make in all of this was that society during the war needed books of substance, not frivolous topics that did not engage the minds of the people, but topics that overshadowed the clutter of information floating around, and to promote reading. Reading was the best way to disseminate information, and people were doing a lot of it, so of course a council such as this would want to emphasize the vitality of books and literature.
A few weeks after the soldiers landed on the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, an odd cargo landed as well. These boxes, some of which were as battered and weather beaten as their human counterparts, weighed around eighty pounds (thirty-six kilograms) and contained anywhere from ten to twenty-seven copies of various books and leaflets from the Allied countries of the United States and Great Britain. They were sent to be distributed to not only French book stores, but distributed to civilians throughout Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The books were sent to these people as a way to help free their minds from the harsh reality that surrounded them, as well as aid them as they themselves became liberated.11 Before this could happen, though, innovations to the industry needed to, and were continuing to, be made. What led to the landing of the books at Normandy was a combination of a few things in years prior to the war, including the establishment of the Modern Library, the Book-of-the-Month Club, and the early mass-market success of both Pocket Books and the US branch of Penguin with their paperbacks.12 These three things were the answer to a lot of problems, both at home and abroad. For example, the Book-of-the-Month Club, founded by Harry Scherman in 1926, helped with the issue of distribution across the United States. Such a vast country with an uneven population distribution led to an equally uneven distribution of places to acquire books. Scherman solved that with his Book Club.13
Not only were groups influential, but individuals were as well. Some of the most influential and important people were refugees from the countries overrun by Nazis. Although they settled in other places such as Mexico and Argentina, Germans and Austrians were among the most influential of these refugees. Within the United States, there were between twenty-two and twenty-five thousand refugees. They formed a symbiotic relationship with the American publishing industry, especially in important anti-Nazi literature from their home countries and other countries such as Sweden and Switzerland, both neutral during the war. An example of success among these refugees were Isaac Molho and Vitalis Crespin who opened a French bookstore in Manhattan to provide a safe haven for writers and intellectuals displaced from their home country of France by the effects of the war. They later opened their own publishing house which catered specifically to French refugees as well as the rest of the French-reading population who were cut off from books and literature by the war.14
Although the book trade was trying and succeeding in doing well for the world, it did not come out unscathed or without issues. One of the main affects of the war on the publishing industry was the calling to arms. Hench explains where these men were called up to, saying“Many valued staff members, from top management to copy editors and office clerks, were away serving in the armed forces or in civilian jobs in Washington. Those left behind often had to preform the tasks of their missing colleagues as well as their own.”15 Book publishers suffered the loss of staff more than that of newspaper or magazine publishers. Hench explains why: “The government's stand on the book-publishing industry was especially galling to publishers because the newspaper and magazine industry had been classified as essential activities because they were 'devoted primarily to the dissemination of public information.” What this meant for book publishers was that their staff were not secured and could be called to join the forces or government positions, which was something the magazine and newspaper publishers did not necessarily have to worry about.16 On top of the lack of staff, there was a ration on paper which forced publishers to make do with seventy-five percent of the paper they would have normally used before the war. The combination of these two factors, as well as a growing need for books for civilians and soldiers alike put a strain on the industry. They were forced to order smaller print runs, which meant less of an inventory, thus a more book-thirsty crowd. Hench writes about the manager of the Schriber Book Store, who “was asked late in the war how he coped with the rush of customers he said, 'Oh, at 9 o'clock we just open the doors and jump out of the way.'”17 This was just a small example of a large scale need and desire for books, but it was not just civilians who desired these books, but soldiers, too.
Random House did a survey of thirty-one camps, in which soldiers were stationed for various things including boot camp, and discovered that soldiers actually had more down time for reading than civilians did. The GI's in the training camps were eager to get their hands on seemingly any type of reading material as the were introduced to this new “hurry-up-and-wait” lifestyle that is so typical of the army- meaning basically that they are called to arms, thrown into basic training where they were made to wait for things like inspections and tests, trained, and then sat again, waiting patiently to then be thrown into war. Publishers specialized marketing schemes towards GI's and sold either individual copies to them, or bulk copies to the army itself to be placed in camp libraries. One of these marketing schemes actually got one publisher in trouble with the government. Hench discusses Bible sales in his article “War Baby, War Books,” saying:
Bibles for soldiers were strong sellers, including a steel-encased edition that promised to combine saving grace with physical protection to any grunt who stashed it in the pocket over his heart. The government, however, charged the publisher with false advertising for its claims of protection and with unauthorized use of thirty-one thousand pounds of steel.”18
Bibles, prayer pamphlets, and other religious materials were incredibly popular sellers with the military as well as their families, and the publishers of these materials reaped the benefits. Not only did publishers reap benefits from soldiers, but it worked vice versa as well. The CBW ran a program called Armed Services Editions and they were published by “a specially incorporated subsidiary of the council to provide books for recreation and enrichment to US service personnel abroad.”19 This was not the first of these types of publishing schemes, nor would it be the last or only, but it was certainly the most successful. The first of these failed book campaigns was called the Victory Book Campaign from 1942 to 1943, and it was sponsored by the USO, the Red Cross, and the American Library Association. It began as a means of letting civilians feel like they were helping in their own small way by donating these books to local bases and camps within the United States. However, in both the Armed Services Edition and Victory Book Campaigns, about 10 percent of the books collected were sent overseas.20 The potential reason for its failure was the fact that it relied on civilians to donate books, which could mean the books were donated for various reasons other than just being patriotic. For example, some of the books were more than likely gifts or books that had been read and were not of good quality, therefore they were handed along. But if the civilians did not want to read these books then the soldiers definitely would not want to either.21
The Armed Services Editions were exceptionally successful, and benefited both the soldiers and the publishing industry. Even at the beginning of the Campaign publishers were finding success, as it “resulted in the sale and shipment of some twenty-five thousand books, at a cost to the publishers of thirty-five hundred dollars.”22 Another reason for the failure of the Victory Book Campaign was the fact that there was no standard size for the books, as they were donated by civilians and would thus come in varying shapes, sizes, and weights. This factored into how the Armed Services Editions were uniquely produced. “...the ASEs were lightweight, mostly oblong, paperbacks printed 'four up' and then thrice guillotined o create four books with the series characteristic, non-standard orientation. They were printed on a roll-fed rotary press used in peacetime for magazines and catalogs, which had capacity in excess of the demands of civilian life. They appeared in twi different trim sizes- 6 ½ x 4 ½ inches...and 5 ½ x 3 ½ inches which made packing and shipping comparatively easy.” Shortly after the end of the war, the ASEs were described as “'the greatest mass publishing enterprise of all history,' a judgement that remains unchallenged more than sixty years later.”23
Women as part of the war effort- an idea that took some getting used to as there was still a stigma against women working in male-dominated industries, but eventually became widely accepted. Rosie the Riveter is one of the most iconic images to come out of World War II and is incredibly recognizable. However, her patriotic image is not entirely false, but not entirely true, either. Author Maureen Honey explains why this is, saying that “The predominant media portrayal of women war workers was that they were young, white, and middle-class; furthermore, that they entered the labor force out of patriotic motives and eagerly left to start families and resume full time homemaking,” but, according to historians, this image is almost entirely inaccurate, “Contrary to popular belief, the women who entered war production were not primarily middle-class housewives but working-class wives, widows, divorcees, and students who needed the money to survive a reasonable standard of living. Most of them had prewar experience in the labor force.”24 The government's attitude toward hiring women was that they were hiring women who were not working as it was, and would be able to return to homemaking or menial jobs such as cashiers and waitresses after the war. They assumed that women understood that they would be replaced when the men returned home from the war. This, however, was not the case and there were many women angered over being displaced from their jobs after the war.25
Where does publishing play in to this, though? To begin with, they were involved with creating this false image in the first place, alongside the OWI and other propaganda campaigns. These false portrayals were a scheme to get women to see a glamorous side to industry work, and to keep the economy running as smoothly as possible. One way that the government did this was by using fiction writers to their benefit. The Magazine Bureau used magazines as a means of delivering these propaganda stories, and it was approved by the OWI, who “saw no problem with fiction writers weaving home-front campaigns into romances and adventure stories, suggesting that even the most mundane government regulation could be the premise of a popular story plot. For example, the government's plan to conserve rubber through gasoline rationing could be supported by developing fantasies around characters who used a carpool.”26
Part of the reason for these stories was a recruitment campaign later on in the war when there was a labor shortage. These writers glamorized industrial jobs to entice women to enter those fields. Women were even the stars of these romantic stories. This effort was ironic, considering they were trying to break down traditional views of women but using demeaning ways of doing so by portraying them as love sick creatures who hope that if they ration their gas they might meet prince charming.27
Organizations like the Office of War Information were a necessity in war time. They disseminated information that boosted the morale of the people as well as keeping them as appropriately informed as they could. They even assisted publishers with the task of getting books to soldiers and other countries around the world. The Armed Services Editions were a good example of these kinds of morale boosting, information spreading campaigns. They were not the first nor the last, bit certainly the best of the campaigns, and the most successful. As far as women were concerned, they were being hired into government and industrial jobs at a rate like never before, with the help of authors who enticed them into work with their fictional stories of love and excitement. There was a lot happening in the world of publishing during the war, and although there were some failures, there were many more success stories. One of the success stories to come out of the war was the relationship between Great Britain and the United States, which will be discussed in Chapter 3.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1 Jeffries, John W. "1: Wartime America: Frameworks and Meanings." Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 7. Print.
