SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) - America’s servicemen carried more than their weapons, ammunition and food when they headed to the front lines during World War II. Many also packed paperback books in their rucksacks.
Molly Guptill Manning of Manhattan will tell the story of the 1940s U.S. paperback publishing boom during a talk at 1 p.m. Saturday at the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs.
Manning, an Albany-area native, is the author of the 2014 book “When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II.” Her book tells how the publishing industry and the U.S. government teamed up to ship more than 120 million paperback books to soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors serving in North Africa, Europe and the Pacific.
The move led to a post-war demand from veterans seeking paperbacks to read.
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