What is your very favorite bookstore of all time?
What is your very favorite bookstore of all time? The closing of Borders last week reminded me of mine, and of how sad I was when it closed in 1992. Here is what I wrote about it in a column for the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, Iowa, at that time:
It was a big event in our small world when we found out last week that Small World Bookstore was closing. It was a little beacon of peace and light in a television world. The best children’s book store I’ve ever been in, Small World crammed plenty into a tiny space: It had plump pillows to plop down on and a potpourri of books, toys, puzzles, games and cards selected with taste, an awareness of social justice issues and a sense of whimsy. Perhaps must importantly, the unhurried people who worked there knew books and cared about kids. The shop’s logo — “A bookstore of discovery for children and the people who care for them” — was no hype. The store was giving MTV and Nintendo a run for their money; that wasn’t the problem.
In a remarkable and moving letter sent to the store’s regular customers in February, owner Judy Essman explained, ‘Some of you may remember that in 1990 I was treated for breast cancer. The treatments were thorough, and 1991 was a year of vigor for me and Small World Books. This year brings the unfortunate news that the cancer has returned and will slow me down considerably as I embark on new treatment. Because I need to conserve energy and turn to more relaxing activities, I will retire from the bookstore business.
“We have loved hosting your birthday parties, doing book talks for your mothers’ groups and classrooms, bringing in special entertainers and authors, and daily answering your questions about books for children.” Judy went on to tell about employees’ future plans and her own: “I will study seed catalogs in preparation for this summer’s garden, weave on my long-ignored loom, and spend more time with friends over tea.”
Ever the bibliophile, she concluded by suggesting books that help explain illness to children, and added, “When you see me in the store or in the community, don’t be afraid. Having cancer is not the end of the world. In fact, it can bring about changes that enhance our lives. Please let your children know that it is fine to ask me how I am feeling. Their direction questions and honest statements are breaths of fresh air!”
I remember seeing Judy with her head wrapped in brightly colored scarves when our family started shopping in Small World a couple of years ago. It crossed my mind then that she may have been through chemotherapy; but on Judy — tall, slim, elegant, coolly intelligent — the scarves seemed more a matter of style.
I caught up with her recently and told her with what deep regret I went to her close-out sale. I wasn’t the only one. Judy’s mailbox has been full of love. Customers young and old, some of whom barely knew her and some of whom are living with cancer themselves, wrote to tell her what the shop has meant to them and to wish her well.
Judy is less inclined to mourn the shop’s closing than she is to celebrate the joys it has brought her these last three years. Chief among them was the knowledge that she could run a business according to her principles and still succeed commercially. “I knew from the beginning I wanted a multicultural, multiracial, nonsexist store, and that I wanted to be small scale in how I used resources. We used donated bags and didn’t print anything we didn’t have to. During the war in the Gulf I talked about peace-making and conflict resolution in our newsletter. People responded because it really is a small world, and we really need to know each other.”
What about those life-enhancing changes cancer has brought her? There are many. She and husband Ray Makeever are closer than ever before, and despite having lost a breast, Judy says she feels more womanly, and more proud of being a woman, than she ever has. She’s physically braver, too, as she learned this past fall on a solo hike she took on a strenuous trail in the Cascade Mountains. “I do think by having to look death in the face I have become more willing to take risks. I decided I would rather die on the trail with a broken ankle or from an encounter with a bear than to miss seeing the top of the mountain.”
And most of all, she has realized how many people she matters to. “I have absolutely been surrounded by love and concern,” she says.
Ernest Hemingway’s definition of courage as “grace under pressure” means more to me now that I have seen the example of Judy Essman’s uncommon grace.
Categories: Home | Tags: Books, bookstores, breast cancer, courage, gardening, Judy Essman, justice, peace
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An Intriguing New Book: Fifty Plants That Changed the Course of History
In each of the world’s some 300,000 types of flowering pants is the seed of a story. That’s what makes Bill Laws’ new book, Fifth Plants That Changed the Course of History, so intriguing.
Of course we all learned in school how Eli Whitney and the cotton gin prompted the Industrial Revolution, but Laws goes deeper, weaving together vines of economic, political, and industrial history, to show how cotton was not only a mainstay of the slave trade and the first domino to fall in the Civil War but also eventually became a part of pop culture as an ingredient in ice cream, propellants for fireworks, and chewing gum. He brings literature in, too, with a quote from poet William Blake about “the dark, satanic mills” of Britain when that country imported cotton from India and began manufacturing it.
