LIBRARY NOTES
 
Past Events, Future Events
As summer unfolds, I hope you agree that it has been an energetic year in the Library. This issue of Library Notes has follow-up reports - with wonderful photographs by Karen Smul - about the New York City Book Awards, the Young Writers Awards, and our first-ever new members welcome party. Goodwill and enthusiasm were abundant at all these events. Looking ahead, we are now scheduling a variety of exciting events for the fall season, including Cynthia Saltzman on
Old Masters, New World: America's Raid on Europe's Great Pictures 1880-World War I, James Orbinski, former head of Doctors Without Borders, on
An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action for the Twenty-First Century, Isabel Gillies on her bestselling memoir
Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True Story, Alida Brill and Dr. Michael D. Lockshin on
Dancing at the River's Edge: A Patient and Her Doctor Negotiate Life With Chronic Illness, and Robert B. Strassler on
The Landmark Herodotus and
The Landmark Xenophon. In addition, a full season of reading groups, technology workshops, and the "Writing Life" series will start again after the summer months. Our first events newsletter with dates, times, and registration details will be in your mailbox in early September; keep an eye out.
Rediscovering Leacock: A Personal Reflection
At lunch one day I visited a second-hand book shop and was surprised to find a copy of Stephen Leacock's
Winnowed Wisdom: A New Book of Humour (1926). Leacock (1869-1944) was born in Swanmore, in Hampshire in the UK, but moved to North America at the age of six. As he put it, "my parents migrated to Canada in 1876, and I decided to go with them." Revered as a humorist, essayist, educator, and economist, Leacock was educated at Upper Canada College, the University of Toronto, and the University of Chicago. He taught at McGill University from 1903 to 1936, where he was head of the Department of Economics and Political Science from 1908 on.
His first and most profitable book was a texbook, Elements of Political Science (1906), but he is better known for his numerous books of humor, which include
Literary Lapses (1910),
Nonsense Novels (1911),
Arcadian Adventures With the Idle Rich (1914),
Frenzied Fiction (1918), and arguably his classic,
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912). Leacock was a great admirer of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain and authored books about both of them,
Mark Twain in 1932 and
Charles Dickens: His Life and Work in 1934. He also had an active career as a lecturer in Europe, the United States, and Canada, and he wrote regularly for The New York Times, The Saturday Evening Post, The Atlantic Monthly, and other publications. He once explained that his lecture fee was quite reasonable: "I find out how much money you've got, and I never charge a cent more."
It was a joy this spring to dip back into the work of this delightful writer, whose humor I first read in grade school. The Library has over forty titles by Stephen Leacock, and I have learned enough about the depth of our collection not to be surprised by this. A good place to start is with one of the humor collections listed above, or with
The Bodley Head Leacock (1957), edited by J.B. Priestley. It features a hilarious story for anyone feeling unsettled around banks these days, "My Financial Career."
I look forward to seeing you at the Library - perhaps in the humor section on Stack 9, chortling over some Leacock. Have a great summer.
Mark Bartlett
Head Librarian
This year's events and features newsletters are generously underwritten by Ada and Romano Peluso in memory of Assunta Sommella and Ignazio Peluso.
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