During which war did free copies help revive The Great Gatsby's popularity?

Free copies distributed during World War II helped revive The Great Gatsby’s popularity.

When The Great Gatsby appeared in 1925, it received respectable reviews but sold modestly compared with Fitzgerald’s earlier novels. By the time of Fitzgerald’s death in 1940, it was not yet the universally taught classic it would become. Its later revival was closely tied to the Armed Services Editions program during World War II.

The Council on Books in Wartime arranged inexpensive, compact books for American service members. Gatsby was among the titles distributed to troops, giving hundreds of thousands of readers access to Fitzgerald’s story. Many soldiers encountered the novel in this format and carried their enthusiasm for it into postwar civilian life.

The Korean War and Vietnam War also had major cultural effects, but they were not the conflict associated with Gatsby’s decisive rediscovery. World War II is the canonical answer because the wartime distribution campaign helped transform a once-underperforming novel into a widely recognized American classic.