2 Jeffries, John W. "1: Wartime America: Frameworks and Meanings." Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 4. Print.
3 Jeffries, John W. "1:Wartime America: Frameworks and Meanings; A Good War?" Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 10. Print.4 Jeffries, John W. "2: Mobilizing the Economy; Managing War Mobilization." Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 26. Print.
5 Travis, Trysh. “The Man of Letters and the Literary Business: Re-viewing Malcolm Crowley.” Journal of Modern Literature. XXV, 2 (Winter 2001-2002). 7. Indiana University Press, 2002.
6 Jeffries, John W. "8: Glimpses of War, Visions of Peace; Information and Images." Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 176-77. Print.
7 Hench, John B. "Books on the Normandy Beaches." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 2-6. Print.
8 Hench, John B. "Books on the Normandy Beaches." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 8. Print.
9 Hench, John B. "The Creation of the Council on Books in Wartime." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 46. Print.
10 Hench, John B. "Part II: Books As "Weapons in the War of Ideas"; 3: Publishers Organize for War and Plan for Peace; The Creation of the Council on Books in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 46. Print.
11 Hench, John B. "Books on the Normandy Beaches." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 1-2. Print.
12 Hench, John B. "Part 1: Cultivating New Markets; 1: Modernizing US Book Publishing." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 11. Print.
13 Hench, John B. "Part 1: Cultivating New Markets; 1: Modernizing US Book Publishing- Problems of Distribution." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 12. Print.
14 Hench, John B. "Part 1: Cultivating New Markets; 1: Modernizing US Book Publishing- A 'Dunkirk' for European Refugees." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 16-17. Print.
15 Hench, John B. "2: War Changes Everything-Including Books; The US Book Trade in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 20. Print.
16 Hench, John B. "2: War Changes Everything-Including Books; The US Book Trade in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 22. Print.
17 Hench, John B. "2: War Changes Everything-Including Books; The US Book Trade in Wartime." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 20. Print.
18 Hench, John W. "War Baby, War Books." Sewanee Review 121.1 (2013): 134. Project Muse. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. Web. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sew/summary/v121/121.1.hench.html>.
19 Hench, John B. "Part II: Books As "Weapons in the War of Ideas"; 3: Publishers Organize for War and Plan for Peace; Armed Services Editions and Other Books for the Forces." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 51. Print.
20Idem.
21Idem.
22 Hench, John B. "Part II: Books As "Weapons in the War of Ideas"; 3: Publishers Organize for War and Plan for Peace; Armed Services Editions and Other Books for the Forces." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 52. Print.
23Idem.
24 Honey, Maureen. "1: Creation of Myth." Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1984. 19. Print.
25 Honey, Maureen. "1: Creation of Myth; Government Attitudes Towards Women Workers." Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1984. 24-27. Print.
26 Honey, Maureen. "1: Creation of Myth; Popular Fiction and Propaganda." Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1984. 41-42. Print.
27 Honey, Maureen. "1: Creation of Myth; Middle-Class Images of Women in Wartime." Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1984. 61. Print.
Chapter 3: Great Britain and United States Realtions
As seen in the previous chapters, Great Britain was affected directly by the war, its publishing industry nearly failed entirety, whereas the United States had a very different experience. The United States and Great Britain have had an interesting relationship since the United States's independence in 1776. There is, without a doubt, a definite support system between the two countries, this can be seen in the fact that despite the United States being attacked by the Japanese in the Pacific theater, they still joined the European theater as well, to help their British brothers as well as the other European countries. However, there has been a sense of staunch similarity between the two as well. For example, Great Britain developed the Ministry of Information, so the United States developed a similar council called the Office of War Information. Despite this, they did work side by side throughout the war in many ways, and there were definitely parallels between the two countries as far as the war effort was concerned. This chapter will delve deeper into this sibling-like relationship.
As far as parallels, there are many that can be made between the two countries. Some of these include the Book Clubs, the Ministry of Information/The Office of War Information, and books for the troops. The Book-of-the-Month Club was established in the United States in 1926 and was incredibly successful. Great Britain saw this success and decided to start some of their own. The Left Book Club, founded by publisher Victor Gollancz in 1936, was one of the earliest and most successful. By 1939, it boasted a membership of 46,000, which eventually grew to and impressive 60,000.1 The Ministry of Information was formed in September of 1939. It had three divisions which were the Press and Censorship Bureau, Home Publicity, and Foreign Publicity. The Office of War Information was establish in 1942 and it “became the principal propaganda agency of the federal government during the Second World War,” and then it was replaced by a similar organization called the Office of Facts and Figures, which sounds like a paraphrased version of the Ministry of Information.2 The similarity here is that both of these organizations has a hand in propaganda and even has similar names. In this, though, especially before the war, there was a “no propaganda to the United States” policy set by the Ministry of Information.
The United States was in isolationist mode before the attacks on Pearl Harbor, and the government would strongly disregard anything that remotely looked like propaganda or encouragement of entry into the war. “To counter this attitude, and to show Americans what British life in wartime was really like, a more subtly approach was called for. British writers such as George Bernard Shaw and Somerset Maugham were known and admired in the United States, to which a steady stream of writers regularly repaired to promote their books or embark upon a nationwide lecture tour,” which was done to improve “transatlantic relations that would result from successfully explaining British thought and life to American audiences.”3 The goal in all of this was to encourage a better relationship with Great Britain for any number of reasons, which could include coming out of isolation or sending supplies to the country despite neutrality.
One of the most important parallels between the two countries were the books for soldiers programs. Great Britain had entered the war two years prior to the United States, and military conscription became compulsory, which meant that by the time the books for soldiers campaigns in the United States were initiated, British soldiers had been at war for three years. The War Office of Great Britain sought advice from the National Book Council in regards to establishing libraries at the various camps around the country. Unlike the United States, Great Britain's books for soldiers were a bit more structured. The goal was to have the subject matters divided 40/60; forty percent fiction, sixty percent non-fiction. The titles were gathered from librarians and booksellers. Eventually, it amounted to 580 different titles, and from there, the titles that suited the needs of the soldiers were weeded out from the rest “Most editions were priced between 2s 6d and 4s 6d and there was no a single Penguin.”4 Considering the success of Penguin, this was a bold statement.
