If you think the biggest weapons of World War II were tanks and planes, Ray Trautman would like a word — and he’d probably hand you a book while he was at it. Historian Molly Guptill Manning, author of “A Librarian’s War: The Man Who Fought World War II with Books,” joined us to share the story of the Army’s chief librarian during World War II and the way he devoted his life to building literacy, libraries and a love of reading across the United States. I
Manning says it’s a story of one determined book champion who helped make reading part of the Allied effort — and then kept pushing for access to books long after the fighting stopped.
In late 1940, after earning a degree in library studies from Columbia, Trautman landed what would become his defining role: chief librarian of the Army. It wasn’t exactly a universally celebrated post. Many military leaders saw books as a distraction for troops, but Trautman pushed back, arguing that reading mattered — for morale, for education and for the broader fight against totalitarianism. Under his leadership, the Army built what became the largest and most far-reaching library system in the world.
Trautman also helped create the “Armed Services Editions,” wallet-sized paperbacks designed for soldiers, along with miniature magazines for troops on the move. He even got into comics, creating Overseas Comics, described as the most popular comic book in the Army.
Manning’s work follows Trautman as he battled book bans and book-resistant generals, including Douglas MacArthur. He was nearly killed in the Battle of the Bulge while on a special assignment for Dwight Eisenhower, all while working with librarians and publishers to get reading material into the hands of service members. Trautman was credited with distributing nearly a half billion books, magazines and comic books to troops.
When the war ended in 1945, Trautman brought the fight for books back home. He advocated for rural libraries, built libraries in prisons, campaigned for more books for the visually impaired and worked to develop materials for adults with low reading proficiency so they could improve their literacy skills.
For more information on “A Librarian’s War”, visit the website for Molly Guptill Manning.
