The original dust jacket for the hard cover first edition of The Bluest Eye, with photo of Toni Morrison by Bert Andrews.
The passing of Toni
Morrison in August 2019 at the age of 88 opened a floodgate of tributes from
around the world. The native of Lorain, Ohio, had climbed heights no other
American writer of the past half-century had achieved, winning every major
award from the Pulitzer Prize to the Presidential Medal of Freedom and, in
1993, the Nobel Prize for Literature.
This month marks a
milestone in Morrison’s life and career. It was 50 years ago, in November 1970,
when her first novel, The Bluest Eye,
was published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston. At the time, Morrison was
working as a textbook editor for L.W. Singer. Because she was a relatively
unknown writer, the initial print run in hardcover was only 2,000 copies. But
it brought her acclaim, which would continue to grow with her second novel, Sula (for which Morrison won her first
literary prize – the Ohioana Book Award in fiction), and her third, Song of Solomon, which solidified her
position as one of America’s greatest writers.
With controversial themes that include incest and rape, The Bluest Eye has often been challenged as high school reading material and has appeared several times among the list of titles most frequently banned. But in the 50 years since its publication, it has become a classic.
For those not familiar with the novel, Chiquita Mullins-Lee, herself an award-winning poet and playwright, as well as the Arts Learning Coordinator for the Ohio Arts Council, offers this summary:
“The Bluest Eye presents a treatise on
slavery’s legacy of self-loathing and self-rejection. Toni Morrison channels
the generational trauma of a little black girl who internalizes societal norms
that devalue her looks, culture, and very existence. In Pecola Breedlove’s world,
Black value and Black beauty are non-entities. From a deeply broken spirit,
Pecola identifies the prize: blues eyes promise entry into a place that
privileges white skin and tolerates the physical features of a “high yellow
dream child.” In possession of neither blue eyes nor light skin, Pecola
languishes in a world that fails to affirm her. That same destruction of the
spirit is revealed in the pathology of her father, Cholly Breedlove, who
exemplifies one who has received and transmitted a lethal legacy that fractured
families. Ironically, the acquisition of blue eyes could be only a superficial,
as well as impossible, fix. Toni Morrison assigns Black folks the
responsibility to cherish our children, love ourselves, and heal our spirits
and community.”
In 1988, the year Morrison
won the Pulitzer Prize for her most acclaimed novel, Beloved, and also received the Ohioana Career Medal, she did an
interview with Thames Television on the subject “Why I Wrote The Bluest Eye,” which you can watch on YouTube:
One of the fascinating aspects of Morrison’s writing was her meticulous care and attention to detail. In an article for The Paris Review, she wrote:
We began to talk about little rituals that one goes through before beginning to write. I, at first, thought I didn’t have a ritual, but then I remembered that I always get up and make a cup of coffee while it is still dark—it must be dark—and then I drink the coffee and watch the light come. And she said, Well, that’s a ritual. And I realized that for me this ritual comprises my preparation to enter a space that I can only call nonsecular . . . Writers all devise ways to approach that place where they expect to make the contact, where they become the conduit, or where they engage in this mysterious process. For me, light is the signal in the transition. It’s not being in the light, it’s being there before it arrives. It enables me, in some sense.
Ohioana board member Dionne Custer Edwards, who is also a poet and Director of Learning and Public Practice at the Wexner Center for the Arts, spoke on the impact Morrison’s words had on her:
“As a mother of three, I too often think about
rituals of making inside of the demands of work and life. About how to shape
lines, images, narratives, and texture—especially in these days—in the
midst of a societal crisis, or two or three. I think about pursuing language in
an enduring moment where living is a pattern of abundant isolation from breath,
sound, movement, people. I think about life as it once was and grieve it with
dignity and a few fresh notes of comfort when I am reminded by the sky that I
am still breathing even as I consider the enduring length of suffering. I think
about time. About how I have often captured the practice of writing in the
draft along the wood floors between deep quiet in the house and the folds of
sunrise.
I remember meeting Toni Morrison while I was an undergraduate student at Ohio State University. I will never forget how she stayed with a small group of us after her public talk. How she advised, encouraged, held us in a moment of wisdom, comfort, and candor. How she shared ideas about writing and how to make use of hours and space. Back then, I was an English major trying to figure out what to do with my words. So grateful to have lived during a time when Toni Morrison wrote about the complexities of Black lives as real and imagined experiences in literature. ”
The complexities of Black lives as real and imagined experiences in literature that began 50 years ago with The Bluest Eye.
With special thanks to Chiquita Mullins Lee
and Dionne Custer Edwards.
Election day – exciting for some, nerve wracking for most.
This year, we’ve watched election day turn into election week as we wait for
the results of a tight presidential race. As we’re waiting, it’s easy to get
caught up in speculation and anxiety. If that is what you’re feeling this week,
you’re not alone.
Thankfully, one of the best distractions in times of
uncertainty is literature. The other is fun presidential facts! Today, Ohioana
has some of both to tide you over as we await final results.
Did you know that seven presidents were born in Ohio,
leading the state to sometimes be referred to as “The Mother of Presidents”? An
eighth, William Henry Harrison, was born in Virginia but lived most of his
adult life in Ohio. Many consider him an honorary Ohioan. However, in terms of
birth defining one’s home state, Ohio is second in the ranking of states that
has produced the most presidents, behind Virginia in which eight were born.
The last president from Ohio was Warren G. Harding, born in 1865, who served from 1921-1923. In fact, this week marks the 100-year anniversary of his election, as well as the centennial of the first woman’s vote. Even though it’s been nearly 100 years since an Ohioan was president, there is no doubt that the impact of the state has deep roots within the White House.
In 1920, Warren G. Harding was the last Ohioan elected to the White House, in the first election in which all American women could vote, thanks to the 19th Amendment
If you’re looking for some fun presidential facts and something good to read this election season, look no further. Below we’ve compiled some information about Ohio’s seven presidents, as well as honorary Ohioan William Henry Harrison to keep you occupied. We’ve attempted to include Presidential Recommendations, books and authors that these presidents favored, where possible – however, primary sources on this info are hard to come by, so please take those recommendations with a grain of salt! Scroll to the bottom for information on a special event with Ohio author David Giffels discussing the election, being held virtually on November 12th at 6:30pm. Registration is free.
Fun Fact: You can see a cigar that was partially-smoked by President Grant on display in the Grant Room at the Ohio Statehouse.