The reasoning behind providing books to the soldiers differed as well, at least originally. What the military in Great Britain was finding was that the soldiers were conscripted at a young age, some right out of high school. So, as Holman explains, “To resolve the issue PJ Grigg, on behalf of the Army Council, invited a member of the Board of Education (R.S. Wood) to serve under the chairmanship of Lieut. Gen. Sir Robert H. Haining (formerly GOC Western Command) whose three-man committee would further education for the Army in non-military matters...”5 Something that the British did that the Americans did not was “in May 1940 the Postmaster-General agreed that all books and periodicals left at post offices anywhere in the UK could be sent free of charge to the Services Central Book Depot in London and, still free, be forwarded to individual Army United who requested them.” This was in an effort to broaden the reading options and over three million books were distributed by these means.6 Although the Americans most certainly had their soldier's best interests at heart while establishing campaigns such as the Armed Services Editions, but the Council for Books in Wartime had other plans for these books. “The Council understood that making these books available to English-speaking Allied soldiers 'is another way in which we can publicize American books in other sections of the world where we think we will trade after the war.' This worried British publishers, who warned Americans not to infringe on British Empire publishing rights.”7 There was also a notion that donating these books was a patriotic gesture, as well as good promotion for the publishing industry. The other difference between the Books for the Troops in Great Britain and the Armed Services Editions was that the ASEs were a standardized size, which made them easier to package and ship, thus fulfilling the goal of getting these American books into the hands of overrun countries as efficiently as possible.8
Great Britain is famously more conservative than the United States, and this comes across even in places like publishing. Great Britain was more directly affected by the war than the United States, which meant things were stricter. Two of these things that seemingly went hand in hand were rationing and censorship. There was a struggle over what should be done within the publishing industry. There was a discussion in regards to the “trash” being printed in valuable paper, which was needed for other things such as books for the soldiers and educational books. Although some people viewed this publication of “trash” as a sign of democracy and the freedom of press, but this was no time for frivolity. Some firms saw publishing that type of material as an almost “criminal act,” as they had so many other responsibilities than to have a wide range of romance novels. “Drawing a line between acceptable frivolity, and 'cheap American gangster literature with lascivious jackets,' Harrap's call to order was designed to pre-empt the danger of censorship from Government sources by following the lead of educational publishers who had already agreed to a form of self censorship.”9 The danger of censorship was that the government would control more and more of what the publishers produced which meant the variety would be greatly reduced and even the paper rationing would be cut.
The publishers at the time truly believed that they were keeping the industry alive, “Their trade, impeded by currency and import restrictions, the perils faced by transatlantic shipping, lack of manpower and paper and dearth of good new authors, embattled publishers found themselves fighting not only to continue their professional activities as individuals, but to ensure that book publishing itself survived the war.”10 There was an import restriction that the Board of Trade issued. It was “a set of regulations restricting imports, especially from dollar countries, which would have a major impact on Anglo-American trade in books throughout the war.”11 There was censorship in the United States, to an extent. It was more of a filtering of information and images to keep the morale up both stateside and over seas. “And American censorship was in any event less coercive and extreme than in any other belligerent nations.”12
The United State was not anywhere near as affected by the war as Great Britain, so they had the liberty of a bigger paper ration, which meant a wider range of published materials, which is why Great Britain described the “trash” they were trying not to publish as “cheap American gangster literature.” To add insult to injury, Great Britain lost millions of copies of valuable books and thousands of tons of valuable paper and supplies were destroyed when the German Luftwaffe bombed Paternoster Row in London where a great majority of British publishers had been established since the sixteenth century. This meant that eventually they were having to rely on other countries to get their published products, especially the United States. As Hench describes, “Book shortages were such that the British had to rely for their needs more and more on outside sources, particularly the United States, whose shipments of fifty thousand pulp magazines at a time were popular with the British troops, as were titles in Random House's Modern Library with the general population. But none of these outside sources provided an answer to the acute problem of defending and promoting British culture. On the contrary, the Books and Periodicals Committee strongly recommended that the British council should refrain from purchasing American books, 'save in very exceptional circumstances.'”13 This fact goes hand in hand with the idea that Great Britain found the United States to be “imperialistic.” However, the United States was not the only one who had imperialistic tendencies- Hench explains,
In describing what might be called the nascent “biblioimperialism” of the United States, the authors perhaps failed to see how much of what they wrote could also have described the imperialist business ethics that underly the establishment of the British Empire, whose prerogatives they naturally defended. Astutely, however, they recognized that Americans “freely expressed dislike of British imperialism,” served to mask American imperialism from their consciousness. Perhaps, though, the Briton's distaste for US expansion produced blinders to their own.14
Despite needing the assistance they were getting from American publishers, British publishers were understandably concerned about what state they would be in post-war and if there would even be a publishing industry anymore, especially due to American “biblioimperialism.”
Propaganda seemingly went along with censorship, and both countries produced propaganda unique to their country's needs, naturally. What both countries had in common in this instance was that the publishing industry was being overtaken by the Government. They utilized publishers for their own needs, for example government publications and pamphlets, cutting into the individual company's productions. An example of this take-over would be a company called Great Britain's Sun Engraving, which was considered the largest printing company in the world when it was at its peak of production. Holman says, “From 1941,” though, “its enormous capacity was almost entirely turned over to war work, propaganda leaflets alone consuming four thousand tons of paper. It went on to print secret charts for the Admiralty and books of aerial reconnaissance photographs designed to pinpoint strategic targets in forthcoming Allied invasions of Europe.”15 And as what was considered the biggest printing company in Britain, it was strained, so imagine the effect that had on smaller houses. The Ministry of Information went to far as to almost bribe publishers to publish what were considered “favorable” books, books that would help the war effort, that had propaganda value, but were not outright propaganda. “Where a book had propaganda interest, the MoI could assist private publishers in one of three ways. 'Joining subject to author and author to suitable publisher; supporting the book with publicity; supplying paper from the Ministry's ration.'”16 The MoI had their own special reserve of paper which consisted of 250 tons of paper, and could “contribute up to 50% of the paper needed for a book judged to be of propaganda value, and published commercially.”17
The Americans had a bit of a different outlook on what type of material they were using as propaganda. “The liberals were certainly not opposed to disseminating information but wanted it done honestly and in a way that was founded on ideas and had some depth. The dispute came to a head in April 1943, when a number of agency members...resigned to protest not being allowed to 'tell the truth' about the war and its effects.” The protesters declared that the program had become dominated by salesmen looking for a good deal rather than a disseminator of honest information, and that that minimized “bad war news and keeping silent regarding the high stakes in the conflict.”18 The United States propaganda phase was actually more at the end of the war than during. Towards the end of the war is when the United States wished to win the hearts and minds of liberated Axis nations by putting as many books as quickly as possible into their hands. Books were, and still remain, a very powerful force and when utilized as propaganda, they can help in so many ways. Archibald MacLeish, who was the Librarian of Congress, urged the public to “recognize the power of books as truly as the Nazi mob which dumped them on a fire.” And “while the armed forces were battling the Axis enemy, the principal goal of propaganda was to weaken the enemy's ability to fight by confusing him, by encouraging opposition through the underground movements in the overrun nations, and by undermining the enemy combatant's will to fight on, leading, in the best possible outcome, to his surrender.”19 It was truly believed and widely help by many publishers at the time that books could really achieve such a feat, alongside their human, soldier counterparts.
Relations were strained between British and American publishers. Due to the aforementioned fact that the continental United States was almost completely untouched by the hand of war, they continued to be successful with only the smallest bit of struggle from a ration that British publishers could only hope for. Unlike British publishers that, by the end of the war, could only use 37.5% of their previously allocated ration, American publishers had the luxury of 75%. Americans publishing was dominating the publishing industry of the world, especially over the British publishing industry, limping along on a small percentage of originally published material. Curtice Hitchcock, of Reynal & Hitchcock, had been sent to Great Britain to observe the publishers there, and had this to say about it, “I am told about twenty-seven percent of the current titles being published in Britain, despite paper shortages and all the rest of it, are of American origin...”20 British publishers were extremely concerned about their overseas markets and were thinking post-war prosperity and how it was threatened by American publishers. He continued on to say, “'various even rather small actions on part of the American publishers which seem designed to grab while the grabbing is good.' [Stanley] Unwin, for one, complained about US publishers aggressiveness toward the traditional markets of British firms to his authors, colleagues, and the offending US publishers, often and loudly. British suspicion of 'imperialistic' tendencies on part of US publishers was a matter of concern as well to a sympathetic Yank, Richard Hendel...”21 Needless to say, this would cause tension between most people, never mind during a time like this.
The United States and Great Britain had and continue to have so many similarities and so many differences, even today. One country born from another, they continue to support each other in whatever way they can. During the War, the similarities are quite obvious, from the Ministry of Information and the Office of War Information, to the take over of the Government for propaganda reasons. Both countries did their best to support the morale of their troops. Great Britain started with the Books for Troops campaign, and the United States followed suit a few years later with the Armed Services Editions. One of the major differences was that Great Britain was more censored than the United States, but one of the main reasons for this was because of their closeness to the war, both how it affected the country and their physical location just across the water from some of the most major battles of the war. They needed to guard themselves from the enemy the best they could. One thing they agreed on was that books were the most enduring form of propaganda. Books are weapons of war, and both countries recognized this and used it to their advantage. All in all, there was a bit of competition between the two countries, but there was also a sense of camaraderie as well.
