Last week, I had the honor and pleasure to be part of the King County Library System’s annual fundraising event: Literary Lions. The theme of the event was Love Letters to libraries. If it’s okay, I’d like to share my Love Letter.
To all the libraries and librarians I have known:
Thanks for the memories.
To Ms. Bass, who helped me find books at the Henry Branch on Capitol Hill when I was a wee lad. She lived up the block from us, and I thought it was darned cool to have such a luminary in our neighborhood.
To my college library, where I found good books to read, assigned books that I could check out instead of purchase, and some preternaturally comfortable chairs for napping. Just to be clear, I have continued to nap in libraries.
To Moab Public Library, where I first began to discover that libraries owned amazing troves of research materials that could help inform my writing. It was also where I once saw Edward Abbey, author of one of the more influential books of my youth, Desert Solitaire. I was too shy to go up to him, but wow, real writers use the library! Inspiration indeed.
To the Seattle Public Library, particularly the Central Branch, with its deep accumulation of historic documents and its ancient, subject-based card catalog. Back in the day before digitized everything took over, librarians assembled a card catalog that referenced the history of Seattle. You could (and still can!) look up practically anything and find a newspaper or magazine citation, often with the article folded tightly and taped to the back of the card. Such a glorious thing.
To the King County Library System, who have generously hosted me at readings across the county from Vashon Island to Carnation to Mercer Island to the Muckleshoot Reservation. Not only do you provide the opportunity for people to check out our books, but you also provide the opportunity for writers to meet readers, further strengthening the book ecosystem.
To the University of Washington Libraries, whose extensive collection of archival material, obscure periodicals, and scientific books has been essential to my career. I must admit that I have a few books from the library that I have had checked out for perhaps a decade and probably longer. How great is that?
In this age of cybertized resources, it seems that you can find anything you need on the web. But go to a library and dig in the archives and you will unearth of lode of knowledge not available at your digital fingertips. For example, consider Thomas Burke, early Seattle entrepreneur. Based on my reading of secondary materials, he seemed, well, to be honest, a cantankerous, arrogant jerk, but then I came across his letters to his wife in the UW Special Collections’ archives. “My Dear Little Birdie.” “My little darling on the desolate sea.” “My dear Pet, I haven’t been so lonesome in twenty years as I have been today. I can’t get along without you.” This was a man in love and devoted to his wife and the only way I could learn this was in a library.
So, to end, I simply steal Mr. Burke’s line but turn it to libraries. “I can’t get along without you.”
Sincerely,David B. Williams
As several speakers at the event noted, libraries are as critical now as they have ever been. Safe spaces where all are welcome, havens of democracy, and keepers of truth, libraries do all this primarily by preserving stories and narratives and resources that allow people the opportunity to be transported to the past, to the future, to other places, to other worlds, to different ways of thinking and living; in doing so, readers develop empathy, sympathy, respect, and tolerance, ultimately revealing the beauty of the differences and similarities of humanity. How can we not love places such as libraries that help make us better people and better members of our community?
P.S. I’d love to hear of your love for libraries. Please share them in the Comments section.
Last chance if you want to get your name in my book In the Range of Fire and Ice (Deadline is March 16). A great way to support Mountaineers Books and all they do for writers and those interested in the outdoors.