Handwritten letter by Ulysses S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
19th President of the United States of America
Born: 1822, Delaware, OH
Died: 1893, Fremont, OH
Years in Office: 1877 – 1881
Favorite Book: The Collected Speechesof
Daniel Webster (https://www.buzzfeed.com/daveodegard/the-favorite-books-of-all-44-presidents-of-the-united-states)
Fun Fact: He was wounded at least 4 times during his time serving in the Civil War.
James A. Garfield
20th President of the United States of America
Born: 1831, Cuyahoga County, OH
Died: Assassinated in 1881, Elberon, Long Branch, NJ
Fun Fact: Ohioana has several pieces of personal correspondence by Garfield, as well as commemorative items, in our Ohio Presidents collection. http://www.ohioana.org/honoring-james-garfield/
Copy of invitation to James A. Garfield’s memorial service
Benjamin Harrison
23rd President of the United States of America
Born: 1833, North Bend, OH
Died: 1901, Indianapolis, IN
Years in Office: 1889 – 1893
Favorite Author: Walter Scott (goodreads.com)
Fun Fact: He is the president least associated with
Ohio, having spent much of his adult life in Indianapolis.
William McKinley
25th President of the United States of America
Born: 1843, Niles, OH
Died: Assassinated in 1901, Buffalo, NY
Years in Office: 1897 – 1901
Favorite Author: Lord Byron (Kevin Phillips, William
McKinley: The American Presidents Series)
Fun Fact: He was the last Civil War veteran to serve
as president.
William Howard Taft
27th President of the United States of America
Born: 1857, Cincinnati
Died: 1930, Washington, D.C.
Years in Office: 1909 – 1913
Favorite Book/Author: unknown
Fun Fact: President Taft was much more interested in
having a seat on the Supreme Court than being president but was encouraged by his
wife to run.
Warren G. Harding
29th President of the United States of America
Born: 1865, Blooming Grove, OH
Died: 1923, San Francisco, CA
Years in Office: 1921 – 1923
Favorite Book: Rules of Poker (https://www.buzzfeed.com/daveodegard/the-favorite-books-of-all-44-presidents-of-the-united-states)
Fun Fact: He was the first president to ride in a car to his inauguration, and the first to broadcast a speech over the radio.
Bonus: William Henry Harrison
9th President of the United States of America
Born: 1773, Charles City county Virginia
Died: 1841, Washington, D.C.
Years in Office: 1841
Favorite Book/Author: unknown
Fun Fact: He gave the longest inaugural speech of any president in history, at 8,445 words.
For more presidential discussion, join us next Thursday for a special online event with Ohio author David Giffels.
November 12, 2020 at 6:30pm
Barnstorming Ohio to Understand America: A Conversation with
David Giffels
David Giffels, author of Barnstorming Ohio to
Understand America is joined in conversation with David Weaver,
Executive Director of Ohioana Library. Giffels is a celebrated author and
essayist, winner of a 2019 Ohioana Award and dubbed “the bard of Akron” by the
New York Times. He has spent a quarter century writing about what it means to
live in a state he calls “an all-American buffet, an uncannily complete
everyplace.”
Barnstorming Ohio is Giffels’ account of a year
on Ohio’s roads, visiting people and places that offer valuable reflections of
the national questions and concerns, as well as astounding electoral
clairvoyance—since 1896, Ohio has chosen the winner in twenty-nine of
thirty-one presidential elections, more than any other state. The conversation
during this event will focus on Giffels’ account, what he learned, and if his
conclusions are accurately represented in the results of the 2020 election.
The event will be held virtually on Zoom and is free to
attend, and attendees are encouraged to add a copy of Barnstorming Ohio
to Understand America to their ticket order. Copies purchased in
conjunction with this event are signed by Giffels and include free shipping.
About the Author:
Barnstorming Ohio author David Giffels has
written six books of nonfiction, including the critically acclaimed
memoir, Furnishing Eternity: A Father, a Son, a Coffin, and a Measure
of Life, published by Scribner in 2018. The book has been hailed by the New
York Times Book Review as “tender, witty and … painstakingly and subtly
wrought,” and by Kirkus Reviews as “a heartfelt memoir about the connection
between a father and son.” It was a Book of the Month pick by Amazon and
Powell’s and a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice.”
His previous books include The Hard Way on Purpose:
Essays and Dispatches From the Rust Belt (Scribner 2014), a New York
Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice” and nominee for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel
Award for the Art of the Essay, and the memoir All the Way Home (William
Morrow/HarperCollins 2008), winner of the Ohioana Book Award.
Giffels is the coauthor, with Jade Dellinger, of the rock
biography Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! and, with Steve
Love, Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron.
A former Akron Beacon Journal columnist, his writing has
appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic.com, Parade, The Wall
Street Journal, Esquire.com, Grantland.com, The Iowa Review, and many other
publications. He also wrote for the MTV series Beavis and Butt-Head.
His awards include the Cleveland Arts Prize for literature,
the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and a General Excellence
award from National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He was selected as the
Cuyahoga County Public Library Writer in Residence for 2018-2019.
Giffels is a professor of English at the University of
Akron, where he teaches creative nonfiction in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine
Arts Program.
It’s July 10, and today we celebrate the 115th birthday of one of Ohio’s greatest writers – Mildred Wirt Benson. Her name might not be as familiar to you as some noted Ohio authors, but you’ve certainly heard of her pen name and the beloved fictional character she created – Nancy Drew.
Yes, indeed, “Millie” was the first “Carolyn Keene” – the pseudonym given to all the many writers of the enduringly popular mystery series built around the mythical teen sleuth. And most importantly about Millie – she infused Nancy with many of her own personality traits, talents, and interests. You could almost say that Millie was the REAL Nancy Drew.
She was born Mildred Augustine on this day in 1905 in the small town of Ladora, Iowa. A tomboy from the time she was a child, she excelled at sports. She developed a lifelong love of adventure and travel and was a talented musician.
But writing was her passion. “I always wanted to be a writer from the time I could walk,” she said. “I had no other thought except that I wanted to write.” She began writing stories in grade school; she won her first writing award when she was 14.
At the State University of Iowa, she became the first person in the school’s history to earn a master’s degree in journalism. While there she met and fell in love with Asa Wirt, who worked for the Associated Press. They married in 1928 and settled first in Cleveland, moving later to Toledo. Millie would remain an Ohioan for the rest of her life. Her only child, daughter Peggy, was born in 1937.