Post-War
The Potsdam Conference of July to August, 1945, was the beginning to the end of World War II. Germany had surrendered in May of that year. Near the end of the Conference, on August 10, 1945, Japan issued an unconditional surrender and acceptance of terms of peace.22 The publishing industry in both countries suffered, in different ways, but it was an uneasy time on both counts. Publishers in Great Britain suffered losses not only in stock and supplies, but in life as well. Although the United States was untouched physically by the hand of war, they still suffered loss in the form of lives as well. After the war was over, though, there was a need to rebuild. Nicholas Joicey writes, “A larger problem facing Britain than the design of home interiors was the need to replace homes and offices destroyed during the Blitz. In the 'Planning, Design, and Art' series architects expounded their belief that the destruction caused by the war requires complete reorganization of society.”23 He goes on to quote Penguin's Allen Lane in regards to Penguin's “ commitment to higher social aims”; Lane says, “For your information our cost of production will amount to almost exactly twice the amount that we will receive from the trade, but so convinced am I of the 'worthwileness' of the venture that this causes me no qualms.”24
There was a strong sense of a need to rebuild and move forward once the war was over, especially in Great Britain where destruction could be seen just about anywhere in the country. There was also a need to assist the liberated countries in, essentially, relearning how to be free. One way it was believed this could be achieved was, of course, through books. One of these plans was consolation propaganda, which had three main goals. “The first was to pacify the civilian population, in both the conquered nations and aggressor nations,...to ensure of compliance with orders of Allied military commanders, and to inform the liberated or defeated people what they might and might not expect next.”25 There was a distinct wish to, so-called, “reeducate” the Germans and the Japanese after the war was over. The Japanese had a fairly well-established printing and publishing industry, despite the ravages of war, which made the effort of getting American titles into the hands of Japanese civilains and liberated people quite difficult. Germany, on the other hand, was a bit more pliable. One of the ways Germans were “reeducated,” was through books from a series called Bücherreihe Neue Welt, or “New World Bookshelf.” Produced by Bermann-Fischer Verlag of New York, as Hench exaplains, “the series consisted of twenty-two titles, in twenty-four volumes, in the German language to be sold at twenty-five cents a piece in the canteens of US POW camps.”26 These books were taken home by the German POWs and, although some of them were kept as trinkets and nothing more, others were genuinely affected by what they read.
Although many of the committees formed during the war were disbanded, such as the Ministry of Information and the Office of War Information, they had a chance to do important things before they dissolved. Hench explains that,
Remnants of the US government's mechanisms for facilitating the exchange of publishing rights with European firms vested in OWI and its transitional successors, were ready to be of service. Later, so was the United States International Book Association which took over many of these functions from the government after its incorporation in January 1945. These agencies acted as middlemen in facilitating contact between US firms and both old and new publishers abroad. Both OWI and USIBA published book lists for the information of foreign publishers.27
They wanted to stimulate the interest in American literature and help the image of the United States be seen in a more positive light than before and during the war.
Britain suffered from the war, substantially. The publishing industry within Britain nearly came to and end with the Blitz, rationing, and lack of manpower. There was a distinct need to export after the war was over. It was a necessity to export to cover the costs of the imports they so desperately needed post-war. Hench describes this need to export, and continues on to say, “Books could contribute to that goal well beyond the relatively small cash value of book exports themselves.”28 Books helped in more ways than just the economy, though, they were “vital in the geopolitical arena as well,” which meant these books would help with the political problems that Great Britain faced not only with its dominions, but the rest of the world as well. “These included expectations in many parts of of the empire and commonwealth for greater self-rule, if not outright independence. Such considerations, along with ideological competition with the Soviet bloc during the early stages of the Cold War, made it imperative that British books continue to make their way around the world. Just as the had during the previous three centuries.”29 Britain needed to export books to remain any kind of world power, and to keep up with the United States.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1Holman, Valerie. "Fabulous Creatures." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 9. Print.
2Hench, John B. "The Role of the Office of War Information." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 54. Print.
3 Holman, Valerie. "'Scavenger Birds' The Author's Dilemma." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 56. Print.
4Holman, Valerie. "Books for the Troops (1)." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 42. Print.
5 Holman, Valerie. "Books for the Troops (1)." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 44. Print.
6Idem.
7Hench, John B. "Armed Services Editions and Other Books for the Forces." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 51. Print.
8 Hench, John B. "Armed Services Editions and Other Books for the Forces." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 52. Print.
9 Holman, Valerie. "A Question of Censorship." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 60. Print.
10 Holman, Valerie. "A Question of Censorship." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 61. Print.
11 Holman, Valerie. "The Immediate Impact of War." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 17. Print.
12 Jeffries, John W. "8: Glimpses of War, Visions of Peace." Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 174. Print.
13 Hench, John B. "Cooperation and Competition Between the United States and Great Britain." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 75. Print.
14 Hench, John B. "Trying to Find Common Ground." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 222. Print.
15 Holman, Valerie. "Printing for Victory." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 75. Print.
16 Holman, Valerie. "Inside General Production Division." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 101. Print.
17 Holman, Valerie. "Book of Propaganda Value." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 105. Print.
18 Hench, John B. "The Role of the Office of War Information." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 55. Print.
19 Hench, John B. "4: 'Books are the Most Enduring Propaganda of All." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 28. Print.
20 Hench, John B. "The War's Impact on Publishing in Great Britain." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 28. Print.
21Ibid.
22"World War II - Page 2." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. July 2013. <http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/page2>.
23Joicey, Nicholas. "A Paperback Guide to Progress." Twentieth Century British History 4.1 (1993): 49. Print.
24Ibid.
25 Hench, John B. "The Nature of Consolation Propaganda." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 69. Print.
26 Hench, John B. "Creation of Bücherreihe Neue Welt." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 119. Print.
27 Hench, John B. "A Feeding Frenzy Begins." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 160. Print.
28 Hench, John B. "Chapter 11: The Empire Strikes Back; Britain and the Necessity of Exports." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 202. Print.
29 Ibid.
As far as parallels, there are many that can be made between the two countries. Some of these include the Book Clubs, the Ministry of Information/The Office of War Information, and books for the troops. The Book-of-the-Month Club was established in the United States in 1926 and was incredibly successful. Great Britain saw this success and decided to start some of their own. The Left Book Club, founded by publisher Victor Gollancz in 1936, was one of the earliest and most successful. By 1939, it boasted a membership of 46,000, which eventually grew to and impressive 60,000.1 The Ministry of Information was formed in September of 1939. It had three divisions which were the Press and Censorship Bureau, Home Publicity, and Foreign Publicity. The Office of War Information was establish in 1942 and it “became the principal propaganda agency of the federal government during the Second World War,” and then it was replaced by a similar organization called the Office of Facts and Figures, which sounds like a paraphrased version of the Ministry of Information.2 The similarity here is that both of these organizations has a hand in propaganda and even has similar names. In this, though, especially before the war, there was a “no propaganda to the United States” policy set by the Ministry of Information.
The United States was in isolationist mode before the attacks on Pearl Harbor, and the government would strongly disregard anything that remotely looked like propaganda or encouragement of entry into the war. “To counter this attitude, and to show Americans what British life in wartime was really like, a more subtly approach was called for. British writers such as George Bernard Shaw and Somerset Maugham were known and admired in the United States, to which a steady stream of writers regularly repaired to promote their books or embark upon a nationwide lecture tour,” which was done to improve “transatlantic relations that would result from successfully explaining British thought and life to American audiences.”3 The goal in all of this was to encourage a better relationship with Great Britain for any number of reasons, which could include coming out of isolation or sending supplies to the country despite neutrality.
