Friday, November 16, 2012

GOULD BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY

SEPIA SATURDAY #152

It never fails: I see Alan and Kat’s Sepia Saturday prompt, and start to scramble! I’m into closets, cupboards, old photograph albums, cardboard boxes, slide carousels (remember those?) – all in search of something that will stick to the theme...

I love this week’s prompt from the New York Public Library! It looks like an entire prep school class doing research, but it all boils down to three basic elements: boys, library, books.

I found something that represents two out of three, and that’s not bad – books and a library.

Or, to be more precise, books in a library.

This photograph was taken in the Adult Fiction section of the Curtis Memorial Library (which opened in 1904) in Brunswick, Maine. My novel (Household) is on the left, and my brother John’s novel (The Greenleaf Fires) is on the right.

We think we’re the only brother/sister act in Brunswick with published fiction sitting side-by-side on a shelf in our hometown public library!

My family has a long and dear relationship with Curtis Memorial. John and I both had library cards there, and we both spent a lot of time in that library when we were students at the local high school, back in the early- to mid- 1960s. We did homework there, worked on research projects, met our friends after school for study groups. I, for one, got into trouble in that library (there used to be a reading table into which I tried to carve my initials); I even kissed a boy in the stacks! I’m not sure that John behaved much better, but his secrets are safe...

Later on, my father sat on the Board of Trustees of Curtis Memorial. After he retired, he also spent a certain amount of time there every morning reading the library’s supply of local and national newspapers – he was a newsprint junkie – and met up with a group of his friends for their daily “meeting,” during which, of course, they solved the world’s problems.

When he died (1998), my mother established a trust in his name; the money earned by the Gardner S. Gould Family Trust still buys books on tape and CD. My mother, who had inoperable macular degeneration, listened to them regularly, and I still borrow them for listening in my car.

So, after more than 50 years, I still go there a couple of times a week: I find my father in the reading room, my mother in the audio book section; my brother John and I settled peacefully next to each other in Adult Fiction.

It feels right, feels good; it’s home to me.



NOTE: Be sure to visit http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com to see what themes others have followed this week!

23 comments:

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    1. Thank you, Kathy! And to think that Sepia Saturday has given me the inspiration to explore that circle!

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  2. I didn't realize I was in the company of an accomplished author. This is a wonderful story. More families should be devoted to libraries. My dad loved the library too, and when he died, we asked people to consider donating to the library instead of sending flowers. And they did.

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    1. People who love libraries truly love them! There's no "halfway" for those of us who like to explore. Great idea, Wendy, to have folks donate to the library instead of flowers...

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  3. You are obviously from a family dedicated to libraries. Great to see your and your brother's books on show.

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    1. Thanks, Bob! I actually gave my brother a copy of this photo...he loved it!

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  4. I never really spent much time in libraries, but I was thinking of going to the library today.

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    1. Tell me if you find something wonderful today; there's lots of great finds!

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  5. I'm so jealous! I always wanted to kiss a boy in the library stacks. Unfortunately, the girls who hang out in the library are usually geeky with glasses (I was anyway)and the boys are not inclined to take an interest.

    Well done on having two family members with books in the library - and having got a photo of it.

    I have added your blog to my sidebar, by the way.

    Kat

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    1. Thanks for the sidebar addition, Kat! And, by the way, I was geeky with glasses, too...but so was he, so it didn't matter much!

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  6. What a wonderful post! A family of writers! How lovely. Congrats on this awesome accomplishment.

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    1. It is kind of unusual, isn't it? And we are each other's biggest fans, too!

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  7. Isn't it nice to be united with your brother on a bookshelve? By what I read your library is more like a family home for the Goulds. Was this the only book you wrote or are there more?

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    1. I'm working on another, Peter; this one about life in Maine in the 1800s. I'll let you know if/when it appears in print!

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    2. Mmmm, history books, my favorites!

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  8. A perfect post for the theme. I should feel a little guilty that my theme picture makes you scramble about searching for things each week - but I don't because it produces posts such as this.

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    1. A few others have agreed about the "scrambling" aspect of SS, Alan -- we all love it! The best part, though, is finding proof of who we are. Thank you for keeping SS, for leading us all along!

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  9. Wonderful post, Deb! How great for you to have these memories of your family and the local library. I miss the old library of my childhood where I grew up in southern Illinois - an old buildig that still exists today. The new modern libraries of today are just not the same.

    Oh, and I particularly like the first sentence of your post about scrambling around looking for something to write about to stay on theme as it reminds me of me each week!

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    1. There's something wonderful about those old libraries, those old connections! But even those new libraries have great offerings; I'm with you, though...I much prefer the older ones!

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  10. There is something about your hometown library that is the best! I miss my local library in the town where I grew up. Branch libraries in large cities just aren't the same. Wonderful post!

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    1. I miss the old card catalogues, Liz! And the cardboard Due Date cards they used to stick in the little pocket in the back of the book. Even my Curtis Library now has plastic library cards and a computerized system...oh, well!

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  11. Hi Deb,

    Wow. First, to see you book right next to John Grisham's and then to learn about how important the library was to your family and how important that your family was/is to the library!

    Reading your post brought up many memories for me; of my friends and I going to the library during the summer in Eugene.

    Awesome post.

    Kathy M.

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  12. It's a family thing for you,
    and a natural theme.
    Must be a thrill though to find your book
    on display like that.
    Nice spin on the theme!!
    :)~
    HUGZ

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