In 1927, Millie was hired by Edward Stratemyer as a ghostwriter for his syndicate, which produced popular books for teens, including the enormously successful Hardy Boys series. Ghostwriters worked for a flat fee and did not share in royalties of the books they wrote, which were published under pseudonyms created by the syndicate. They had to sign a confidentiality agreement to not reveal their true identities as authors.
After having Millie write several novels for the Ruth Fielding series (under the pen name Alice B. Emerson), Stratmeyer gave Millie a new assignment: to create an original series about a girl sleuth named Nancy Drew. Stratemeyer provided her with titles and plot outlines for three books. But it was left to Millie to flesh out the character.
And flesh her out she did, creating a character that was smart, self-confident, fearless, and fun-loving. As Millie would say years later, she was trying to make Nancy Drew “a departure from the stereotyped heroine commonly encountered in series books of the day.” Edward Stratemeyer was concerned that Nancy “was too flip,” but when the three books – The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase, and The Bungalow Mystery – were published in April 1930, they were an immediate sensation. Young readers couldn’t get enough of Nancy Drew and “Carolyn Keene.”
Cover of The Secret in the Old Attic (1944) from Ohioana’s collection
Millie would go on to pen 23 of the first 30 Drew novels. And those were just a small part of a huge output that ultimately totaled more than 130 books produced for young readers between 1927 and 1959, both under pseudonyms and her real name. Other than Nancy Drew, Millie’s most popular character (and her own personal favorite) was Penny Parker, the heroine of a series that appeared under her own name, as Mildred A. Wirt.
As an Ohio author, Millie’s books under her own name had begun to be collected by the Ohioana Library almost from the time we were founded in October 1929. In 1957, Millie provided us with a completed biographical form that we could add to our collection.
Mildred’s biographical form
Interestingly, Millie noted that among her writings were “mystery books published under various pen names.” Remember, as a ghostwriter for Stratemeyer, Millie could not disclose her authorship of the Nancy Drew series, or any of the other books she wrote for them.
That changed in 1980, when a lawsuit was filed over publishing rights to the Stratemeyer syndicate titles. The question of authorship of books came up, and Millie was called to testify. For the first time, 50 years after the first novels had been published, Mildred Wirt Benson was revealed as the original Carolyn Keene, the creator of Nancy Drew.
By that time, Millie had long ceased writing novels for young readers, concentrating instead on a career as a journalist that had begun in the mid-1940s, first for the Toledo Times and then for the Toledo Blade. Millie’s first husband, Asa Wirt, had passed away in 1947. Three years later, she married a second time, to George Benson, editor of the Blade. He died in 1959.
Together, Millie and George traveled a great deal. She particularly loved visiting the Mayan ruins in Central America. Once, while in Guatemala, she was briefly kidnapped. It was like a real-life Nancy Drew adventure! Readers of Millie’s column, On the Go, loved sharing vicariously in her exploits.
Millie at her desk
Millie loved to fly, earning her pilot’s license in 1964 at age 59. In 1986, she applied to NASA to become the first journalist-in-space. She was 81 at the time.
In 1989, the Ohioana Library honored Millie with a citation “for distinguished service to Ohio in the field of children’s literature.” Informed of the award, Millie said, “So many years have elapsed since I actively wrote children’s books that I doubt I deserve the honor.”
Letter from Mildred Benson thanking Ohioana for the 1989 Award
Unable to attend the award ceremony in Columbus because of an injury, Millie was presented her award in Toledo by Ohioana board member Ann Bowers, who fondly remembers Millie’s youthful outlook and optimism.
Thank you note from Millie to Ohioana
There would be many other honors in the following years, as more and more people heralded Millie’s achievements, especially in creating Nancy Drew.
Even as she entered her 90s and began suffering from failing health, Millie kept writing. On May 28, 2002, Millie was at her desk at the Blade when she fell ill. She was taken to Toledo Hospital,
where she died that evening. She was 96 years old. News of her death made headlines around the world.
By the time of her death, more than 70 years after the first novels had appeared, notable women in every field had cited Nancy Drew as a role model and inspiration. So much so, that it surprised even Millie, who in an interview the year before she died said, “I always knew the series would be successful. I just never expected it to be the blockbuster that it has been. I’m glad that I had that much influence on people.”
Dozens of writers followed Millie as “Carolyn Keene,” keeping the Nancy Drew series thriving for decades. And it expanded way beyond the books – films, television shows, games, coloring books, puzzles, and more. As Nancy Drew celebrates her 90th anniversary this year, one would have to say that, except perhaps for Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster’s Superman, no character created by a writer from Ohio has become such a pop culture phenomenon as Nancy Drew.
And now fans past, present, and future have a new place where they can celebrate Nancy Drew and Mildred Wirt Benson: the Jennifer Fisher/Nancy Drew Collection at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library. Fisher, a Drew scholar, is writing a biography of Mildred Wirt Benson. She also hosts the unofficial Nancy Drew sleuth website, a must for Drew fans worldwide. The exhibit at the library will feature several thousand items from Fisher’s personal collection.
The Jennifer Fisher/Nancy Drew Collection reading room at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library
So on this 115th anniversary of her birth, Ohioana salutes Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson, the first Carolyn Keene and the creator of Nancy Drew. And on behalf of your millions of fans over the last 90 years . . . thank you, Millie! Further reading:
“Curating a Nancy Drew Collection,” guest blog by Jennifer Fisher, https://www.toledolibrary.org/blog/curating-a-nancy-drew-collection
Missing Millie Benson: The Secret Case of the Nancy Drew Ghostwriter and Journalist by Julie K. Rubini, Ohio University/Swallow Press, https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Missing+Millie+Benson And visit Jennifer Fisher’s Nancy Drew website: http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com
Though the Syfy Channel has traditionally been the home of the New Year and Independence Day Twilight Zone marathons, this year the Decades channel will be celebrating the 4th of July Weekend with “Rod, White, and Blue,” to commemorate creator Rod Serling on the 45th anniversary of his death, at age 50, on June 28, 1975.
Serling was born on Christmas Day in 1924 in Syracuse, New York. He graduated from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, after serving in the military. While at Antioch, he became manager of the college’s radio station, and also lived in Marion, working at radio station WMRN (you can read more about his time in Marion and the impression he made upon his co-workers here: https://tinyurl.com/y8esqluy ). He then moved his family to Cincinnati. It was there he began his professional writing career, writing first radio and then television scripts for WKRC. While freelancing, he continued to send scripts to publishers, receiving over 40 rejection slips. His wife Carol said he eventually became fed up and just quit, moving his family to Connecticut in 1953. His agent convinced him that if he really wanted a career in television he should move to New York, so in 1954 he packed up his wife and young children once again and moved to the city.
