In decisions about staffing, he steered clear of a certain type of woman librarian, which he described as “owl-eyed and awkward, wearing spectacles and an air of gloom.” Wright searched the northern hemisphere for “bright young women” genuinely interested in books and the operations of a research library. “We are not impressed,” he wrote, “when some young thing gushes that she ‘just loves Shakespeare.’ A love of Shakespeare is less important than common sense and an ability to type.”
