Did You Know This?
I love to read history, so when I came across a book that covered a lot of history about libraries–one of my favorite haunts–I had a few weeks of great reading. It was quite fittingly called The Library Book.
Librarians are as diverse as any population, and Charles Lummis (librarian of the early 1900s) brought some interesting ideas into the profession. They didn’t stick, so interesting can be read as unacceptable. He decided he would make sure the library patrons read only “healthy” material and created the “Literary Pure Food Act” to warn readers about certain books with dangerous content.
He despised pseudoscience books which I suppose we classify as Sci-Fi today, so they in particular were the target for his warning system. To his credit, he didn’t take these books off the shelves, but he had a blacksmith make a branding iron with a skull and crossbones, then branded the “distasteful” books on each frontispiece.
Ah, the good old days!
So who was Charles Lummis besides someone who thought it was his duty to protect the reading public from their own bad choices in books?
He was born in 1859, in Lynn, Massachusetts, and became a journalist, and used his pen to advocate for Indian rights and historic preservation. As a young man, he traveled throughout the Southwest, finally settling in Los Angeles. By the end of his life, he had been a historian, photographer, ethnographer, archaeologist, poet, and librarian.
And speaking of books…there’s a new one out February 1 from Dancing Lemur Press!
My Magic Summer
With the Moon Maidens
By Brian Carmody
Print 9781939844804 $17.95
EBook 9781939844811 $4.99
Young Adult – Contemporary Fantasy/Coming of Age/Boys & Men
Who are these moon maidens?
Summer of ’94 and Connor Whelan is excited to spend the last three months before his senior year with his uncle in Texas. Aware this trip is due to his mom’s cancer treatments, he still hopes this will be a season of magic.
He gets his wish when he encounters three magical women one night. Claiming to be from the moon itself, bewitching Iluna, flighty Eiru, and motherly Cassiopeia are about to make Connor’s last summer of childhood one to remember.
However, his interest in local girl Laura puts him in hot water with her tough boyfriend. His fascination with Iluna also confuses him. Will the moon maidens’ lessons about joy, wonder, and hope get him through this crazy summer?
An award-winning screenwriter and author, Brian Carmody is a dreamer, a wisher, a hoper, a prayer, a pretender, and a magic bean buyer. He’s had moondreams from Texas to Virginia, and now California, where he has plenty of other flax-golden tales to spin by his fire. www.brianzwriter.com/
Links:
Dancing Lemur Press – http://www.dancinglemurpressllc.com/new-adult-young-adult
Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0965XBJ7Y
Barnes & Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/my-magic-summer-brian-carmody/1139629159?ean=9781939844804
iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/book/x/id1573280572
Kobo – https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/Search?Query=9781939844811
Scribed – https://www.scribd.com/search?query=9781939844811&language=0
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58346132-my-magic-summer-with-the-moon-maidens
Quote of the Week: “Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.” Henry Louis Gates, Critic and Scholar