He quickly got work on Kraft Television Theater as well as several other TV productions, including continued work back at WKRC. He continued to develop a name for himself, and eventually got attention from executives at CBS. After a long process, The Twilight Zone was greenlit and premiered on October 2, 1959.
For this series, Serling fought hard to get and maintain creative control. He hired scriptwriters he respected, such as classic genre writers Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, and Charles Beaumont. In an interview, Serling said he hoped the show’s science fiction format would not be controversial with sponsors, network executives, or the general public, and should escape censorship.
Serling drew on his own experience for many episodes, frequently about boxing, military life, and airplane pilots. Carol Serling said his time in the military was traumatic and changed many of his worldviews, which made their way into his writing. The Twilight Zone incorporated his social views on racial relations, somewhat veiled in the science fiction and fantasy elements of the shows. His use of allegory was masterful and he was able to get a lot of controversial topics past censors, at a time when other shows were not even willing to try. Occasionally, though, the point was quite blunt, such as in the episode “I Am the Night—Color Me Black,” in which racism and hatred causes a dark cloud to form in the American South and spread across the world.
Many Twilight Zone stories reflected his views on gender roles, featuring quick-thinking, resilient women as well as shrewish, nagging wives. Cleveland native Burgess Meredith appears in four of the most famous episodes of the show, including “Time Enough at Last,” the chilling tale of a mild-mannered man who only wants to read his books in peace, and is horrified when his wish is granted. Another episode was based on Ohioan Ambrose Bierce’s “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge;” directed by Robert Enrico, it was submitted to the Academy Awards and won the Best Short Film award at the 1964 Oscars.
The Twilight Zone aired for five seasons (the first three presented as half-hour episodes, the fourth had hour-long episodes, and the fifth returned to the half-hour format). It won many television and drama awards and drew critical acclaim for Serling and his co-workers. Although it had loyal fans, The Twilight Zone had only moderate ratings and was twice canceled and revived. After five years and 156 episodes (92 written by Serling), he grew weary of the series. In 1964, he decided not to oppose its third and final cancellation.
Rod Serling continued to work in TV, creating another classic anthology series, Night Gallery, which ran from 1969-1973. He also consistently worked in radio, writing for The Zero Hour and Fantasy Park. Additionally, he often spoke at college campuses around the USA. He wrote screenplays for films, including the original version of the science fiction classic, The Planet of the Apes. He also taught week-long seminars in which students would watch and critique movies. In the political climate of the 1960s, he often felt a stronger connection to the older students in his evening classes.
Serling’s critique of high school student writing was a pivotal experience for writer J. Michael Straczynski, who science fiction and comic fans will know well as the long-time writer of Thor comics for Marvel and Superman for DC, as well as the creator of the influential television series Babylon 5 and Sense8. Later Serling taught at Ithaca College, from the late 1960s until his death in 1975. He was one of the first guest teachers at the Sherwood Oaks Experimental College in Hollywood, California. Audio recordings of his lectures there are included as bonus features on some Twilight Zone home video editions.
Rod and Carol Serling via John Hoke/Antiochiana, Antioch College
According to his wife, Serling often said that “the ultimate obscenity is not caring, not doing something about what you feel, not feeling! Just drawing back and drawing in, becoming narcissistic.” This philosophy can be seen in his writing. Some themes appear again and again, many of which are concerned with war and politics. Another common theme is equality among all people. He frequently spoke out against racism, social inequality, the Vietnam War, government oppression, and police brutality. In a speech delivered December 3, 1968 at Moorpark College, Moorpark, California, he said,
“I would rather have a son or daughter of mine march through the streets of Chicago protesting injustice—than I would siring a Chicago policeman who’ll club anyone who’ll get in his way—and that includes sixteen-year-olds, newspaper photographers, and senior citizens.” (December 4, 1968, excerpted from https://rodserling.com/rod-serling-rips-loyalty-oaths-the-vietnam-war-and-social-inequity/ )
Angered and mourning the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he said:
“In his grave, we praise him for his decency – but when he walked amongst us, we responded with no decency of our own. When he suggested that all men should have a place in the sun – we put a special sanctity on the right of ownership and the privilege of prejudice by maintaining that to deny homes to Negroes was a democratic right. Now we acknowledge his compassion – but we exercised no compassion of our own. When he asked us to understand that men take to the streets out of anguish and hopelessness and a vision of that dream dying, we bought guns and speculated about roving agitators and subversive conspiracies and demanded law and order. We felt anger at the effects, but did little to acknowledge the causes. We extol all the virtues of the man – but we chose not to call them virtues before his death. And now, belatedly, we talk of this man’s worth – but the judgement comes late in the day as part of a eulogy when it should have been made a matter of record while he existed as a living force. If we are to lend credence to our mourning, there are acknowledgements that must be made now, albeit belatedly. We must act on the altogether proper assumption that Martin Luther King asked for nothing but that which was his due… He asked only for equality, and it is that which we denied him.” (Letter to The Los Angeles Times; April 8, 1968.)
A Town Has Turned to Dust, Serling’s 1958 made-for-TV film, received a positive review from the critic Jack Gould, who was known for being straightforward to the point of being harsh in his reviews. He called A Town Has Turned to Dust, “a raw, tough and at the same time deeply moving outcry against prejudice.” Set in a Southwestern town in a deep drought, it sees poverty and despair turn racial tensions deadly when the ineffectual sheriff is unable to stand against the town. A young Mexican boy is lynched, and the town as a whole is to blame. A second lynching is in the works after a series of events leads again to the town turning against the Mexicans. This time, the sheriff stands strong, and the first boy’s brother is saved, even as the town is not. “Mr. Serling incorporated his protest against prejudice in vivid dialogue and sound situations. He made his point that hate for a fellow being leads only to the ultimate destruction of the bigoted,” said Gould, in the New York Times.
Serling took his 1972 screenplay for the film, The Man, from the Irving Wallace novel of the same title. A black senator from New Hampshire and president pro tempore of the Senate, played by James Earl Jones, assumes the U.S. presidency by succession.