The term “Luddite,” today used to mean someone who scorns technology, also comes from cotton manufacturing. Ned Ludd was an apprentice cotton weaver who took umbrage against the mechanization of cotton making, leading protestors who dropped clogs — wooden shoes — into the maws of the machines, thus literally clogging up the works.
Laws also examines the way fads and fashions influence the use of plants. For example, a 19th-century fashion for eating white rice with the bran removed contributed to an increase of beriberi in Asia; Laws writes that “Beriberi” is Sinhalese for “I cannot, I cannot,” and refers to the paralyzing effects of a deficiency of thiamine and other vitamins and minerals.” (I think I will chant “I can’t, I can’t,” the next time I am overcome with lassitude.)
I, for one, didn’t know that eucalyptus is used in making underwear, that the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp, or that coconut was used for sterile IV drips for the wounded during World War II. If you like this sort of thing, you might also like a great little quarterly magazine called Heirloom Gardener (http://rareseeds.com/magazine). The summer issue has an article on strange and wonderful heirloom veggies you can grow, like “Dragon Tongue” beans that look as if they were grown at Hogwarts, and Cucuzzi, which “produces huge light green fruit resembling elephant’s tusks, up to five feet long when mature.” It also has an excellent article on the Paul Robeson Tomato, a gorgeous deep bronzy-purplish tomato named for the famed African American singer, Civil Rights activist, lawyer, and movie star.
Paul Robeson
Categories: Food, gardens, Home | Tags: Bill Laws, Books, cotton, cucuzzi, Dragon Tongue beans, Fifty Plants That Changed the Course of History, gardening, Heirloom Gardener, heirloom plants, history, paul robeson, rice
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The Open Days Directory
There are so many beautiful gardens all across the country, and most of them private spaces. The good news is that some of them are open to the public a few days out of the year thanks to The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days program. According to The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Directory, “Since 1995, nearly 3,000 private gardens have participated in Open Days, welcoming close to 1 million visitors.” How cool!
The Directory, which is put out every year, has a complete listing of the Open Days gardens with descriptions, hours, and directions, categorized by state. The book also includes public gardens.
Unfortunately, there are no Open Days gardens here in Iowa, where I am located. But one garden listing that did catch my eye, and that I could feasibly visit, is Greta’s Cotswold Cottage Garden in Evanston, Illinois. The garden is poetically described in the book as home to a number of plants including roses, hydrangeas, hollyhocks, sweetbay magnolia, and Chinese tree lilacs. Combine all of this with the beautiful backdrop of Evanston neighborhoods, and it’s sure to be a splendid sight to see.
So, if you’re interested in touring any of these beautiful private gardens, pick up a copy! In the meantime, here are the dates for just a few of the Open Days gardens across the country.
1. Red Mill Farm in Washington, Connecticut, will be open on Saturday, June 11 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Red Mill Farm
2. The Oakenstone Gardens in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, will be open on Sunday, June 18 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
3. The Cliffmoor Garden in Nantucket, Massachusetts, will be open on Thursday, June 23 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Cliffmoor
4. The Gardens at Wandering Tree, “The Glorée & Tryumfant” Garden Railway, in North Barrington, Illinois, will be open on Saturday, June 25 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
5. The Betsey Battistoni Garden in Millbrook, New York, will be open on Saturday, July 16 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
6. Turkey Hill Farm in Manchester, Vermont, will be open on Saturday, July 23 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
7. The Townsend Cottage Garden in Springfield Center, New York, will be open on Tuesday, July 26 from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.
8. Gordon & Mary Hayward’s Garden in Westminster West, Vermont, will be open on Saturday, August 6 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
9. The Freeman/Byrd Garden in Raleigh, North Carolina, will be open on Saturday, September 17 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Sunday, September 18 from 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.
10. The Camilleri Garden in Fort Worth, Texas, will be open on Sunday, October 9 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Camilleri
For more information on these, or any other of the Open Days gardens, please go to gardenconservancy.org/opendays or pick up a copy of the 2011 Open Days Directory.
Ethereal Angkor
I have to share with you a new book that is on my list of new favorite things. It’s John Mcdermott’s, Elegy: Reflections of Angkor (McDermott Gallery, hardcover, $75).
If you’ve been to Cambodia, it’s a must-have. If you haven’t, it will persuade you to get there. And soon. I’ve tried for years to describe to people what it is about Angkor that puts it smack dab at the top of my favorite places list. McDermott’s book communicates visually what I have not been able to communicate verbally.
