Read Online When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning - Free Book Online Page A

goals, defenses, and values,” and a reader will “introject meaning that will satisfy his needs and reject meaning that is threatening to his ego.”From books, soldiers extracted courage, hope, determination, a sense of selfhood, and other qualities to fill voids created by the war.
    Many men who were injured in the war found hope and healing in the books they read as they recovered. Charles Bolte, who was wounded in Africa, hospitalized, and distressed over his future as he faced the amputation of his leg, remembered a momentous day. A friend (who was being treated for a bullet wound) walked up to Bolte’s bed, triumphantly waving a copy of Ernest Hemingway’s
The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories
, which he had found in the hospital library. Bolte found comfort in a story about a hero who discovered that crying relieved the pain in his broken leg. Until then, Bolte had never dared cry. The story convinced him to cover his head with his blankets and give it a try. “It helped me, too,” Bolte said. Although he endured multiple amputation surgeries, Bolte turned to reading throughout his hospitalization and credited books with helping him mend and move forward. “What happens during convalescence from a serious wound can sour or sweeten a man for life,” Bolte remarked. For him, the latter occurred. “It was the first time since grammar school that I’d had enough time to read as much as I wanted to,” he said. While there were many things that helped him heal, Bolte placed the dozens of books he had read as among the most important.Tens of thousands of men would share Bolte’s experience over the course of the war, finding in books the strength they needed to endure the physical wounds inflicted on the battlefield, and the power to heal their emotional and psychological scars as well.
    The therapeutic effect of reading was not a new concept to the librarians running the VBC. In the editorial Warren published on the eve of commencing her tenure as director, she discussed how books could soothe pain, diminish boredom or loneliness, and take the mind on a vacation far from where the body was stationed.Whatever a man’s need—a temporary escape, a comforting memory of home, balm for a broken spirit, or an infusion of courage—the librarians running the VBC were dedicated to ensuring that each man found a book to meet it.
    They needed more of them. Training camps’ stores were being depleted as men were encouraged to take a victory book with them when they left for overseas service. Thousands of donated books were loaded onto Navy ships embarking on a mission. It was not an uncommon sight for piers to be lined with boxes of victory books; servicemen would grab a title before they boarded ship. These journeys could last weeks, and were notorious for their tedium and emptiness. Books were an ideal way to pass the time. As millions of volumes accompanied men as they shipped out overseas, millions more were needed to replenish training camps and keep up with demand.
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    In March 1942 Warren left the campaign, replaced by her close friend John Connor, who had served by her side as assistant director. Connor had degrees in business administration and library science, and had worked as an assistant librarian at Columbia University before joining the VBC. He passionately opposed censorship during wartime and was a champion of civil rights. Despite his strong opinions (which were not always popular), his personable manner made him well-liked. As one colleague described Connor, “He was always there with a smile, a handshake, and a kind word.”
    Under Connor’s direction, librarians went into overdrive during the early spring of 1942 and were rewarded with an upswing in book donations. They harped on the types of books soldiers wanted, advertised the books that were most popular, and reminded (and begged) the public to give. Sorting centers