Sadly, Rod Serling passed away at the early age of 50, after suffering three heart attacks very quickly. His wife Carol survived him and continued to speak about her husband and his legacy for many years, until she also passed away a month before her 92nd birthday on January 9, 2020. Serling’s daughter Anne, born during the family’s time in Connecticut, wrote a stirring memoir about her father, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling, in 2013, and has also continued to write and speak about her father’s legacy.
Serling is indelibly woven into modern popular culture because of the enduring popularity of The Twilight Zone. Even youth of today can hum the theme song, and the title itself is a synonym for all things unexplainable. It has lived on with a movie, graphic novels, many books (including Ohio film critic and Twilight Zone expert Mark Dawidziak’s Everything I Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone), albums, and even a ride at Disney World. It has also inspired a few TV reboots, including one that started on CBS All Access in 2019, produced by Jordan Peele, which has just started a second season. Serling’s widow, Carol, maintained that the cult status that now surrounds both her husband and his shows continues to be a surprise, “as I’m sure it would have been to him.” Carol, who was raised in Columbus, helped establish the Rod Serling Archives at Ithaca College in upstate New York. The collection includes scripts and screenplays, her husband’s six Emmy Awards, plus photos, films, and books from his personal collection. She also helped endow a Rod Serling Scholarship in Communications there.
The origins of Twilight Zone holiday marathons are themselves shrouded in a bit of mystery (you can read more about that here: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-twilight-zone-marathon-a-history-of-a-holiday-tradition/ ). One thing is true: the show has a legacy that has evolved far beyond what Serling ever intended, resonating with viewers across generations for over sixty years. Whether this is your first time viewing the show or your one hundredth, there is always something new to discover, some underlying theme to Serling’s vision that continues to captivate audiences from year to year.
The “Rod, White and Blue” marathon begins at 12p ET | 9a PT on July 4 on Decades, and runs through the weekend. Check your local listings: https://www.decades.com/wheretowatch
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. The Stonewall Uprising, which began on June 28, 1969, was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. In the United States the last Sunday in June was initially celebrated as “Gay Pride Day,” but the actual day was flexible. In major cities across the nation the “day” soon grew to encompass a month-long series of events. Today, celebrations include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts, and LGBTQ+ Pride Month events attract millions of participants around the world. Memorials are held during this month for those members of the community who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, and members of the extended community who identify under the LGBTQ+ spectrum, have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally.
For this Pride Month, Ohioana would like to share a chronological list of books from among our state’s most noted LGBTQ+ voices, past and present.
White Buildings – 1926, Hart Crane (Garrettsville)
This first book of poems by hart Crane, one of his three major collections, was originally published in 1926. The themes in White Buildings are abstract and metaphysical, but Crane’s associations and images spring from the American scene. Crane associated his sexuality with his vocation as a poet. Raised in the Christian Science tradition of his mother, he never ceased to view himself as a social pariah. Though he was only semi-public with his homosexuality, as necessitated by the mores of the time, Crane was clear with his intentions in poems like “The Broken Tower,” and “My Grandmother’s Love Letters.” Crane tragically took his own life at the very young age of 32, leaving behind a legacy of poetry that is sadly underappreciated today. Though he is not well known now, Crane was admired in the early 20th Century by many poets and playwrights, including Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams, whose play Steps Must Be Gentle was based on Crane’s relationship with his mother.
A Boy’s Own Story – 1982, Edmund White (Cincinnati)
A Boy’s Own Story is the first of a trilogy of novels, describing a boy’s coming of age and documenting a young man’s experience of homosexuality in the 1950s in Cincinnati, Chicago and Michigan. The trilogy continued with The Beautiful Room Is Empty (1988) and The Farewell Symphony (1997), which brought the setting up to the 1990s. These semi-autobiographical novels were a deeply personal journey for Cincinnati’s Edmund White, written, in part, because of his own reading journey as a child. White has said, “As a young teenager I looked desperately for things to read that might excuse me or assure me I wasn’t the only one, that might confirm an identity I was unhappily piecing together.” He decided that, since he could not find any books to read about people like himself, he would create them on his own. Considered an icon in the world of LGBTQ+ literature, White has gone on to write over 50 novels, plays, and essays over his career, most of them featuring same-sex themes, and has won multiple awards, including the 2019 National Book Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.
Dream Work – 1986, Mary Oliver (Cleveland)
Mary Oliver was born and raised in Maple Hills Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. She would retreat from a difficult home to the nearby woods, where she would build huts of sticks and grass and write poems. Oliver’s nature-focused poetry won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, 2 Ohioana Book Awards, and a Lannan Literary Award for lifetime achievement. Reviewing Dream Work for the Nation, critic Alicia Ostriker numbered Oliver among America’s finest poets, as “visionary as [Ralph Waldo] Emerson.” Though notoriously secret about her private life, Oliver lived on Cape Cod with her partner, Molly Malone Cook, for more than 40 years.
Thomas the Rhymer – 1990, Ellen Kushner (Shaker Heights)
Award-winning author and radio personality Ellen Kushner’s inspired retelling of an ancient legend weaves myth and magic into a vivid contemporary novel about the mysteries of the human heart. Brimming with ballads, riddles, and magical transformations, this World Fantasy Award-winner is the timeless tale of a charismatic bard whose talents earn him a two-edged otherworldly gift. A graduate of Barnard College, Ellen Kushner also attended Bryn Mawr College, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She began her career in publishing as a fiction editor in New York City, but left to write her first novel Swordspoint, which has become a cult classic, hailed as the progenitor of the “mannerpunk” (or “Fantasy of Manners”) school of urban fantasy. Swordspoint was followed by Thomas the Rhymer, and two more novels in her “Riverside” series, including The Fall of The Kings (2002), written with her wife Delia Sherman. Kushner has been praised as a vanguard of positive depictions of bisexual characters and relationships in fantasy fiction.
The Prize Winner ofDefiance, Ohio – 2005, Terry Ryan (Defiance)
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio introduces Evelyn Ryan, an enterprising woman who kept poverty at bay with wit, poetry, and perfect prose during the “contest era” of the 1950s and 1960s. Stepping back into a time when fledgling advertising agencies were active partners with consumers, and everyday people saw possibility in every coupon, Terry Ryan tells how her mother kept the family afloat by writing jingles and contest entries. Ryan’s signature wit and verve made this story so popular it was turned into a successful film. With artist Sylvia Mollick, Ryan was also the co-creator of the long-running cartoon T. O. Sylvester in the San Francisco Chronicle. She was married to her long-time partner, Pat Holt, by San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom on St Valentine’s Day 2004. Her account of her wedding, titled We Do!, was published by Chronicle Books. Sadly Ryan was diagnosed with cancer not long after her big success, and passed away on May 16, 2007.
