The Great Gatsby - Armed Services Edition
Title
The Great Gatsby - Armed Services Edition
Description
The Council on Books in Wartime was also credited with reviving certain authors and their obscure titles. No title demonstrates this more than F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 work The Great Gatsby.
At the time of Fitzgerald's death in 1940 at the age of 44, The Great Gatsby had become an obscure title with copies from the first and second printings left unsold. While positively reviewed, it was not received well by readers. Fitzgerald's contemporaries and friends made attempts at a revival of his work several years after his death.
Fitzgerald's book was selected by the Council in early 1945 and published in October of that year. 155,000 copies were published and distributed to soldiers serving in multiple locations. The book was printed in its entirety with the caption "This is the complete book - not a digest" along the bottom front cover (as was standard with a majority of the A.S.E. publications) though it did not include a photo of the original cover with the Art Deco illustration by Francis Cugat.
The book proved popular among troops and it is credited with starting a postwar revival and reexamination of Fitzgerald's works and The Great Gatsby's status as a twentieth century classic.
At the time of Fitzgerald's death in 1940 at the age of 44, The Great Gatsby had become an obscure title with copies from the first and second printings left unsold. While positively reviewed, it was not received well by readers. Fitzgerald's contemporaries and friends made attempts at a revival of his work several years after his death.
Fitzgerald's book was selected by the Council in early 1945 and published in October of that year. 155,000 copies were published and distributed to soldiers serving in multiple locations. The book was printed in its entirety with the caption "This is the complete book - not a digest" along the bottom front cover (as was standard with a majority of the A.S.E. publications) though it did not include a photo of the original cover with the Art Deco illustration by Francis Cugat.
The book proved popular among troops and it is credited with starting a postwar revival and reexamination of Fitzgerald's works and The Great Gatsby's status as a twentieth century classic.
Creator
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Source
Library of Congress
Publisher
Original Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons (1925)
Armed Services Edition Publisher: Council on Books in Wartime
Armed Services Edition Publisher: Council on Books in Wartime
Date
Z Series, # 862, October 1945
Language
English
Collection
Citation
F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby - Armed Services Edition,” Behind and Between the Lines - What American G.I.s Read in World War II, accessed July 21, 2026, https://whatsoldiersreadinwwii.omeka.net/items/show/14.