03/29/2023
In the 75,000+ books I've touched in the last 3 years of this bookseller adventure, I haven't yet come across this note on the title page.
This is a wartime book - The text is complete and unabridged but every effort has been made to comply with the government's request to conserve essential materials
The book is Cass Timberlane by Sinclair Lewis and it was published in 1945, the year WW2 came to an end.
I wouldn't have thought that the production of books would have fallen under the directives of "conserve essential materials"
Here is an article I found while trying to find more information about the note
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/publishers-gave-away-122951031-books-during-world-war-ii/379893/