Leo Rosten. The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N. Armed Services Edition [A-1]. 1943. UVa

The very first ASE to be printed, in September 1943, was Leo Rosten's The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, a collection of humorous connected stories. In a 1944 study of the popularity of the first 120 Armed Services Editions titles, 29 books were judged to be 'outstandingly popular'; Hyman Kaplan was one of them.

Leo Rosten. Letter to John Y. Cole. 23 November 1982. Transcript

In a 1982 recollection of his role as an ASE author, Rosten writes of having to compete with a one-paddle pingpong table.