A Farewell to Arms - Wartime Edition

We recently found this copy of A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway in our store; it was originally published in 1929 ’s and later issued in this authorised edition by Grosset & Dunlap. By the early 1940s, however, book production in the United States was no longer business as usual.

Beginning in 1942, the U.S. War Production Board introduced paper conservation regulations that directly affected publishers. Paper was prioritised for military communication, packaging, and logistics. Civilian publishing continued, but under controlled quotas and material restrictions.

Those policies shaped the physical form of this book. Wartime measures influenced print runs, paper weight, trim size, and even dust jacket production. Many publishers, including Grosset & Dunlap, printed statements inside their books noting compliance with federal conservation requirements. This copy includes such a notice, confirming that it was manufactured under wartime conditions in accordance with government regulations. These statements were standard practice during the height of material restrictions.

Although A Farewell to Arms is set during World War I, this particular edition belongs firmly to the World War II home-front publishing environment. It is a World War I novel physically shaped by World War II policy.