Monday, August 1, 2011

Library Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a very smart, independent and wealthy woman named Edith Wharton.  She lived in New York City, summered in Newport and travelled through Europe.  Edith loved to read and she loved everything about books. 

When she was little, even before she learned to read, she sat with a book (upside down) in her hands, imagining she could.  If she were still alive she would NEVER own a Nook or watch a movie adaptation, she revered the real deal.  

Herminone Lee, a Wharton biographer, said that looking at Wharton’s library was like reading her biography.  In a 2005 New York Times article, Lee commented, "Her whole social milieu, her private affairs and her literary career can be discerned from her collection," Ms. Lee wrote. "Wharton's flyleaves show her progression from Edith Jones to Mrs. Edward Wharton to Edith Wharton, as she turns herself from a society girl into the much-admired and somewhat daunting internationally famous author."  

Edith loved books so much that she decided to write her own books.  In 40 years she wrote 38 books and was the first woman to ever win the Pulitzer Prize, in 1921.

But today our story is about her library.  Edith moved to France just before WWI and brought her books with her, of course, but after her death, in 1937, her library was scattered.  Some of the books were destroyed but most went to her godson, Colin Clark.  Clark, amazingly, sold the collection to George Ramsden in 1984, who catalogued, loved and added appropriate books to the collection until it grew to 2,600 volumes.

While George collected in England, a group of devoted Whartonites bought ‘The Mount’,  the Lenox, MA house that Edith designed, built and decorated.  In 1997 they began the overwhelming job of restoring it and having it listed as a National Historic Landmark.  

The library was restored, but the shelves were bare and Edith’s beloved books were still an vast ocean away.  The room was like a dog without a bone; forlorn.  The Mount didn’t have the money to buy Wharton’s collection from George Ramsden and he certainly wasn't giving it away (he paid 45,000 pounds for it in 1984).   

Then along came our hero from, you won’t believe this, and I’m not making it up, BUFFALO!  “The Good Banker” (so dubbed by Joe Nocera in the New York Times)  saved the day by loaning The Mount the $2.6 million they needed to buy Edith’s books and bring them home to Lenox.  The Mount is in the process of repaying the banker, Robert G. Wilmars, the CEO of M&T bank, by sponsoring an adopt a book program.  Adoption fees start at $1,000 and go to $1 million (for her first book, “The Decoration of Houses”).

And so we arrive at the happy ending... Edith’s books are back on their shelves at The Mount, filled with the private notes and thoughts of their owner, where they belong thanks to the foresight, passion and deep pockets of George Ramsey and Robert Wilmars.

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