‘Please send me Tess of the Dr. Rbyvilles (Harding)’: The Reading Preferences of American Soldiers during the First World War

Abstract

The reading preferences of American soldiers during the First World War present a compelling contrast to the activities of men and women from the other major belligerent nations. America’s late entry into the conflict – President Woodrow Wilson did not formally declare war on Germany until April 1917 – had enabled the American library establishment to monitor how and in what way the other participants had provided books for their forces. This learning experience proved beneficial when, shortly after the declaration of war, it became clear that the American Library Association (ALA) would be the lead player in supplying books to America’s fighting forces.1 The ALA, alongside other agencies such as the YMCA, the Knights of Columbus (which looked after Catholic troops) and the Jewish Welfare Board, had to quickly put into action a plan for delivering books to millions of draftees waiting in camps and cantonments across the United States, and later to those limited numbers who made it across the Atlantic to the front in Europe.2