From the Archives – September 20, 2004
I own five or six hundred books at most, since I’m not as interested in owning as reading them. I’m prone to recycling with friends, giving to the Salvation Army, and generally keeping books I might have to move to a manageable level.
But yesterday afternoon I wondered what book I have held onto the longest. Which one had followed me more places than any other? It isn’t something one can positively determine from the publishing date; rather, I looked for inscriptions on the flyleaf from the books’ givers. In the meantime, I was rewarded with a variety of memories about the givers themselves.
The book that took the title of having hung around the longest belonged to Robert Louis Stevenson, he of Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde fame. This book, called A Child’s Garden of Verse, was published originally in 1885.
From the handwriting on the inscription, I see that my maternal grandmother, Anna Catherine Bannon McDonald, gave me this book in 1950, when I was a mere six years old. I also see the scribbles I put around her words, as if I were decorating them while learning cursive in second grade.
Given its age, A Child’s Garden of Verses is in remarkable condition. The hardback cover is a bit ragged, but the spine holds strong. The illustration on the front is faded, but still recognizable. And inside are the poems that R. L. Stevenson wrote almost 120 years ago. I enjoy them still, and I enjoy as much the fact that my grandmother, who has joined Stevenson on the other side, thought enough to add her own dedication over half a century ago.
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