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Book Review: The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Cover of The Library Book by Susan Orlean

By Benjamin L. Clark

The Library Book by Susan Orlean — This book was on some great end-of-year lists last year and for good reason. I had it on my shelf for a while waiting for “someday,” and, well, someday came. It’s an amazing book. Is it very, very long-form journalism, is it popular history? A twist on True Crime? Where does that line even exist? It doesn’t matter. Deeply, passionately researched, this is a love story. Not simply to the beautiful Central Library in downtown Los Angeles, but to libraries everywhere, to the librarians who made and make them what they are, and most of all to the libraries of our hearts. 

Burning the Library

Los Angeles Public Library
Los Angeles Public Library, courtesy, California Historical Society, CHS2015.1897

The story of the 1986 fire that became one of the largest single-event losses of print culture in human history is the burning hoop that keeps this story together, fueled by the clear-eyed curiosity of Susan Orlean. Orlean is present in the story, but with so much uncertainty around the fire, and around the man who was arrested for it, her voice is the anchor readers need. Harry Peak was arrested for starting the fire, but not charged and eventually released has a slippery historical record, but a fascinating and in the end, sympathetic story. He died in 1993. Though the case remains unsolved, Orlean has done an incredible job taking the scraps and bits, talking to the right people who still remember important things, and puts it all together, not only cohesively and effectively, but in a touching and humane way.  

I’ve liked the L.A. Library for a long time, too. I’ve never been there or anything, but I like the architect who designed it, Bertram Goodhue. He also designed the capitol building of my home state of Nebraska. He is an interesting person as well, and his role isn’t ignored either. 

What Didn’t I Like?

Nothing. It was an incredible story well told. I’m sure Orlean could have filled four thick volumes of footnotes for all of it, but didn’t need to. I can see some readers may not see the point of going back to the L.A. Public Library’s very genesis, and down through the years along the way, but I found it fascinating! There are several other people who should have a lot more written about them! What we got was not enough! I kept hopping over to Wikipedia to look up more about individuals mentioned, looking for other connections. 

Reading Such A Book “In Times Like These”

“Under our current circumstances,” “in these unprecedented times,” whatever your preferred euphemism for sheltering at home during a novel virus pandemic that has already taken 300,000 lives worldwide, it’s a strange time to review a book at all. Especially one about a disaster. But I found this book to be strangely calming. Orlean brings order from an avalanche of charred, damp, broken bits. I also miss my local library. Also, as curator of a museum, I couldn’t help but feel encouraged — we’re going to be OK too. 

The book was also a balm for how open-ended our “current circumstances” are. The library fire burned for several hours, but the destruction and unanswered questions lasted for years. I can’t imagine working in the conditions the people there endured for so long. Would the library be rebuilt? Would the institution even survive? Could the city even afford to rebuild if there was political will to do so? Spoiler alert: In the end, the library was restored, expanded, and is thriving. 

Who Should Read It?

Bibliophiles of any stripe, anyone interested in the history of Los Angeles. Creative people, people pushing nostalgia for the 1980s. People facing disasters. Survivors. Culture vultures, architecture nerds, the bookish, the lonely, the weird kids. Friends of the Library, Museum, Symphony, Theater, whatever. It’s a great book and you should read it too.

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

It’s A Podcast, Charlie Brown

It's a podcast, Charlie Brown

Good grief

So, I’ve had a drastic move in my day job: It’s been about a year since moving to California for a dream job: I’m now the curator of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. Yes, that makes me the official historian of Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the whole Peanuts Gang. It’s been fantastic, but it’s been hectic in my first year here and it’s not left any time at all for much creative writing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m writing constantly … for work. We have six exhibitions per year, and I write all of them, and there have been special projects that were waiting as well, so it’s been crazy but the end is in sight.

We’ve also been busy as a family getting to know our incredible new home. Sonoma County and the Bay Area, in general, is just a very special, beautiful place, and as people who love the outdoors, it’s easy to put the notebooks aside for the weekend and just go. The beach, the mountains, the Redwoods, several hundred wineries, world-class dairies with their specialty cheese shops — it’s a lot to take in for a family of midwesterners who are used to holing up for the winter and not seeing true warmth and daylight until May.

Also, (back to work), I’ve had a lot of reading to do. Like how to do you become an “overnight” expert on a man who has had a handful of biographies, has given hundreds of interviews, and wrote and drew a daily comic strip for nearly 50 years (to the tune of 17,897 strips!) — A lot of reading. A lot, lot of reading. And to read his influences. And his acolytes. And I’m not done, by a long shot, but I think I’m starting to see the margins of life reforming where I can slip in a creative word or two outside my journal.

I’m a blockhead

It's a podcast, Charlie Brown

In the past year, I’ve been learning a lot about comics and how they fit into pop culture in the 20th Century and coming forward to now. So, in an effort to keep my bona fides current, and to be a good creative person, I’m showing my work (#showyourwork) as a sort of disciple of Peanuts fan Austin Kleon has taught in his wonderful books which really kicks off with Steal Like an Artist, his follow up Show Your Work, and the just-released Keep Going.

So, on that front, of being a good museum curator, here is my recent-ish interview for the podcast It’s A Podcast, Charlie Brown. It’s something of a monthly audio magazine for the true Peanuts fan. My interview begins around the 36:30-minute mark or so.

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes historical mysteries and works as a museum curator.

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In the Museum: A JFK Autograph Mystery

JFK Signature

IMG_3251That’s it?!”

I admit, it doesn’t look like much, but the cameraman’s tone stung. This book is a treasure at the museum where I’m curator. But with a book collector’s eye, yes it’s in tough shape. But what a story behind it!

Someone somewhere in our large organization decided to create and promote some short videos about fascinating objects in our collections. They needed a list of suggested artifacts and this one was high on our list.

In 1940, a young John F. Kennedy’s senior thesis at Harvard was published as Why England Slept. Not long after that, an autographed copy from the young man from a prominent family was given to Father Edward J. Flanagan, of Boys Town fame. Father Flanagan was one of the most famous Catholics in the United States in 1940, just two years following the film that earned Spencer Tracy his second Oscar.

JFK Signature
Circa 1940 signature of John F. Kennedy

We’re still not 100% sure how the book came to have been gifted to Father Flanagan, but he and young Jack Kennedy’s sister Eunice Schriver served on a committee studying juvenile delinquency around that time, and that was the best guess according to long-time staff at the museum.

Then I found this November 1940 photo online at the JFK Presidential Library of young JFK signing the book for Spencer Tracy. Father Flanagan wasn’t the only priest played by Tracy, but he did play him twice. First in 1938 in Boys Town, and a little-known sequel Men of Boys Town in 1940.

KFC 2616PIt makes sense if this was on the set of Men of Boys Town with Tracy reprising his role as Father Flanagan. Did young Jack Kennedy sign a copy for Father at the same time as Tracy’s? Someone on staff asked if JFK made it out to Father Flanagan, giving it to Tracy!

Nothing turns up in our archives of correspondence between Tracy and Flanagan about the book, but there’s a decent probability Father Flanagan was on set at Men of Boys Town, so he could be just out of frame in this photo! We’ll probably never know.

We do know that we’ll have a nice video telling the fascinating story behind this particular book and the strange and roundabout way it came to the museum.

More About Working In Museums:
VHS is Dead
How to Research Like a Novelist

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