As part of the 2024 Winter Read of The Great Gatsby, join us for an evening with Molly Guptill Manning, author of When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II.

When America entered World War II in 1941, we faced an enemy that had banned and burned 100 million books. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send free books to American troops, gathering 20 million hardcover donations. Two years later, the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in with an extraordinary program: 120 million specially printed paperbacks designed for troops to carry in their pockets and rucksacks in every theater of war.

These small, lightweight Armed Services Editions were beloved by the troops and are still fondly remembered today. Soldiers read them while waiting to land at Normandy, in hellish trenches in the midst of battles in the Pacific, in field hospitals, and on long bombing flights. This pioneering project not only lifted soldiers’ spirits, but also helped rescue The Great Gatsby from obscurity and made Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, into a national icon.

This program will be livestreamed and available to view later. Click here to watch online.

A book signing with Iconoclast Books will follow.

Molly Guptill Manning is an author, historian, curator, and associate professor of law at New York Law School. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller When Books Went to War, The Myth of Ephraim Tutt, and has recently released The War of Words: How America’s GI Journalists Battled Censorship and Propaganda to Help Win World War II. She has written numerous articles and has spoken across the country about the power of the written word. Molly is the curator of the exhibit, “The Best-Read Army in the World,” which was on display in New York City in 2023 and will be traveling to California later this year. The exhibit showcases the essential role that books, magazines, and newspapers played in World War II. 

Before she became a professor, Molly worked in the federal courts of New York for thirteen years. She earned a B.A. and M.A. in American history from the University at Albany and a J.D. at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She will complete an M.A. in Museum Studies from NYU in 2024. Molly lives in Manhattan with her husband and daughter.