Famous Men Who Never Lived, by K. Chess (Tin House Books)
LibraryReads votes due by 2/1! Librarians and Booksellers can request digital ARCs on Edelweiss and Netgalley.
Author K. Chess is the daughter of a librarian and she wanted to share with you what it was like to grow up in the library. Here is her wonderful letter:
When my mom finished her MLS, she was eight and a half months pregnant. You can see me in the pictures, a bulge that stretched her graduation robe tight. Other brand-new librarians put their hands on her stomach to feel me kick.
I grew up in the libraries where my mother worked. I went to elementary school next door to a crumbling downtown mansion the city’s historical society was fighting to save. The top floor housed a free lending library of educational resources for parents and educators. While my mother sorted donated materials, I squeezed between the shelves to read picture books and climbed into the cupula to imagine it was a spaceship. Later, my mom found work as a reference librarian in a neighboring town. I spent whole summer days entertaining myself during her shifts. An upstairs hallway with lancet windows stood in for Redwall. The emergency stairs were the tower in Ci’gazze, where Will lost his fingers and gained the Subtle Knife. I lurked around the circulation desk, taking notes for my spy route. I scoured the cool, carpeted basement for indications of hidden rooms where fugitives on their way north to freedom could be concealed.
A library is a place for discovery. It’s where I learned to hunt and peck by using the catalog computer and where a charismatic storyteller told me and other city kids about the tricks of Anansi the spider man. A library is abundance. My mom said we couldn’t afford child-sized Nikes, but she let me check out tottering stacks of novels, paying my overdue fines without complaint. A library is freedom. My mother and her colleagues resisted the Patriot Act’s demands for access to borrowing records. Over the years, she has helped patrons of all ages find whatever information they needed. She’s recommended thousands of books.
Famous Men Who Never Lived contains a book-within-a-book; the plot hinges on a woman’s search for a missing paperback from her vanished world. As a librarian, you understand the strength of this connection. You are a guardian and a guide. From up close, I’ve seen the work you do. Thank you. I put my book into your hands.
