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ASE - Armed Services
Edition Baseball
Paperback Books |
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Item Details |
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CIRCA
- 1943-1947
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PUBLISHER
- Published by
arrangement with
the original
publisher by Armed
Services Inc.
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SIZE
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5-1/2" X
3-7/8"
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PRICE GUIDE
- $35.00-$100.00
Very Good
-Excellent condition
Value will vary
based on
publication
Information
Provided by:
Keymancollectibles.com
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Established by the council on
Books in Wartime, Armed Services Inc. a
non-profit origination, issued these soft cover "pocket-size"
paperbacks to GI's from 1943-1947. The GI's would read, and
passed around, the popular Armed
Service Editions (ASEs) given out free
to troops fighting in Europe and the
Pacific during WWII. Featuring a large variety of
subjects and with hundreds of books to
choose from, the ASEs were very popular
with the troops. The Armed Services
Edition books were also made available
to the Army & Navy, for use in training
areas in the United States, at .60
cents the copy
Each month 140,000 copies of forty different titles of the Armed Services
Editions were produced, 5,600,000 books
monthly at a cost of 4 Million dollars
a year. By 1945 42,000,000 books were
printed. The ASEs were issued in huge
lots, to hospitals behind the combat
areas in all points of the world. They
were passed out to the Marines on
Tarawa within a few days after the last
remnant of Japanese opposition had been
extinguished. Others were dropped by
parachute to outpost forces on lonely
Pacific islands. In Nazi prison camps,
the books distributed through the
International YMCA were important in
making life bearable for prisoners of
war.
There were some
very collectable baseball books
published in the ASE series. These
books were all paperback reprints of
original hard covers. While none were
dated, they appeared from 1943 to about
1947 and contained a mixture of books
about true baseball heroes and popular
winning teams, as well as some fiction.
Each ASE shows the original hardcover
book on the cover.
One of the best of the ASE baseball books, was Lou Gehrig by Frank Graham
(ASE #J-277, also reprinted as ASE
#781). The cover shows "The Iron Horse"
in the baggy Columbia University
uniform of the era in a classic pose.
Other books of note in this tough
series are:
- Rookie of The Year by
John R. Tunis, (#P-3,
1945), fiction.
- The Keystone Kids: A
Baseball Story by John R.
Tunis (#Q-8, 1943),
fiction.
- The Saint Louis
Cardinals by Frederick G.
Lieb (#S-25, 1945)
- Baseball Recorder by
Walt Tulley (#1083, 1946)
- My Greatest Day in
Baseball by John F.
Carmichael and others,
(#1128)
- The Brooklyn Dodgers:
An Informal History by
Frank Graham (#963, 1945)
- The Chicago Cubs by
Warren Brown (#1197)
- The Detroit Tigers by
Frederick G. Lieb (#1260)
- The Boston Red Sox by
Frederick G. Lieb (#1271,
1947)
- You Know Me, Al
by Ring Lardner (#J278,
later reprinted as #782,
1945)
- The Gashouse Gang by
Roy J. Stockton (#1172),
the classic 1934 team of
the St. Louis Cardinals.
- The New York Yankees by
Frank Graham (#T-24, also
reprinted as #1170, 1945)
This book Published by
arrangement with G.P.
Putnam's Sons, New York, is
an informal history of the
Yankees. The back cover
tells us: "This is the
story of the greatest
organization in baseball.
It begins with the purchase
of the New York franchise
in the American League in
1903, and through its pages
moves the always colorful
figures of the men who
created and have maintained
this ball club – from Frank
Farrell and Bill Devery to
Ban Johnson, Clark Griffith
to Col. Jacob Ruppert, Ed
Barrow, George Weiss, and
Joe McCarthy. It’s the
authentic, often turbulent,
behind-the-scenes story of
the Yankees.
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ASE - Armed Services
Edition Baseball Paperback
Books Paperback Books |
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ASE The New York Yankees
by Frank Graham T24 |
ASE The New York Yankees
by Frank Graham Back |
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| ASE Lou Gehrig by Frank Graham #J-277 |
ASE You Know Me, Al by Ring Lardner |
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