Bright Felon – 2009 Kazim Ali (Oberlin)
Poet, editor, and prose writer Kazim Ali was born in the United Kingdom to Muslim parents of Indian descent. He received a BA and MA from the University of Albany-SUNY, and an MFA from New York University. In 2003 Ali co-founded Nightboat Books and served as the press’s publisher until 2007. He has received an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council, and his poetry has been featured in Best American Poetry. In this follow up to his Ohioana Book Award winner Sky Ward, which won the 2015 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry, Ali details the struggle of coming of age between cultures, overcoming personal and family strictures to talk about private affairs and secrets long held. The text is comprised of sentences that alternate in time, ranging from discursive essay to memoir to prose poetry. Art, history, politics, geography, love, sexuality, writing, and religion, and the role silence plays in each, are its interwoven themes. Bright Felon is literally “autobiography” because the text itself becomes a form of writing the life, revealing secrets, and then, amid the shards and fragments of experience, dealing with the aftermath of such revelations.
The Last Nude – 2012, Ellis Avery (Columbus)
The only writer ever to have received the American Library Association Stonewall Award for Fiction twice, Ellis Avery was the author of two novels, a memoir, and a book of poetry. Her novels, The Last Nude (Riverhead 2012) and The Teahouse Fire (Riverhead 2006) received Lambda, Golden Crown, and Ohioana Book awards, and her work was translated into six languages. She taught fiction writing at Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley. Ellis was raised in Columbus, where she discovered a love of theater, anthropology, and religion that she interwove into her works of fiction. Avery was also considered to be at the forefront of a queer historical fiction movement in which the historical setting is, among other things, an allegory for the queer child awakening to her identity in a household that cannot recognize or name her existence. In her later work, through her struggles with cancer and reactive arthritis, Avery became interested in medical narratives by both those afflicted with illness and medical professionals, and in 2018 led a narrative medicine storytelling and writing workshop at Harvard Medical School. Ellis Avery passed away on February 15, 2019, at the age of 46.
The Last Place You Look – 2017, Kristen Lepionka (Columbus)
Kristen Lepionka is the author of the Roxane Weary mystery series. Her debut, The Last Place You Look, won the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. novel and was also nominated for Anthony and Macavity Awards. This novel is a throwback, of sorts, to hard-boiled PI detectives of old, only Roxane Weary is a very modern character. A deeply troubled, but also deeply empathetic (often to her own detriment), person, Roxane juggles her grief over her father’s death alongside her alcoholism, her juggling of her relationships with men and women, and her mentorship of a young queer teen as she navigates life as a PI in Columbus. With each installment Roxane grows as a character and Lepionka’s incredible writing talent shines. Lepionka is also the co-host of the podcast “Unlikeable Female Characters,” featuring feminist thriller writers in conversation about “female characters who don’t give a damn if you like them.”
How We Fight for Our Lives – 2019, Saeed Jones (Columbus)
Saeed Jones is a relatively recent transplant to Columbus, but not a new name in the world of poetry. Jones has been a winner of the Pushcart Prize, the Joyce Osterwell Award for Poetry from the PEN Literary Awards, and the Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Award for Literature, and a nominee for the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. In 2019 he published his first memoir, How We Fight for Our Lives, an unflinching story of his coming-of-age as a young, gay, Black man in the South. Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves. The book earned Jones the Lambda, the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction in 2019, and the Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography, in 2020.
The Gravity of Us – 2020, Phil Stamper (Dayton)
Phil Stamper’s debut YA novel, The Gravity of Us, is the story of two teens, Cal and Leon, who are brought together when their parents are both selected for a new NASA mission to Mars. Stamper balances the boys’ burgeoning relationship against a backdrop that brings the space race into the 21st century. In a 2020 interview, Stamper, who was raised just outside of Dayton, says, “I’ve always felt that we need all sorts of queer stories and experiences out there. I built this book in a world where homophobia is just not acknowledged, and I wanted this story to be a safe space for queer teens who always feel like they have to keep their guards up when reading a book.”
If you are looking for more on the history of Pride Month itself, you may also enjoy Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality, the story of Ohioans Jim Obergefell and John Arthur and their fight for marriage equality, written by Obergefell and Debbie Cenziper. Today is the fifth anniversary of the ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Readers may also enjoy LGBT Columbus, LGBT Cincinnati, and LGBT Cleveland, written by 2020 Ohioana Book Festival author Ken Schneck, and published by Arcadia, and How to Survive a Summer, the acclaimed debut novel by Columbus author Nick White, as well as the works of e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, Ruth Awad, Berenice Abbott, and P. Craig Russell.
Of course, this list is merely the tip of the iceberg. There are so many, many more LGBTQ+ authors, and their voices have too often been marginalized. We hope that perhaps this brief summary will encourage you to explore other gifted LGBTQ+ writers, not just from Ohio, but everywhere.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. It was first observed in June, 1865, just two months after the end of the Civil War.
Today, 155 years later, too many Black Americans still suffer from violence, inequality, and injustice resulting from systemic racism. We stand united with them in their quest to bring about lasting and meaningful change.
For this Juneteenth, Ohioana would like to share a chronological list of books from among our state’s most noted Black voices, past and present.
Lyrics of Lowly Life – 1896, Paul Laurence Dunbar (Dayton)
One of Dunbar’s earliest works, this collection includes his immortal poem “We Wear the Mask,” about the miserable plight of African Americans after the Civil War, forced to hide their painful realities and frustrations under the mask of happiness and contentment. Dunbar became the first African American poet to win national recognition, because of this poem. Although he lived to be only 33, Dunbar’s work remains a legacy of the past and a beacon for the future.
The Weary Blues – 1926, Langston Hughes (Cleveland)
The first book by the man who became known as “The Poet of the Harlem Renaissance.” The collection includes not only the title work, but also his classic poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “I, Too, Sing America,” which was the theme of the 100th anniversary celebration in Columbus of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes wrote in other literary genres as well. His graceful verse and prose showcased the spiritual and creative dignity of the lives of African Americans.
Zeely – 1967, Virginia Hamilton (Yellow Springs)
The first Black Newbery Medalist and a National Book Award winner, no writer of books for African American children has been more loved than Virginia Hamilton. And influential, too: about Hamilton’s first novel, Zeely, the story of a young Black girl who loves to create fantasies, Jacqueline Woodson said, “It was one of the first books I read by an African American about African American people.” The American Library Association’s Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award honors an African American author or illustrator whose body of work has contributed significantly to literature for children and young adults.
