The Peace Corps Book Locker

In the early years of the Peace Corps, the agency provided each household of Volunteers with a book locker. The books were meant to provide leisure reading for the PCVs, and then to be left behind in schools, villages, and towns where the Volunteers served. There is some mystery as to who had the idea for the book lockers; one rumor has it that it came from first Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver’s wife, Eunice.
Surely those books were a wonderful resource to any of the PCVs who thought of writing about the incomparable life they were living.
Since 1961 PCVs and Peace Corps Staff have been writing the story of their lives in the developing world, as well as writing about the world beyond the Peace Corps. Among the more than 1000 writers  who have served in the Peace Corps have written and published their books. Many of the books have been about the experience, others are travel books, works of fiction, and academic studies.
So, with a nod to the famous Peace Corps Book Locker, our site is offering Peace Corps writers the opportunity to have their books featured on the Book Locker.
In the days ahead we will list books of all types: novels, non-fiction, poetry, photography, essays, self-help, Peace Corps experience, books that have nothing to do with the Peace Corps – both commercial and self-published and available for sale.
If you are interested in joining the Book Locker and featuring your books for sale, let me know. Meanwhile check out the first books that are now up on the site.