One of the most important parallels between the two countries were the books for soldiers programs. Great Britain had entered the war two years prior to the United States, and military conscription became compulsory, which meant that by the time the books for soldiers campaigns in the United States were initiated, British soldiers had been at war for three years. The War Office of Great Britain sought advice from the National Book Council in regards to establishing libraries at the various camps around the country. Unlike the United States, Great Britain's books for soldiers were a bit more structured. The goal was to have the subject matters divided 40/60; forty percent fiction, sixty percent non-fiction. The titles were gathered from librarians and booksellers. Eventually, it amounted to 580 different titles, and from there, the titles that suited the needs of the soldiers were weeded out from the rest “Most editions were priced between 2s 6d and 4s 6d and there was no a single Penguin.”4 Considering the success of Penguin, this was a bold statement.
The reasoning behind providing books to the soldiers differed as well, at least originally. What the military in Great Britain was finding was that the soldiers were conscripted at a young age, some right out of high school. So, as Holman explains, “To resolve the issue PJ Grigg, on behalf of the Army Council, invited a member of the Board of Education (R.S. Wood) to serve under the chairmanship of Lieut. Gen. Sir Robert H. Haining (formerly GOC Western Command) whose three-man committee would further education for the Army in non-military matters...”5 Something that the British did that the Americans did not was “in May 1940 the Postmaster-General agreed that all books and periodicals left at post offices anywhere in the UK could be sent free of charge to the Services Central Book Depot in London and, still free, be forwarded to individual Army United who requested them.” This was in an effort to broaden the reading options and over three million books were distributed by these means.6 Although the Americans most certainly had their soldier's best interests at heart while establishing campaigns such as the Armed Services Editions, but the Council for Books in Wartime had other plans for these books. “The Council understood that making these books available to English-speaking Allied soldiers 'is another way in which we can publicize American books in other sections of the world where we think we will trade after the war.' This worried British publishers, who warned Americans not to infringe on British Empire publishing rights.”7 There was also a notion that donating these books was a patriotic gesture, as well as good promotion for the publishing industry. The other difference between the Books for the Troops in Great Britain and the Armed Services Editions was that the ASEs were a standardized size, which made them easier to package and ship, thus fulfilling the goal of getting these American books into the hands of overrun countries as efficiently as possible.8
Great Britain is famously more conservative than the United States, and this comes across even in places like publishing. Great Britain was more directly affected by the war than the United States, which meant things were stricter. Two of these things that seemingly went hand in hand were rationing and censorship. There was a struggle over what should be done within the publishing industry. There was a discussion in regards to the “trash” being printed in valuable paper, which was needed for other things such as books for the soldiers and educational books. Although some people viewed this publication of “trash” as a sign of democracy and the freedom of press, but this was no time for frivolity. Some firms saw publishing that type of material as an almost “criminal act,” as they had so many other responsibilities than to have a wide range of romance novels. “Drawing a line between acceptable frivolity, and 'cheap American gangster literature with lascivious jackets,' Harrap's call to order was designed to pre-empt the danger of censorship from Government sources by following the lead of educational publishers who had already agreed to a form of self censorship.”9 The danger of censorship was that the government would control more and more of what the publishers produced which meant the variety would be greatly reduced and even the paper rationing would be cut.
The publishers at the time truly believed that they were keeping the industry alive, “Their trade, impeded by currency and import restrictions, the perils faced by transatlantic shipping, lack of manpower and paper and dearth of good new authors, embattled publishers found themselves fighting not only to continue their professional activities as individuals, but to ensure that book publishing itself survived the war.”10 There was an import restriction that the Board of Trade issued. It was “a set of regulations restricting imports, especially from dollar countries, which would have a major impact on Anglo-American trade in books throughout the war.”11 There was censorship in the United States, to an extent. It was more of a filtering of information and images to keep the morale up both stateside and over seas. “And American censorship was in any event less coercive and extreme than in any other belligerent nations.”12
The United State was not anywhere near as affected by the war as Great Britain, so they had the liberty of a bigger paper ration, which meant a wider range of published materials, which is why Great Britain described the “trash” they were trying not to publish as “cheap American gangster literature.” To add insult to injury, Great Britain lost millions of copies of valuable books and thousands of tons of valuable paper and supplies were destroyed when the German Luftwaffe bombed Paternoster Row in London where a great majority of British publishers had been established since the sixteenth century. This meant that eventually they were having to rely on other countries to get their published products, especially the United States. As Hench describes, “Book shortages were such that the British had to rely for their needs more and more on outside sources, particularly the United States, whose shipments of fifty thousand pulp magazines at a time were popular with the British troops, as were titles in Random House's Modern Library with the general population. But none of these outside sources provided an answer to the acute problem of defending and promoting British culture. On the contrary, the Books and Periodicals Committee strongly recommended that the British council should refrain from purchasing American books, 'save in very exceptional circumstances.'”13 This fact goes hand in hand with the idea that Great Britain found the United States to be “imperialistic.” However, the United States was not the only one who had imperialistic tendencies- Hench explains,
In describing what might be called the nascent “biblioimperialism” of the United States, the authors perhaps failed to see how much of what they wrote could also have described the imperialist business ethics that underly the establishment of the British Empire, whose prerogatives they naturally defended. Astutely, however, they recognized that Americans “freely expressed dislike of British imperialism,” served to mask American imperialism from their consciousness. Perhaps, though, the Briton's distaste for US expansion produced blinders to their own.14
Despite needing the assistance they were getting from American publishers, British publishers were understandably concerned about what state they would be in post-war and if there would even be a publishing industry anymore, especially due to American “biblioimperialism.”
Propaganda seemingly went along with censorship, and both countries produced propaganda unique to their country's needs, naturally. What both countries had in common in this instance was that the publishing industry was being overtaken by the Government. They utilized publishers for their own needs, for example government publications and pamphlets, cutting into the individual company's productions. An example of this take-over would be a company called Great Britain's Sun Engraving, which was considered the largest printing company in the world when it was at its peak of production. Holman says, “From 1941,” though, “its enormous capacity was almost entirely turned over to war work, propaganda leaflets alone consuming four thousand tons of paper. It went on to print secret charts for the Admiralty and books of aerial reconnaissance photographs designed to pinpoint strategic targets in forthcoming Allied invasions of Europe.”15 And as what was considered the biggest printing company in Britain, it was strained, so imagine the effect that had on smaller houses. The Ministry of Information went to far as to almost bribe publishers to publish what were considered “favorable” books, books that would help the war effort, that had propaganda value, but were not outright propaganda. “Where a book had propaganda interest, the MoI could assist private publishers in one of three ways. 'Joining subject to author and author to suitable publisher; supporting the book with publicity; supplying paper from the Ministry's ration.'”16 The MoI had their own special reserve of paper which consisted of 250 tons of paper, and could “contribute up to 50% of the paper needed for a book judged to be of propaganda value, and published commercially.”17
The Americans had a bit of a different outlook on what type of material they were using as propaganda. “The liberals were certainly not opposed to disseminating information but wanted it done honestly and in a way that was founded on ideas and had some depth. The dispute came to a head in April 1943, when a number of agency members...resigned to protest not being allowed to 'tell the truth' about the war and its effects.” The protesters declared that the program had become dominated by salesmen looking for a good deal rather than a disseminator of honest information, and that that minimized “bad war news and keeping silent regarding the high stakes in the conflict.”18 The United States propaganda phase was actually more at the end of the war than during. Towards the end of the war is when the United States wished to win the hearts and minds of liberated Axis nations by putting as many books as quickly as possible into their hands. Books were, and still remain, a very powerful force and when utilized as propaganda, they can help in so many ways. Archibald MacLeish, who was the Librarian of Congress, urged the public to “recognize the power of books as truly as the Nazi mob which dumped them on a fire.” And “while the armed forces were battling the Axis enemy, the principal goal of propaganda was to weaken the enemy's ability to fight by confusing him, by encouraging opposition through the underground movements in the overrun nations, and by undermining the enemy combatant's will to fight on, leading, in the best possible outcome, to his surrender.”19 It was truly believed and widely help by many publishers at the time that books could really achieve such a feat, alongside their human, soldier counterparts.