Beloved – 1987, Toni Morrison (Lorain)
Winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, Toni Morrison was arguably the most important American writer of the last half of the 20th century. But she was more – she was also a tireless and outspoken champion for social justice, right up until she died in August 2020 at the age of 88. Morrison’s best-known work, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved, is the story of Sethe, a former slave who escaped to Ohio in the 1870s—but despite her freedom, finds herself haunted by the trauma of her past.
On the Bus with Rosa Parks – 1999, Rita Dove (Akron)
A Pulitzer Prize winner and the first African American to serve as Poet Laureate of the United States, Rita Dove also holds the record for the Ohioana Poetry Book Award, having won four, including for 1999’s On the Bus with Rosa Parks. The collection explores the intersection of individual fate and history, as exemplified by the courageous Black woman whose simple act of refusing to give her seat up on the bus to a white man helped spark the civil rights movement.
Copper Sun – 2006, Sharon Draper (Cincinnati)
Sharon Draper taught high school English in Cincinnati and was named National Teacher of the Year before devoting herself full-time to writing novels for young adults. A New York Times best-selling author, she is the winner of five Coretta Scott King Literary Awards, including for Copper Sun, the epic story of a young girl torn from her African village, sold into slavery, and stripped of everything she has ever known – except hope.
The Butler: A Witness to History – 2013, Wil Haygood (Columbus)
Award-winning journalist and historian Wil Haygood traces the Civil Rights Movement and explores crucial moments of 20th century American history through the eyes of Eugene Allen – a White House butler who served eight presidents, from Truman to Reagan, over the course of thirty-four years. Haygood’s 2008 article about Allen in the Washington Post, “A Butler Well Served by This Election,” inspired the award-winning film, Lee Daniels’ The Butler.
This Is the Rope – 2013, Jacqueline Woodson (Columbus)
Jacqueline Woodson’s many honors include the Newbery Medal and National Book Award; she has served as the Children’s Poet Laureate and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She also writes for adults and is a 2020 Ohioana Book Award finalist for her novel, Red at the Bone. In her 2013 book for young readers, This Is the Rope, Woodson tells the story of one family’s journey north during the Great Migration and the simple jump rope found by a little girl that she has no idea will become a part of the family’s history for three generations.
Urban Contemporary Poetry Month – 2016, Scott Woods (Columbus)
Scott Woods is a former President of Poetry Slam, Inc., and is the founder of the Writers Block Poetry series and the Streetlight Guild, a performing arts nonprofit. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications and been heard on National Public Radio. Urban Contemporary History Month, his second poetry collection, navigates multiple sides of the issues it raises – police abuse, idol worship, the definition of Black culture, and the importance of the blues chief among them – chipping away at our understanding and acceptance of American life as we know it.
They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us – 2017, Hanif Abdurraqib (Columbus)
A poet, essayist, and cultural critic, Hanif Abdurraqib is one of contemporary literature’s most popular and influential young writers. His third book, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Questwas a National Book Award longlisted finalist and is a 2020 Ohioana Book Awards finalist. His collection of essays, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us,chosen by a number of publications as one of the best books of 2017, uses music and culture as a lens through which to view our world, so that we might better understand ourselves.
Ten books, ten Black Ohio writers. This list here is merely the tip of the iceberg. There are so many, many more. And we hope that perhaps this brief summary will encourage you to explore other gifted Black writers, not just from Ohio, but everywhere. We’ve never needed to hear their voices more than now.
Memorial Day weekend has just passed. We hope yours was a safe one. This year was especially poignant as we marked 75 years since the end of World War II and also the devastating effects of COVID-19, which has already taken nearly 100,000 American lives since March. At this special time of year, Ohioana would like to pay tribute to three gifted Ohio authors who have passed away in recent months.
As Ohioana observes Memorial Day, we’d like to pay tribute to three gifted Ohio authors who have passed away in recent months.
Karen Harper
It was a huge shock for Ohioana when we learned of Karen Harper’s passing on April 13, just a week after her 75th birthday. Less than two months before, Karen had been the guest of the Ohioana Book Club, which read her novel, American Duchess, as their winter selection. They loved the book –and her. We knew then that Karen was battling cancer, but she told us she planned to be at the 2020 Ohioana Book Festival, which we had to reschedule to August 29. Little did we know that book club would be her final public appearance.
Born in Toledo, Karen lived most of her adult life in Columbus, teaching English in high school and college until she turned to a full-time writing career in the 1980s. She became the prolific and award-winning author of more than sixty novels, many of them New York Times and USA Today best-sellers. But Karen was more than that. She was warm, caring, and generous to her author colleagues and her legion of fans, who loved her books and who she loved meeting at events like the Ohioana Book Festival, Books by the Banks, and the Buckeye Book Fair.
Karen was also a great friend of Ohioana. She dedicated two of her Cold Creek Trilogy books to the library. She was a long-time member, and in last year’s spring Ohioana Quarterly, was the guest contributor to our “Why I Support Ohioana” column, in which she wrote:
“I support the Ohioana Library partly because Ohioana supports me, and I don’t mean only because I am a longtime published author. I am also a proud Ohioan and an avid reader. For anyone who cares about Ohio, books, knowledge, and the arts in general, Ohioana is worth supporting.”
The Queen’s Secret, Karen’s latest historical novel—a genre in which she was a master—was released posthumously this month. We are saddened that we’ll never see Karen again, but she will never be forgotten
Janet Hickman
Born in the small village of Kilbourne and a resident of Columbus since 1957, Janet Hickman, who died late in April at the age of 79, was an author, educator, and mentor. As her obituary stated, “Her life’s work was teaching others and learning herself how to use children’s literature to enrich the lives and learning of children and young adults.” Janet was the author of seven
books for young adults. Zoar Blue, a historical novel about two Ohio teens living in the Pacifist community of Zoar during the Civil War, won the 1979 Ohioana Florence Roberts Head Award. In 1995, her novel about growing up in a small town in Ohio, Jericho, won the Ohioana Book Award in juvenile literature and was a Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book.
Her long teaching career included more than twenty-five years at The Ohio State University, where she spearheaded the foundation of a children’s literature chair in honor of her mentor, Charlotte Huck. For many years, Janet organized a children’s literature conference in Columbus, bringing together educators and authors.
