Avi

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Found in a Book

 

pressed flowers

Books, to be sure, are full of words. But some­times you come upon things that peo­ple leave in the books. Over the years of my book collecting—sometimes for research, some­time for read­ing plea­sure— I have found pressed between the pages:

  • Four leaf clovers. (Did they bring luck?)
  • Flow­ers (As pale as old memories)
  • A par­tial­ly filled-in dance card, from 1923. (Why only partially?)
  • Postage stamps that wouldn’t, today, take a let­ter fifty yards
  • A receipt for the pur­chase of the book, when the book was new and cost two dol­lars and fifty cents (That was long ago!)
  • A note explain­ing why the book was being sent as a gift (An apol­o­gy? Thanks?)
  • Author sig­na­tures, along with cryp­tic mes­sages to per­sons unknown, for rea­sons at best vague
  • Birth­day greet­ings, some­times in child-like scrawls
  • Thank you notes (Beau­ti­ful cal­lig­ra­phy, reveal­ing no emotion)
  • An invi­ta­tion to a par­ty (Did the recip­i­ent go?)

I always won­der about these left behind items. Were they dis­card­ed, for­got­ten, or in fact, meant to be saved as some­thing mean­ing­ful? Nev­er mind: Each thing sug­gests a story.

My favorite find was a let­ter dat­ed 1898. I found it in a book (pub­lished much ear­li­er) meant for young read­ers, and con­sist­ing of two sto­ries. They were love sto­ries, of a kind. The tales were each about young women, both of whom were choos­ing hus­bands. The first tale was about one who mar­ries for love, and lives in harsh pover­ty. The sec­ond sto­ry was about a woman who mar­ries for rich­es, and lives to be equal­ly unhap­py. The book—not uncom­mon for the day—was meant to teach lessons.

As for the let­ter in the book: (I paraphrase)

“My dar­ling grand­daugh­ter Mary: You are only two and can­not read. I am eighty-nine, and may not live long enough to see you read. But I want­ed to send you these sto­ries because they will teach you a les­son I did not learn. I hope when you choose a hus­band you will heed the wis­est sto­ry in this book. Your lov­ing Grand­moth­er, Dora.”

Ah, but which sto­ry did Grand­ma Dora not heed? Which sto­ry did she con­sid­er wisest?

The answers were not provided.

Maybe I’ll find it in anoth­er book.

5 thoughts on “Found in a Book”

  1. My best find was the crushed remains in “Death in the Air” returned by a Fire Island vis­i­tor. This was back in the 1960s when Sayville was still a sum­mer resort.

    Reply
    • Con­nie, I used to take the fer­ry to the Pines one sum­mer when I vis­it­ed my col­lege room­mate and her fam­i­ly at their place there. I loved the ocean from child­hood. You brought back so very hap­py memories.

      Reply
  2. Oh good­ness, Avi. This may be my favorite of many favorites. Maybe you will write the book for all the Marys of this world. My ques­tion is, did the one who mar­ried for love still love her hus­band and find hap­pi­ness in their love despite the harsh pover­ty? I have always believed that though it helps, mon­ey can­not buy hap­pi­ness, but it can pro­vide crea­ture com­forts. Oh what a conun­drum. Grand­moth­er Dora is not much of a help to young Mary with­out some of her 89 year old wis­dom. And here’s the rub. We just nev­er know what is around the bend. Per­haps that is the mes­sage, learn to take care of your­self so you can mar­ry for love. Oh you have me pon­der­ing away.

    Reply
  3. I was in a book store to pur­chase Anne Frank Remem­bered by Miep Gies and tucked inside was a busi­ness card encour­ag­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion in a local Aryan Nation group. It pro­vid­ed a teach­able moment for the stu­dents in my class study­ing the Holo­caust the fol­low­ing week.

    Reply
  4. 1898, the year Johannes Brahms died. His music would go well with this anec­dote! My daugh­ter recent­ly found a 1978 library check-out card in a used copy of the Fairie Queene and it trig­gered hap­py spec­u­la­tion about who else had read it. I once stum­bled on a used copy of a book signed by a boy I had attend­ed grade school with. Bizarre coin­ci­dence! One would nev­er find an inter­est­ing ‘thing’ left ‘in’ a web­page or eBook …

    Reply

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