Relations were strained between British and American publishers. Due to the aforementioned fact that the continental United States was almost completely untouched by the hand of war, they continued to be successful with only the smallest bit of struggle from a ration that British publishers could only hope for. Unlike British publishers that, by the end of the war, could only use 37.5% of their previously allocated ration, American publishers had the luxury of 75%. Americans publishing was dominating the publishing industry of the world, especially over the British publishing industry, limping along on a small percentage of originally published material. Curtice Hitchcock, of Reynal & Hitchcock, had been sent to Great Britain to observe the publishers there, and had this to say about it, “I am told about twenty-seven percent of the current titles being published in Britain, despite paper shortages and all the rest of it, are of American origin...”20 British publishers were extremely concerned about their overseas markets and were thinking post-war prosperity and how it was threatened by American publishers. He continued on to say, “'various even rather small actions on part of the American publishers which seem designed to grab while the grabbing is good.' [Stanley] Unwin, for one, complained about US publishers aggressiveness toward the traditional markets of British firms to his authors, colleagues, and the offending US publishers, often and loudly. British suspicion of 'imperialistic' tendencies on part of US publishers was a matter of concern as well to a sympathetic Yank, Richard Hendel...”21 Needless to say, this would cause tension between most people, never mind during a time like this.
The United States and Great Britain had and continue to have so many similarities and so many differences, even today. One country born from another, they continue to support each other in whatever way they can. During the War, the similarities are quite obvious, from the Ministry of Information and the Office of War Information, to the take over of the Government for propaganda reasons. Both countries did their best to support the morale of their troops. Great Britain started with the Books for Troops campaign, and the United States followed suit a few years later with the Armed Services Editions. One of the major differences was that Great Britain was more censored than the United States, but one of the main reasons for this was because of their closeness to the war, both how it affected the country and their physical location just across the water from some of the most major battles of the war. They needed to guard themselves from the enemy the best they could. One thing they agreed on was that books were the most enduring form of propaganda. Books are weapons of war, and both countries recognized this and used it to their advantage. All in all, there was a bit of competition between the two countries, but there was also a sense of camaraderie as well.
Post-War
The Potsdam Conference of July to August, 1945, was the beginning to the end of World War II. Germany had surrendered in May of that year. Near the end of the Conference, on August 10, 1945, Japan issued an unconditional surrender and acceptance of terms of peace.22 The publishing industry in both countries suffered, in different ways, but it was an uneasy time on both counts. Publishers in Great Britain suffered losses not only in stock and supplies, but in life as well. Although the United States was untouched physically by the hand of war, they still suffered loss in the form of lives as well. After the war was over, though, there was a need to rebuild. Nicholas Joicey writes, “A larger problem facing Britain than the design of home interiors was the need to replace homes and offices destroyed during the Blitz. In the 'Planning, Design, and Art' series architects expounded their belief that the destruction caused by the war requires complete reorganization of society.”23 He goes on to quote Penguin's Allen Lane in regards to Penguin's “ commitment to higher social aims”; Lane says, “For your information our cost of production will amount to almost exactly twice the amount that we will receive from the trade, but so convinced am I of the 'worthwileness' of the venture that this causes me no qualms.”24
There was a strong sense of a need to rebuild and move forward once the war was over, especially in Great Britain where destruction could be seen just about anywhere in the country. There was also a need to assist the liberated countries in, essentially, relearning how to be free. One way it was believed this could be achieved was, of course, through books. One of these plans was consolation propaganda, which had three main goals. “The first was to pacify the civilian population, in both the conquered nations and aggressor nations,...to ensure of compliance with orders of Allied military commanders, and to inform the liberated or defeated people what they might and might not expect next.”25 There was a distinct wish to, so-called, “reeducate” the Germans and the Japanese after the war was over. The Japanese had a fairly well-established printing and publishing industry, despite the ravages of war, which made the effort of getting American titles into the hands of Japanese civilains and liberated people quite difficult. Germany, on the other hand, was a bit more pliable. One of the ways Germans were “reeducated,” was through books from a series called Bücherreihe Neue Welt, or “New World Bookshelf.” Produced by Bermann-Fischer Verlag of New York, as Hench exaplains, “the series consisted of twenty-two titles, in twenty-four volumes, in the German language to be sold at twenty-five cents a piece in the canteens of US POW camps.”26 These books were taken home by the German POWs and, although some of them were kept as trinkets and nothing more, others were genuinely affected by what they read.
Although many of the committees formed during the war were disbanded, such as the Ministry of Information and the Office of War Information, they had a chance to do important things before they dissolved. Hench explains that,
Remnants of the US government's mechanisms for facilitating the exchange of publishing rights with European firms vested in OWI and its transitional successors, were ready to be of service. Later, so was the United States International Book Association which took over many of these functions from the government after its incorporation in January 1945. These agencies acted as middlemen in facilitating contact between US firms and both old and new publishers abroad. Both OWI and USIBA published book lists for the information of foreign publishers.27
They wanted to stimulate the interest in American literature and help the image of the United States be seen in a more positive light than before and during the war.
Britain suffered from the war, substantially. The publishing industry within Britain nearly came to and end with the Blitz, rationing, and lack of manpower. There was a distinct need to export after the war was over. It was a necessity to export to cover the costs of the imports they so desperately needed post-war. Hench describes this need to export, and continues on to say, “Books could contribute to that goal well beyond the relatively small cash value of book exports themselves.”28 Books helped in more ways than just the economy, though, they were “vital in the geopolitical arena as well,” which meant these books would help with the political problems that Great Britain faced not only with its dominions, but the rest of the world as well. “These included expectations in many parts of of the empire and commonwealth for greater self-rule, if not outright independence. Such considerations, along with ideological competition with the Soviet bloc during the early stages of the Cold War, made it imperative that British books continue to make their way around the world. Just as the had during the previous three centuries.”29 Britain needed to export books to remain any kind of world power, and to keep up with the United States.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1Holman, Valerie. "Fabulous Creatures." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 9. Print.
2Hench, John B. "The Role of the Office of War Information." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 54. Print.
3 Holman, Valerie. "'Scavenger Birds' The Author's Dilemma." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 56. Print.
4Holman, Valerie. "Books for the Troops (1)." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 42. Print.
5 Holman, Valerie. "Books for the Troops (1)." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 44. Print.
6Idem.
7Hench, John B. "Armed Services Editions and Other Books for the Forces." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 51. Print.
8 Hench, John B. "Armed Services Editions and Other Books for the Forces." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 52. Print.
9 Holman, Valerie. "A Question of Censorship." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 60. Print.
10 Holman, Valerie. "A Question of Censorship." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 61. Print.
11 Holman, Valerie. "The Immediate Impact of War." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 17. Print.
12 Jeffries, John W. "8: Glimpses of War, Visions of Peace." Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. 174. Print.
13 Hench, John B. "Cooperation and Competition Between the United States and Great Britain." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 75. Print.
14 Hench, John B. "Trying to Find Common Ground." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 222. Print.
15 Holman, Valerie. "Printing for Victory." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 75. Print.
16 Holman, Valerie. "Inside General Production Division." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 101. Print.
17 Holman, Valerie. "Book of Propaganda Value." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 105. Print.
18 Hench, John B. "The Role of the Office of War Information." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 55. Print.
19 Hench, John B. "4: 'Books are the Most Enduring Propaganda of All." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 28. Print.
20 Hench, John B. "The War's Impact on Publishing in Great Britain." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 28. Print.
21Ibid.
22"World War II - Page 2." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. July 2013. <http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/page2>.
23Joicey, Nicholas. "A Paperback Guide to Progress." Twentieth Century British History 4.1 (1993): 49. Print.
24Ibid.
25 Hench, John B. "The Nature of Consolation Propaganda." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 69. Print.
26 Hench, John B. "Creation of Bücherreihe Neue Welt." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 119. Print.
27 Hench, John B. "A Feeding Frenzy Begins." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 160. Print.
28 Hench, John B. "Chapter 11: The Empire Strikes Back; Britain and the Necessity of Exports." Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 202. Print.
29 Ibid.
Conclusion
There are two quotes at the beginning of John B. Hench's book, Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II, that sum up the meaning of this piece very well. The first is from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who says, “Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man's eternal fight against tyranny. In this war, we know, books are weapons.”1 The other was said by an Office of War Information official. They say, “Books do not have their impact upon the mass mind but upon the minds of those who mould the mass mind- upon leaders of thought and formulations of public opinion. The impact of a book may last six months or several decades. Books are the most enduring propaganda of all.”2 Both of these quotes are entirely relevant to all of the research conducted and conclusions made.
