Date: Fri 26-Dec-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

Booth-Library-authors-local

Full Text:

Calling All Resident Authors, Editors And Illustrators

BY DOROTHY EVANS

Cyrenius H. Booth Library curator Caroline Stokes is putting out an "All Call"

alert to Newtowners who are published writers, editors and/or book

illustrators.

She is seeking signed copies, or at least an up-to-date listing, of their

works to be included in the library's Newtown Authors Collection.

"We've already got more than 100 authors and samples of their books dating

back several decades," she said, "but many of these authors are dead now. We

need to update the collection with contemporary authors."

Mrs Stokes has been "collecting" Newtown authors "gradually and informally,"

she said, for the past 15 years. There was a special display of Newtown

authors' books during the library's 60th anniversary celebration in 1992, "but

unfortunately, we didn't ask them to donate their loaned copies. We should

have."

Another problem has been space -- or the lack of it -- to display the

collection.

"These works haven't always been out in plain sight where the reading public

could enjoy them," she said, because in the old library they were stored in a

locked desk or secretary at the second floor back.

"It was so crowded in there, you couldn't really look at them," Mrs Stokes

said.

Yet these Newtown authors, editors and illustrators were, in many cases, not

only longtime residents of the town but well-known in their respective fields.

As such, they were worthy of recognition.

From Baseball

To Slipped Discs

Mrs Stokes mentioned several examples: renowned New Yorker Magazine writer and

cartoonist, James Thurber; novelist Robert Crichton; baseball columnist and

New Yorker Christmas poem writer, Roger Angell.

"I reread [Crichton's] The Secret of Santa Vittoria every so often and still

find it delightful," Mrs Stokes said.

The children's book writer and illustrator Dana Fradon, who still lives in

Newtown, has donated several of his books to the collection, Mrs Stokes said.

In contrast to this well-known writer and New Yorker cartoonist, many other

Newtown authors in the collection have faded into relative obscurity yet their

titles show a wide range of expertise.

Mrs Stokes cited the example of Raymond Fosdick, who wrote about giving

financial advice to John D. Rockefeller I and II.

Then there was an orthopedic doctor named Manlapaz who wrote about You and

Your Slipped Disc.

One of Mrs Stokes' favorite hometown authors was Barbara Mitchell Howard, the

daughter of longtime Cyrenius H. Booth Library Director Sarah Mitchell.

"She wrote charming books about Cape Cod," Mrs Stokes said.

"When Sarah [Mitchell] was head librarian, I was a newcomer trying to learn

about the town. She would say, `Read so-and-so's book,' and point me to it."

"That was 50 years ago when the town was much smaller," she said.

Another category in the collection includes women who wrote up their family

histories and were self-published.

"That was not an uncommon practice a generation ago. From my point of view, if

you wrote a book and it was printed, you were an author even if you didn't

become an Emily Dickinson," Mrs Stokes said.

Louis Untermeyer At Center Of Collection

Perhaps the best known and widely read literary figure who once lived here was

author, editor, lecturer and poet Louis Untermeyer, fondly known by his

fellow-residents as the "Poet Laureate" of Newtown.

Mr Untermeyer was a great longtime friend of poet Robert Frost with whom he

carried on a lengthy correspondence from 1915 to 1958. The letters were later

donated to the manuscript division of the Library of Congress.

In addition, Mr Untermeyer's anthologies of English and American poetry have

been widely used by high school and college students from the 1950s and over

the next two decades.

For many years, Mr Untermeyer and his second wife, magazine editor and writer

Bryna Ivens, lived in a lovely old home off Great Hill Road, which was the

scene of many festive gatherings of family and friends especially upon the

occasion of his birthdays.

Louis Untermeyer continued to be a productive, prolific writer up to the age

of 92, when he died on December 19, 1977, at his Great Hill Road residence.

An oil painting by well-known Newtown artist Robert Sneckenburg of Taunton

Lane hangs today over the fireplace in the new Cyrenius H. Booth Library's

second floor Reading Room.

The painting is directly across the hall from the Special Collections Room

where many of Untermeyer's books have found a home alongside so many other

past and present Newtown authors.

Contemporary Authors Sought

Collecting all these works over many years and finally being able to display

them prominently has given Booth Library Curator Caroline Stokes a "wonderful

sense of satisfaction."

But the "gathering in" process has been neither systematic nor automatic, Mrs

Stokes hastened to add.

"We scoured the annual Booth Library Book Sale," she said, describing the

staff's somewhat random mode of recovery.

Most of the titles they have been able to find were published at least two

decades ago, she added.

Now she is hoping to hear from current town residents who are recently

published and whose books haven't yet had time to be recycled in the above

manner.

"There are three at least contemporary authors whose books we do have in the

collection... and I'm looking for more," Mrs Stokes said.

She mentioned, in particular, novelist Justin Scott, who frequently uses

Newtown's Main Street as his model; 1970s war correspondent John M. Del

Vecchio, who has written of his combat experiences in Viet Nam ( The 13th

Valley and For the Sake of All Living Things ); and children's book author

Joanna Cole, of the Magic School Bus series.

The Newtown Authors will be shelved in the Special Collections room on the

second floor of the new library where they can be seen and enjoyed by

everyone, Mrs Stokes added.

"We would really like to recognize them. There are some great writers here,"

she said.

Mrs Stokes is hoping to have the Newtown Authors Collection ready for display

during the library's Grand Opening celebration, which is tentatively set for

the second week in January.

Anyone who wishes to donate a copy of a recently published book, or who knows

of a recently published Newtown author, should call the Cyrenius H. Booth

Library at 426-4533, or call Caroline Stokes at 426-426-2409.