C X Paine Associate Editor (1 results)

Hardcover/Hardback. Condition: Very Good. Wartime morale anthology published during World War II for American servicemen. An increasingly difficult World War II home-front publication to locate complete with its original illustrated mailing carton that is addressed. An exceptional survival of one of the most collectible World War II literary publications. The 1942 first edition of The Kit Book for Soldiers, Sailors and Marines contains J. D. Salinger's first appearance in book form, his short story "The Hang of It," nearly a decade before The Catcher in the Rye. Complete examples retaining the fragile illustrated wartime mailing carton are scarce and highly sought by collectors of Salinger, twentieth-century literature, and World War II Americana. The volume contains 336 pages of stories, verse, and cartoons prepared for distribution to American servicemen during World War II, featuring contributions by J. D. Salinger, Rudyard Kipling, Damon Runyon, Ellery Queen, O. Henry, Vincent Starrett, Pat Frank, and others, together with numerous illustrations and cartoons from Esquire magazine.…