The quote from Roosevelt resonates more with the information involving Great Britain than the United States. The British suffered from the direct effects of war, from blackouts to the Blitz, from loss of supplies to loss of life, yet the publishing industry still remained on its feet as much as it could, helping with the morale and the war effort. Author Valerie Holman explains just what books meant to people, explaining that “In June 1940, as Belgium, Holland and finally France fell before the Germans' westward advance, England stood isolated on the front line. As anticipation and approaching winter took hold, 'people turned to book reading for comfort and oblivion.'”3 People would need oblivion when the Blitz was in full force, especially those in the publishing industry. In a bombing raid on December 29, 1940, at least seventeen publishing houses, situated cheek by jowl in Paternoster Row, were destroyed.4 Despite this incident, though, where there was a will there was a way. Longman's was one of the worst affected houses, yet within twenty-four hours they were already ordering new printing runs and trying to reestablish themselves.5 Like Roosevelt said, “No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man's eternal fight against tyranny.” Although the British publishing houses were physically destroyed, their fighting spirit continued throughout the war, preforming duties such as sending books to their troops and producing propaganda.
The United States had an easier time than Great Britain. The second quote pertains more to the United States than to Great Britain because one of their main goals after the war was to reeducate overrun countries, especially Germany. Germany during World War II was governed by a fascist tyrant who used people's minds against them- “Books do not have their impact upon the mass mind but upon the minds of those who mould the mass mind- upon leaders of thought and formulations of public opinion.” This excerpt from the second quote is correct not only for books but for leaders as well, as seen with Adolf Hitler and his ability as a leader and orator. Due to this, the United States believed it most important to reeducate them. As Hench writes, “That Germans were regarded as being highly historically influenced by books was both good news and bad. Having seen the power for evil that books had demonstrated during the ascendancy of Adolf Hitler” himself being the author of one of the best selling books of all time, Mein Kampf or My Struggle, “the Allies realized the necessity of neutralizing that kind of seductive power and replacing it with a more uplifting message.”6 This was done by using helpful series such as Overseas Editions.
Great Britain and the United States have had a dynamic relationship of cooperation and competition since the United States became its own place in 1776. However, during World War II, the two countries came together in more ways than militarily. Their publishing houses had always been competitive but, as Hench explains, “during the war and the occupation period, the two nations' publishing- control authorities often cooperated with one another, out of both professional courtesy and the allied military-command structure.” Due to Germany being broken down into four pieces, controlled by four different countries including Great Britain and the United States, “This was particularly important when information or advice was needed on matters that crossed between the US and British zones. Information-control officers in both armies, of course, were not only looking after the reeducation programs of their military governments but also keeping an eye on their nation's book interest.”7 Despite their usually competitive nature, both countries put their issues aside for the betterment of the world.
The research question for this piece simply asked what the state of publishing during World War II was. Originally, this researcher believed there would be a lot of information about the United States, which was probably a bias opinion, and very little on Great Britain. What was discovered, though, was the opposite. Great Britain's publishing industry is much better documented than that of the United States. There could be many reasons for this, but a personal theory is that Great Britain in its entirety can fit in the state of Texas. This difference in size alone could contribute greatly to the ability of historians to gather and collaborate information. Another theory is that the reason Great Britain is so well documented is the fact that it actually saw action in regards to war. Besides Pearl Harbor, the United States remained untouched physically. They had to endure rationing and blackouts, but even those were tame compared to the seriousness of them in Great Britain. Along with the thought that one would be more documented than the other, this researcher thought that there was not going to be many events or people of interest, but as the research continued it was discovered that the publishing industry during war time was actually very complex. In both countries there were numerous committees and groups within the industry, whether they were failures or successes, as well as several initiatives for getting books into the hands of civilians and soldiers alike. There was a lot of involvement from the government as well.
This subject is an important one to study for several reasons. The first of those being that World War II was just that, a world war. It affected just about every country around the world in one way or another, from people to industry. The publishing industries around the world, but specifically so in Great Britain and the United States, were doing double duty producing propaganda as well as general reading. Another reason to explore this topic, especially in the regards of Great Britain, is the fact that the publishing industry there nearly collapsed completely. Even Allen Lane thought the industry was doomed. The industry may have come back, been built back up, but it would never be the same. All of the loss at Paternoster Row was enough to ruin British publishing, but they kept calm and carried on, as they do. A final reason this subject is important is because of what happened post-war. Despite the losses that both countries suffered, both in lives and supplies, they still made a point to assist the liberated country's morale and industry by shipping emergency books until the publishers there could reestablish themselves. It is said that books helped win the war, and after doing research on this subject, that statement could very well be true.
Despite this being an interesting subject as presented in this piece, where Great Britain and the United States were explored, there are other ways of looking into this topic. It might be interesting to included Germany in a comparison between the three countries. The issue presented here may be the language barrier. There were so many committees during wartime that a whole paper could be written just comparing the Ministry of Information and the Office of War Information. A completely different way to approach this subject might be to look into the other countries. For example, explore the countries that were liberated and see what the state of their publishing industries were like and how much the Allied countries really helped them. The limitations here, again, would be language barriers but also a potential lack of documentation. The government played a big role in the publishing industry during war time- where else would they get their propaganda? So, another way of looking at this topic may be from the inside looking out, meaning from the government side looking out into the world of publishing, rather than vice versa. Yet another way to explore publishing during World War II might be to look more specifically at publishing houses than at the industry as a whole. There were many well established houses that were directly effected for the entirety of the war and for years after.
All in all, this has been a very interesting subject matter to research. Despite there being a limited amount of research done on the topic, the research that has been completed is thorough and very useful. If someone was interested in looking deeper into this topic, the two others they would want to reference would be Valerie Holman and John B. Hench. These are two authors who have devoted much of their time researching and gathering as much information about publishing during World War II as they can and putting it into book form. Despite these authors' wonderful works, the lack of broad research on this topic presented limitations to writing this piece. Future research to be undertaken may include looking more narrowly into the subject, more specifically into publishing houses, and more deeply into the government side of things. As Roosevelt said, “People die, but books never die.” Which is relevant to this piece because although most of the people that will be read about and researched have passed on, they continue to touch people's lives by the books they crafted and the influence they had on the industry.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1Hench, John B. "Title Page Quotes." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. N. pag. Print.
2Ibid.
3Holman, Valerie. "From Black-out to Blitz." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 28. Print.
4Holman, Valerie. "From Black-out to Blitz." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 30. Print.
5Holman, Valerie. "From Black-out to Blitz." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 31. Print.
6Hench, John B. "12: Books for Occupied Germany and Japan; Occupation Government and US Book Policy." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 226. Print.
7Hench, John B. "12: Books for Occupied Germany and Japan; Anglo-American Competition and Cooperation." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 234. Print.
The quote from Roosevelt resonates more with the information involving Great Britain than the United States. The British suffered from the direct effects of war, from blackouts to the Blitz, from loss of supplies to loss of life, yet the publishing industry still remained on its feet as much as it could, helping with the morale and the war effort. Author Valerie Holman explains just what books meant to people, explaining that “In June 1940, as Belgium, Holland and finally France fell before the Germans' westward advance, England stood isolated on the front line. As anticipation and approaching winter took hold, 'people turned to book reading for comfort and oblivion.'”3 People would need oblivion when the Blitz was in full force, especially those in the publishing industry. In a bombing raid on December 29, 1940, at least seventeen publishing houses, situated cheek by jowl in Paternoster Row, were destroyed.4 Despite this incident, though, where there was a will there was a way. Longman's was one of the worst affected houses, yet within twenty-four hours they were already ordering new printing runs and trying to reestablish themselves.5 Like Roosevelt said, “No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man's eternal fight against tyranny.” Although the British publishing houses were physically destroyed, their fighting spirit continued throughout the war, preforming duties such as sending books to their troops and producing propaganda.
The United States had an easier time than Great Britain. The second quote pertains more to the United States than to Great Britain because one of their main goals after the war was to reeducate overrun countries, especially Germany. Germany during World War II was governed by a fascist tyrant who used people's minds against them- “Books do not have their impact upon the mass mind but upon the minds of those who mould the mass mind- upon leaders of thought and formulations of public opinion.” This excerpt from the second quote is correct not only for books but for leaders as well, as seen with Adolf Hitler and his ability as a leader and orator. Due to this, the United States believed it most important to reeducate them. As Hench writes, “That Germans were regarded as being highly historically influenced by books was both good news and bad. Having seen the power for evil that books had demonstrated during the ascendancy of Adolf Hitler” himself being the author of one of the best selling books of all time, Mein Kampf or My Struggle, “the Allies realized the necessity of neutralizing that kind of seductive power and replacing it with a more uplifting message.”6 This was done by using helpful series such as Overseas Editions.
