213: Halloween Special VI: The ASEs & Guy de Maupassant

About this episode

“‘What is that?' I asked. The Englishman answered calmly: 'It was my best enemy.’” This is the story of the little books that went to war, and the Frenchman whose ghosts we'll read by their light. In 1943, a consortium of American publishers began slipping pocket-sized paperbacks into the hands of GIs bound overseas: the Armed Services Editions. More than 120 million of these ASEs were printed by the war’s end, and they turned up everywhere: foxholes, troopships, field hospitals, and more. In fact, we’ll meet one colonel who fondly remembers a soldier reading aloud to their gun crew while German 88s whistled in. The Germans tried to kill them as they laughed and enjoyed good writing. And among the 1,300-odd titles the program carried to the front were the works of a certain French master of the macabre: Guy de Maupassant. The Armed Services Edition gave GIs Maupassant the realist … but we’ll encounter two tales that reflect the Frenchman’s more ghoulish side. Happy Halloween. Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and • go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations • join discussions in our Facebook community • get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette • co