PRC Archives – 197? PRYP’s Convention Photo

Fresh from the hands of a local PRC member (last week) comes this gift to the PRC archives – a photo of the 197? PR Young People’s Convention!

I’m excited about this one, because it’s a little closer to my generation, and I think many of you will be able to identify with it. Plenty of familiar faces here – if you can get close enough. Click on the image to enlarge and then use the control-plus buttons to bring it even closer (although it gets grainier).

The questions are:

• Where is this picture taken?
• Who hosted this convention?
• What other details can you provide for the benefit of us all?
• Spot any PRC ministers here? Name them.
• And, of course, what is the precise year in the 70s that this convention took place?

In the meantime, I will see if I can drum up the convention booklet for this year in time for you next week. Have fun! Might be torture for some of you former conventioneers, but pictures don’t lie!

How Paperback Books Helped the U.S. Win World War II – WSJ

How Paperback Books Helped the U.S. Win World War II – WSJ.

For our first archives post today, we tie together war between world powers with the power of books. This fascinating story was carried by the Wall Street Journal back on Nov.20, 2014. It in turn relates to a new book just released this week and to which you are linked in the post below (although this link is better).

For the full story, visit the WSJ link above. And if you enjoy books and history, then you may want to add this new title to your Christmas list.

A decade after the Nazis’ 1933 book burnings, the U.S. War Department and the publishing industry did the opposite, printing 120 million miniature, lightweight paperbacks for U.S. troops to carry in their pockets across Europe, North Africa and the Pacific.

The books were Armed Services Editions, printed by a coalition of publishers with funding from the government and shipped by the Army and Navy. The largest of them were only three-quarters of an inch thick—thin enough to fit in the pocket of a soldier’s pants. Soldiers read them on transport ships, in camps and in foxholes. Wounded and waiting for medics, men turned to them on Omaha Beach, propped against the base of the cliffs. Others were buried with a book tucked in a pocket.

“When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II” by Molly Guptill Manning tells the story of the Armed Services Editions. To be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on Dec. 2, the book reveals how the special editions sparked correspondence between soldiers and authors, lifted “The Great Gatsby” from obscurity, and created a new audience of readers back home.