Moving Literary Mountains

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>After Pearl Harbor, the White House asked Trautman to prepare a list of historical speeches given to embarking soldiers; he did so and prepared a draft letter. The White House revised the letter, FDR signed it, and Trautman’s ghostwritten words were given to millions of American troops. Around the same time, the Victory Book Campaign began in January 1942, and ten million books were collected. Meanwhile, Trautman traveled around the world on Army business, first stopping in Havana, Cuba, where he met Ernest Hemingway and agreed to hand-deliver to Crown Publishing an edited galley of Hemingway’s forthcoming book, Men at War. He traveled to Australia, where he tried to persuade General Douglas MacArthur to facilitate the distribution of books in the Southwest Pacific, but MacArthur declined and threatened to charge Trautman with insubordination if he persisted. Trautman realized if he mailed reading materials, MacArthur couldn’t stop him.</jats:p>