Holding History
I have a few book collections here in my office at Storybridge - small collections, but so special. One of them is a collection of old children’s books. Now, when I say old, I mean OLD. Books so old I hesitate to touch them.
This copy of Puss in Boots is in that collection. It came to us years ago as part of someone’s donation. I remember we were still working out of the Snack Pak warehouse. That was before we started using the big watermelon boxes from United to dump book donations into; we were still just stacking people’s random boxes and bags on top of each other. (This is a relevant detail, I think, because this book would not have survived being dumped into a watermelon box.) Maybe this was part of someone’s attic cleanout, maybe an estate sale - I don’t know.
The first time I saw it, I held my breath and carefully opened the front cover, praying the cloth threads on the spine would hold together. Sure enough, the proud owner had penciled her name beautifully on the first page, along with the occasion and the year.
I’m not sure on the last name, and I’m only mostly sure on the first name. “Miss Margaret M. Norman” (Maybe?) “Christmas 1918” Check out those exquisite capital letters!
For me, a name and date on the inside is the ultimate payoff when I get to open an old children’s book like this. The anticipation I feel as I’m opening it… it’s such a trip for my imagination! I picture Margaret with her pencil and a smile, carefully writing her name in her new book on Christmas morning in 1918.
This photo helps me imagine little Margaret. It is part of the collection entitled: Education in the Texas Panhandle, 1880-1930 and was provided by the Amarillo Public Library to The Portal to Texas History, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries.
This is part of the magic of children’s books, I think. This book is literally timestamped, and yet the story inside is timeless. The story of Puss in Boots lived with Margaret as long as she lived, as it has lived and been a shared piece of many childhoods, even today, connecting Margaret from 1918 to a countless number of children. I have always loved this quote by Theodore Roosevelt: “I am a part of everything I have ever read.”
“I am a part of everything I have ever read.”
If I could be so bold, Mr. Roosevelt, I would add, “And… I am a part of all who have shared the same story.”
Live a good one ~
Chandra