The Silent Reading Hour illustrated by Lucille Enders

In working on the card catalog of my library, I discovered a book that came from my family collection: The Silent Reading Hour - First Reader. It has my mom's and her brother's names inscribed on the inside cover. The copyright date is 1924. The editors are listed as Guy Thomas Buswell, associate professor of education at University of Chicago and William Henry Wheeler.

Professor Buswell, who lived to the ripe age of 103, was known for his studies on how children read.

What attracted me to this book were the illustrations by Lucille Enders of whom I could find absolutely no biographical information whatsoever. She is listed as illustrator, though, in all sorts of books for children: Wag and Puff, Surprise Stories, and In All France, one in a series of books about children's lives in other countries.

Ms. Enders's illustrations accompany sweet little stories about Jack, Peter and Jane, and Toni and his monkey Pippo. One tale tells of Betty who races across the street to the Balloon Man, falls down in the path of an auto, but is scooped to safety just in time by the vendor.

The children attend a circus parade, help out a carpenter in his workshop, follow the scissors grinder, join in with a troop of marching soldiers, visit a doll hospital, and are enchanted with the sight of a paper balloon launched into the Fourth of July night sky.

"And then up, up, up sailed the balloon like a big moon, with a tail that burned yellow, white, and blue in the sky."

The stories are full of all sorts of adventures. One lucky Little Boy gets to ride on a train; another takes a thrilling spin in an airplane. The girls, who don't seem to have as many exploits as the boys, learn to sew and make clothes for "babies who had no mothers to care for them and lived together in a Home." There is even one story that offers a lesson on animal tracks - dog, bird, and rabbit.

My favorite story is the one about good friends and neighbors Bill and Buddy who build a bird pool. They dig the hole, line it with stones, pour the cement over the stones, and print in the wet mortar the words: Drink, Thirsty Little Birds.

These tales are full of friendship and growing-up-lessons (in the case of Betty, one should look both ways before crossing the street). They show the children being kind to animals, getting into a bit of harmless mischief, and there seem to be lots of cookies, too. 

The stories and poems included in The Silent Reading Hour are all written by women: Louise Ayres Garnett, Annette Wynne, Edwina Pope Larimer, Josette Eugénie Spink, and Violet Millis.

Oddly enough, there are no stories about books or reading. There is this one little poem by Annette Wynne and I will close with it:

Magic

Take some little words,

Place them in a row,

Soon you have a pretty story

Made before you know.

Tales of house and hill,

Butterflies and birds,

Anything at all you will,

Made from little words.

Gifts for Readers - Part Two

A continuation of yesterday's list - another five suggestions for gifts for the readers in your life (including you). 

A Cotton Throw

For keeping snug while reading a favorite book.

This selection is from blankets.com

$60

A Fountain Pen

For taking notes - I am partial to Waterman fountain pens. The above Perspective Blue Fountain Pen can be found at 

penboutique.com

On sale! $120

A Leather Journal

Just the ticket for keeping track of Books Read and Books to be Read.

Leatherology.com

$79

Bookends

These elegant marble lions are Patience and Prudence who grace the entrance to the New York Public Library.

The Library Shop

$135

Well-Read Women

by Samantha Hahn

Lovely watercolor portraits of some of our favorite literary heroines from Holly Golightly to Nancy Drew. At your nearby independent bookstore.

$20

Do you have any other suggestions? I am sure we can all think of many items for our wish list.

Happy shopping!

Five Gifts for Readers

Here are five suggestions for gifts for readers in your life. Tomorrow I will feature five more. I would highly recommend buying one or two for yourself. I plan to.

A Magnifying Glass 

I like the rectangular
 shape of this one from World Market.
$20

A Book Bag

Preferably one from a local, independent bookstore.
$10 to $20

A Library Stand

This one comes from the shop at Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.
$330

A Floor Reading Lamp

I happen to have this goose-neck KVART lamp from Ikea. I love it because I can position the light exactly where I want it.
$20

A Pillow Prop

I have already written (here) about the many plusses of this pyramid reading pillow from Levenger.
$39

The Bedside Guardian 1978-1979

I will be the first to admit that The Bedside Guardian may not be for everyone. Since 1952, the national British daily newspaper, The Guardian, has published a yearly collection of its best writing and cartoons. I happened to have stumbled upon, in The Booklady Bookstore in Savannah, four of its volumes: numbers 28 (1978-79), 30 (1980-81), 33 (1983-84), and 35 (1985-86).

