Bookcase

Internees reused wood from fruit and packing crates to build furniture. To provide work opportunities for those with manual skills, the War Relocation Authority [WRA] established both a clothing and furniture factory. A homemaking and building class created a model apartment in Block 7 as part of a project they called, "How a Barracks Becomes a Home."

Some people brought books but there were also several libraries in camp. The Manzanar Library expanded to include a collection of 24,000 volumes (20,000 volumes were donated by other libraries), and a periodical subscription of 157 magazines. Popular books of the time included John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (Pulitzer 1940), and The Yearling by Majorie Kinnan Rawlings (Pulitzer 1939)