Books for War, Books for Soldiers

I found this picture mentioned peripherally on a tweet from the redoubtable book blog Book Patrol coming out of Seattle, the caffeine capital of the world. It shows the results of a book drive in World War One--bundles of books on the steps of New York Public library. The actual poster urging people to bring books to libraries "for our men in camp and 'over there'" is hanging in the background- a jumbo size version. It is by Charles Buckles Falls and came out of a poster project at the Division of Pictorial Publicity, part of the Committee on Public Information; the campaign was lead by Charles Dana Gibson, the creator of of the Gibson Girl image and those charming large white illustrated books (which are always worth less than you would think.) The poster seems to sell for several hundred dollars and giclee repros for about a $100 if a good size.

There was also a move in England during WW1 to get citizens to donate books for the war effort. These were not for the soldiers who were busy reading cheap copies of fiction by Buchan, Sapper and Ian Hay; because of a paper shortage the books were pulped. I have heard that this is one of the reasons that Victorian three volume novels ('three deckers') are so rare. In 1914 a three decker novel was like a Betamax video is in 2009 - obsolete, vieux jeu and space intensive. I have heard dealers speculate about this and it may be a myth - pulp fiction, you might say.

Do soldiers still need books? Did they have campaigns like this in WW2, Vietnam or the Gulf War? And when the books go to war (like all the books on the NY Public library steps) how many make it back? Some do, I know, because I have bought them. Typically they come back somewhat the worse for wear. One thinks of stories of soldiers carrying books in vest pockets (usually bibles) that saved their life by stopping a bullet ('bullet hole through middle of book else fine...')

All Quiet on the Western Front. Erich Maria Remarque, 1929

"We are like children who have been abandoned and we are as experienced as old men, we are coarse and superficial - I think we are lost."


Erich Maria Remarque. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Little Brown (NY) or Putnams (London) 1929.

Current Selling Prices
$400-$1200 /£200-£600







FIRST WORLD WAR NOVEL
The German novel of the Lost Generation - those disillusioned souls who survived the war that was supposed to end all wars. Sometimes known as the Generation of 1914 or more poetically Génération du Feu, the Generation of Fire. Madly successful novel, sold 3 million in German and the US first was 100,000 so it is never going to be scarce. Considered by some to be brutal and coarse, unhealthy German interest in latrines etc.,

Filmed and won an Oscar. The 1929 English translation by A. W. Wheen gave the title as All Quiet on the Western Front - the literal translation is in fact "Nothing New in the West" (Im Westen Nichts Neues.) The West being the term for the war front used by the German Army. Wheen's phrase has stuck and is now used in many unlikely contexts.

Probably the most famous of all WWI novels beyond even The Good Soldier Schweik, A Farewell to Arms, Her Privates We, Death of a Hero (Aldington) Parade's End, Under Fire ( Barbusse) . A memoir by his fellow countryman Ernst Junger 'Storm of Steel' is also worthy of mention. The Vietnam equivalent might be 'If I Die in a Combat Zone' by Tim O'Brien from 1973 - a memoir using some fiction techniques. A valuable book that I will cover at some point. Remarque was drafted into the German army at age 18, he was wounded several times. With Owen and many others he showed the inhumanity of war, exposers of 'The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est, Pro patria mori.'

In 1933 he had the honour of having his books burnt by the Nazis, later in Hollywood he married the beautiful Paulette Goddard. He died in 1970. He is buried in the Ronco cemetery in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland, where Goddard is also interred. Goddard left a bequest of $20m to New York University to fund an institute for European study which is named after Remarque.

VALUE? $400 to $1400 for jacketed copies in decent state. The US is more common than the British but is a better looking book. It is possible to buy decent copies in rather used jacket s for as low as $200. A really sharp jacketed copy would leave little change from $2000. The jacket (looks like Hohlwein but seems to be signed Hensk) I feel sure is from a poster. [ W/Q ** ]