The newspaper was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian which it was known as until 1959. 

Each volume that I bought has an introduction written by (respectively) John Cleese, William Golding, Peter Ustinov, and Salman Rushdie. Each edition runs about 250 pages.

And what glorious pages they are. I have finished Volume 28 and have been treated to stories on the Dryfly trout fishing season; a profile on actress Cathleen Nesbitt on her ninetieth birthday; novelist Angela Carter and her thoughts on cats and the Marquis de Sade; a trip through the major cities of India with Peter Jenkins; an afternoon spent with Lady Rothermere musing on what makes for a perfect party; and a long weekend spent in Outer Mongolia.

This sentence, from the article on the trip to Outer Mongolia, stopped me cold:

All that said, the journey has the most extraordinary rewards; the landscape has an arid, unfamiliar beauty bathed in a light sparkling air so pure it tastes as though it has never even been snuffed by a yak.

I find it fascinating to read of world events from 30 years afar. There are mentions of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and other world leaders of the time. There are tales of British politicians who are strangers to me. And, any story about cricket or football pretty much had me totally, but delightfully, confused.

It doesn't really matter what person or topic is being covered, the writing is so crisp and conversational that I look forward to bouts of insomnia just so I can make these bedside books my companions in the night.

In Which I Return to the Real World

My at-home, no-writing retreat went something like this:

Reading: Alternated between At Home by Bill Bryson (I swear the man cannot write a dull sentence!); Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (I can see why some her neighbors were a bit upset with her characterizations of them); As We Were by E.F. Benson (a fascinating look at his famous family and Victorian England); and Booknotes - America's Finest Authors on Reading, Writing, and the Power of Ideas with Brian Lamb (so many wonderful things to learn). I finished up The Bedside Guardian 1978-79 and a thriller, Chasing the Storm, by Martin Molsted. Also, began the third of Ann Bridge's Julia Probyn adventures, The Numbered Account. This one finds the irrepressible Ms. Probyn in Switzerland. 

Cataloging: I got twenty-one books cataloged (two cards each) before I ran out of index cards. Creating a card catalog of books from my family's collection and my own purchases of vintage books is proving to be a delightful and worthwhile project. 

Watching: OK, I broke my own rule about not turning on any screens. I watched four Booknotes programs on my computer that are available on the C-SPAN website: David McCullough on Truman; Rick Bragg on Somebody Told Me - The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg; Nicholas Basbanes on A Gentle Madness; and Simon Winchester on The Professor and the Madman about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. I think I would follow Mr. Winchester just about anywhere. He is so entertaining!

Because I could listen to David McCullough talk for hours, I also watched a two-part interview that he did with Brian Lamb on the C-SPAN program Q&A. He discussed his book The Greater Journey about American artists, writers, sculptors and medical students who went to Paris between 1830 and 1900. They went not only to learn and further their own knowledge and careers, but also to bring that knowledge back to America. I read this terrific book last year and wrote about it here. 

Mr. McCullough is so enthusiastic about his subjects. His eyes just sparkle! I have owned his biography of President Harry Truman for years and after listening to Mr. McCullough sing his praises, I will soon be pulling the book down from the shelf to begin. It is about one thousand pages in length so it will take me a while to finish, but I do believe it will be well worth my time.

Napping: Many naps and such a luxury.

Walking: The weather was almost balmy and my daily walks were a pleasant activity after being indoors doing all of the above.

I also did a bit of decluttering and wrote a few notes and letters. And there was time spent just staring into space. A nice little rest for the mind.

The oatmeal/cranberry cookies I had with tea were delicious and are now, sadly, all gone. 

It really was a fine four days. It was so nice not to think, "What do I have to do now" and instead get to wonder, "What do I want to do now." I will certainly be planning more retreats like this one. 

How did you spend the past few days?

No-Writing Retreat - Day Four

On retreat. See you Monday, December 2.

No-Writing Retreat - Day Three

 

On retreat. See you Monday, December 2.