Great Britain and the United States have had a dynamic relationship of cooperation and competition since the United States became its own place in 1776. However, during World War II, the two countries came together in more ways than militarily. Their publishing houses had always been competitive but, as Hench explains, “during the war and the occupation period, the two nations' publishing- control authorities often cooperated with one another, out of both professional courtesy and the allied military-command structure.” Due to Germany being broken down into four pieces, controlled by four different countries including Great Britain and the United States, “This was particularly important when information or advice was needed on matters that crossed between the US and British zones. Information-control officers in both armies, of course, were not only looking after the reeducation programs of their military governments but also keeping an eye on their nation's book interest.”7 Despite their usually competitive nature, both countries put their issues aside for the betterment of the world.
The research question for this piece simply asked what the state of publishing during World War II was. Originally, this researcher believed there would be a lot of information about the United States, which was probably a bias opinion, and very little on Great Britain. What was discovered, though, was the opposite. Great Britain's publishing industry is much better documented than that of the United States. There could be many reasons for this, but a personal theory is that Great Britain in its entirety can fit in the state of Texas. This difference in size alone could contribute greatly to the ability of historians to gather and collaborate information. Another theory is that the reason Great Britain is so well documented is the fact that it actually saw action in regards to war. Besides Pearl Harbor, the United States remained untouched physically. They had to endure rationing and blackouts, but even those were tame compared to the seriousness of them in Great Britain. Along with the thought that one would be more documented than the other, this researcher thought that there was not going to be many events or people of interest, but as the research continued it was discovered that the publishing industry during war time was actually very complex. In both countries there were numerous committees and groups within the industry, whether they were failures or successes, as well as several initiatives for getting books into the hands of civilians and soldiers alike. There was a lot of involvement from the government as well.
This subject is an important one to study for several reasons. The first of those being that World War II was just that, a world war. It affected just about every country around the world in one way or another, from people to industry. The publishing industries around the world, but specifically so in Great Britain and the United States, were doing double duty producing propaganda as well as general reading. Another reason to explore this topic, especially in the regards of Great Britain, is the fact that the publishing industry there nearly collapsed completely. Even Allen Lane thought the industry was doomed. The industry may have come back, been built back up, but it would never be the same. All of the loss at Paternoster Row was enough to ruin British publishing, but they kept calm and carried on, as they do. A final reason this subject is important is because of what happened post-war. Despite the losses that both countries suffered, both in lives and supplies, they still made a point to assist the liberated country's morale and industry by shipping emergency books until the publishers there could reestablish themselves. It is said that books helped win the war, and after doing research on this subject, that statement could very well be true.
Despite this being an interesting subject as presented in this piece, where Great Britain and the United States were explored, there are other ways of looking into this topic. It might be interesting to included Germany in a comparison between the three countries. The issue presented here may be the language barrier. There were so many committees during wartime that a whole paper could be written just comparing the Ministry of Information and the Office of War Information. A completely different way to approach this subject might be to look into the other countries. For example, explore the countries that were liberated and see what the state of their publishing industries were like and how much the Allied countries really helped them. The limitations here, again, would be language barriers but also a potential lack of documentation. The government played a big role in the publishing industry during war time- where else would they get their propaganda? So, another way of looking at this topic may be from the inside looking out, meaning from the government side looking out into the world of publishing, rather than vice versa. Yet another way to explore publishing during World War II might be to look more specifically at publishing houses than at the industry as a whole. There were many well established houses that were directly effected for the entirety of the war and for years after.
All in all, this has been a very interesting subject matter to research. Despite there being a limited amount of research done on the topic, the research that has been completed is thorough and very useful. If someone was interested in looking deeper into this topic, the two others they would want to reference would be Valerie Holman and John B. Hench. These are two authors who have devoted much of their time researching and gathering as much information about publishing during World War II as they can and putting it into book form. Despite these authors' wonderful works, the lack of broad research on this topic presented limitations to writing this piece. Future research to be undertaken may include looking more narrowly into the subject, more specifically into publishing houses, and more deeply into the government side of things. As Roosevelt said, “People die, but books never die.” Which is relevant to this piece because although most of the people that will be read about and researched have passed on, they continue to touch people's lives by the books they crafted and the influence they had on the industry.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1Hench, John B. "Title Page Quotes." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. N. pag. Print.
2Ibid.
3Holman, Valerie. "From Black-out to Blitz." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 28. Print.
4Holman, Valerie. "From Black-out to Blitz." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 30. Print.
5Holman, Valerie. "From Black-out to Blitz." Print for Victory: Book Publishing in England, 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. 31. Print.
6Hench, John B. "12: Books for Occupied Germany and Japan; Occupation Government and US Book Policy." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 226. Print.
7Hench, John B. "12: Books for Occupied Germany and Japan; Anglo-American Competition and Cooperation." Introduction. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. 234. Print.
Bibliography
1) "American Rhetoric: Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation (12-08-41)." American Rhetoric: Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation (12-08- 41). N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm>.
2) BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 30 June 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652019.shtml>.
3) "British Home Front." - World War 2 on History. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/british-home-front.html>.
4) Hench, John B. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. Print.
5) Hench, John B. "Project MUSE - War Baby, War Books." Project MUSE - War Baby, War Books. The John Hopkins University Press, n.d. Web. 2013. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sew/summary/v121/121.1.hench.html>.
6) Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 197-226. Print.
7) Holman, Valerie. Print for Victory: Book Publishing in Britain 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. Print.
8) Honey, Maureen. Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1984. Print.
9) Jeffries, John W. Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. Print.
10) Joicey, Nicholas. "A Paperback Guide to Progress." Twentieth Century British History 4.1 (1993): 25-56. Print.
11) "The London Blitz, 1940." The London Blitz, 1940. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/blitz.htm>.
12) Meier, David A. "Adolf." Hitler's Rise to Power. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/Holocaust/hitler.html>.
13) Travis, Trysh. "The Man of Letters and the Literary Business: Re-viewing Malcolm Crowley." Journal of Modern Literature (Winter 2001-2002) XXV.2 (2002): n. pag. Print.
14) "US Entry & Alliance." - World War 2 on History. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/us-entry-and-alliance.html>.
15) "The U.S. Home Front During World War II." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.com/topics/us-home-front-during-world-war-ii>.
16) "World War II - Page 2." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. July 2013. <http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/page2>.
2) BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 30 June 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652019.shtml>.
3) "British Home Front." - World War 2 on History. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/british-home-front.html>.
4) Hench, John B. Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2010. Print.
5) Hench, John B. "Project MUSE - War Baby, War Books." Project MUSE - War Baby, War Books. The John Hopkins University Press, n.d. Web. 2013. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sew/summary/v121/121.1.hench.html>.
6) Holman, Valerie. "Carefully Concealed Connections: The Ministry of Information and British Publishing, 1939-1946." Book History 8.1 (2005): 197-226. Print.
7) Holman, Valerie. Print for Victory: Book Publishing in Britain 1939-1945. London: British Library, 2008. Print.
8) Honey, Maureen. Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1984. Print.
9) Jeffries, John W. Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1996. Print.
10) Joicey, Nicholas. "A Paperback Guide to Progress." Twentieth Century British History 4.1 (1993): 25-56. Print.
11) "The London Blitz, 1940." The London Blitz, 1940. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/blitz.htm>.
12) Meier, David A. "Adolf." Hitler's Rise to Power. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/Holocaust/hitler.html>.
13) Travis, Trysh. "The Man of Letters and the Literary Business: Re-viewing Malcolm Crowley." Journal of Modern Literature (Winter 2001-2002) XXV.2 (2002): n. pag. Print.
14) "US Entry & Alliance." - World War 2 on History. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/us-entry-and-alliance.html>.
15) "The U.S. Home Front During World War II." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013. <http://www.history.com/topics/us-home-front-during-world-war-ii>.
16) "World War II - Page 2." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. July 2013. <http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/page2>.