New Libraries And Old Books

There is a display of seashells at the Eleanor London Public Library. There are some fancy well-furnished reading rooms, with comfy couches. There is art on the walls.

The library is open 365 days a year. There are 4 days when it closes at 5:00, and 361 days when it closes at 10:00. It opens at 10:00 AM every day. It is a 20 minute walk from home. As I said to a friend recently, the definition of paradise might be living in a community where the library is open every day until 10:00 PM.

I can’t complain, but here’s the thing. I also go to the big library downtown, the Grande Bibliotheque. It’s a newer building, but an older collection. And there’s the rub. The Eleanor London Public Library has a dearth of old books.

All the books in the fiction section are new. That’s not to say they were written or published last year, or in the last 10 years, or whatever, but one look tells me that they are all relatively new looking. They all have dust covers.

I went to find the shelf with McLean, that’s at the GB, because I wanted to read Stuart McLean, his Vinyl Café series. And I got to looking at what was on that particular shelf. And I saw the usual stuff: Larry McMurtry, Terry McMillan, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, Katherine McMahon. But then there are these books that don’t have the usual paper cover covered in plastic; they are just the original cardboard covers. These are books written in the early part of the 20th century, by authors whose status was undoubtedly greater than then it is now. These are books that whose printing date might be 50 or more years ago.

So go find, at the Eleanor London Public Library, a book by Clark McMeekin. Not there. Nor a book by Michael McLaverty, nor by Donald McLean.

McMeekin was an American author from Kentucky, who wrote about Kentucky. McLaverty was Irish, so move over James Joyce. And McLean, who did not do American Pie, was Australian.

There is only one McLean novel on the shelf; it’s called No Man Is An Island. McLaverty is represented by The Choice, School For Hope, The Gamecock and Other Stories, and In This Thy Day. And McMeekin has three entries: The October Fox, Tyrone Of Kentucky, and Welcome Soldier!. I think McMeekin is indespensible for anyone who fancies American literature; the others are no slouches either.

It was total serendipity that led me to these authors, all undiscovered treasures. It would not happen at the Eleanor London Public Library. So as nice as it all is there, I will have to keep snooping around the dusty shelves of the downtown library picking up all those old volumes that don’t sport dustcovers. I will let you know what else I find.

And by the way, neither McMeekin nor McLean turn up anything on Amazon…