Lit for soldiers, then and now

From a conversation with Elizabeth Samet, professor of English at West Point and author of "Soldier's Heart," in the December 11th Wall Street Journal:

" One of the great, if less heralded, achievements of World War II," she writes, "was the distribution of more than 100 million books to soldiers." Among the volumes: the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay, James McCain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice," John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and Homer's "The Odyssey." She quotes the message that appeared on the back of Dell's wartime paperbacks: "BOOKS ARE WEAPONS – in a free democracy everyone may read what he likes. Books educate, inform, inspire; they also provide entertainment, bolster morale...Our armed forces especially need books."

Samet talks about the importance of cultivating "an enlightened officer corps" through literature. Read more about her book in the NY Times review.