Bucheinbände und Rezeption der Antikriegsromane von Alexander Moritz Frey und Adrienne Thomas

Two autobiographically inspired anti-war novels, Die Pflasterkästen. Ein Feldsanitätsroman (1929, tr. as The Cross Bearers, 1930) by Alexander Moritz Frey (1881–1957) and Die Katrin wird Soldat. Ein Roman aus Elsass-Lothringen (1930, tr. by Margaret L. Goldsmith as Catherine Joins Up / Katrin Becomes a Soldier, London / Boston, 1931) by Adrienne Thomas make literary capital out of the experiences of wartime medicine and nursing. Published in the Weimar Republic soon after Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, they were good enough to hold their own against this bestseller for a time. Their dust jackets and covers, often created by prestigious designers, illustrated the oblivion and memory of the works within and commented on the stories they contained.