Janet was also a long-time friend and supporter of the Ohioana Library. She particularly loved following the new authors and books for young readers. Her contributions to that field will be long remembered.
Mike Resnick
Science fiction writer Mike Resnick was born in Chicago in 1942. He moved to Cincinnati in 1976, and made the city his home for the rest of his life. In a remarkable career that spanned nearly sixty years, Mike Resnick wrote more than seventy novels, 250 short stories, two screenplays, and edited more than forty anthologies. He holds the record for the most Hugo Awards—thirty-seven, including five wins; plus the Nebula Award and awards from seven foreign countries.
Mike was a featured author at the 2015 Ohioana Book Festival, our first to be held in downtown Columbus. When he died this past January at the age of 77, he had just completed the second novel in his new Dreamscape Trilogy, The Mistress of Illusions, which was published in April.
His legacy will live on as one of the most successful and influential writers in the science fiction genre of the past fifty years.
It’s spring! Along with the season comes fresh flowers, warm sunshine and, historically, the Ohioana Book Festival. Right now in Ohio, we are following a stay at home order to keep our communities safe. As such, the Ohioana Book Festival, which was originally scheduled for April 25th, has been postponed until Saturday, August 29th. That doesn’t mean the fun has to be put entirely on hold, though! We thought today was the perfect opportunity for us to share some of our favorite memories from past Ohioana Book Festivals – we’re calling it a Festival Flashback!
We also figured there was no better time to share the templates for a few crafts from Ohioana Book Festival’s past. Spending time at home is a great chance to get creative and use things you can find around your household to make these fun, literature themed creations. These crafts were all featured at Ohioana Book Festival’s in past years – each one incorporates themes from books by Ohioana Book Festival authors from that year.
As we’re working from the kitchen, doing schoolwork from the couch, and in general doing our part to stay inside and keep ourselves and others safe, we can still stay busy and have fun. Reading is a favorite pastime of Ohioana’s, of course, and so are these crafts! We hope you enjoy.
Images and tutorials for the crafts are below. If you or your family tries out any of these creations, we’d love to see what you’ve made! Share your pictures with us on Facebook and Twitter @Ohioana.
National Library Week 2020 poster (American Library Association):
Find Your Place at the Library
When the American Library Association picked “Find Your Place at the Library” as its theme for this year’s April 16-25 celebration of National Library Week, little did anyone know at the time that we’d be in the middle of an unprecedented world health crisis that would force most libraries to close temporarily. The Ohioana Library being one of them.
Libraries may not have their physical spaces open to the public, so that we can help keep everyone safe and healthy. But they are continuing to creatively serve their communities by providing virtual services and digital content online. If anything, this crisis has shown that libraries are more vitally needed – and more appreciated – than ever before.
And so recently the ALA decided to flip its original text to create a second theme for National Library Week 2020: “Find the Library at Your Place.”
The Ohioana Book Club discusses David Giffels’ award-winning “Furnishing Eternity” in the library’s Martha Kinney Cooper Reading Room.
Since 1958, National Library Week has been set aside to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic, and special – participate.
The Ohioana Library is a special library – of course EVERY library is special! But we are special in the sense that we have a very specific purpose and focus: to collect, preserve, and celebrate Ohio literature and other creative endeavors.
To fulfill our mission, Ohioana works with just about every kind of other type of library there is, especially on our largest program, the Ohioana Book Festival. Librarians from the Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA) help put together our teen programming at the event. Several OELMA members help arrange visits to their schools by festival authors. A number of public library systems throughout Ohio partner with us on the festival, including Cleveland, Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Toledo and Lucas County, and right here in Central Ohio the libraries of Bexley, Pickerington, and Upper Arlington. And of course the festival itself takes place at Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Main Library.
Crowds at the 2019 Ohioana Book Festival, Columbus Metropolitan Library Main Library (Photo by Mary Rathke)
These, and libraries throughout the state, sponsor their own programs and events that make literature come alive. The days when a library was only a place where your borrowed a book or other physical item are long gone. Today’s library is a vibrant part of the community it serves. Today’s libraries offer everything from helping adults learn computer skills to teens getting homework help to story time for toddlers and book clubs for senior citizens.
YA authors Margaret Rogerson, Kerry Winfrey, Natalie D. Richards, and Mindy McGinnis at the Pickerington Public Library’s Teen Book Fest (Photo by Kathryn Powers)
The adaptability of the modern library has never been more evident than in the COVID-19 crisis. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, ZOOM – all are tools that libraries like Ohioana are using. Just this past weekend, Ohioana held its first-ever virtual book club. It was a great success, and we have had many people already asking when we’ll be doing one again!
National Library Week 2020 wraps up this Saturday. But there’s still plenty of time to join in the celebration, and many ways to celebrate. Just check out these ideas on the American Library Association’s website: http://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek
March is Women’s History
Month. Ohio has been home to many extraordinary women, in many different
fields. One of them was Cincinnati’s Doris Day. Born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff in
1922, she was a talented singer who began appearing on local radio while still
in her teens. She sang with several big bands – changing her name to “Day”
along the way – and got her big break when she signed with Les Brown and His
Band of Renown. On March 29, 1945 – 75 years ago today – their recording of
“Sentimental Journey,” with Day as the vocalist, was released. It soon reached
the Number One spot on the charts, and became the favorite of service men and
women returning from World War II.
Doris Day in the 1940s
The song also helped launch
Day on a solo singing career, and she was soon a top attraction on radio and
recordings. In 1948, Day made her screen debut in Romance on the High Seas. Over the next twenty years, Day would
make 39 films, including classics such as Calamity
Jane (her favorite role), the musical biopic Love Me or Leave Me, and the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which she
introduced what later became her television theme song, the Oscar® winning “Que
sera, sera.”
Day appeared opposite many of
the top leading men of the day – James Cagney, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart,
and Cary Grant. But her most celebrated screen partner was actor Rock Hudson.
They made three comedies together, the first of which, 1959’s Pillow Talk, brought her a Best Actress Oscar
® nomination. At the height of her career, Doris Day was ranked by Hollywood
exhibitors as the Number One box-office star in the world four times, a record
equaled by only one other female film star – child actress Shirley Temple.
In 1968, Day made the switch from films to television, starring in her own eponymous series for five years. After that, Day retired from entertainment to devote her life to her greatest passion – animal welfare. A lover of cats and dogs, she founded the Doris Day Animal Foundation and the Doris Day Animal League to care for and protect the rights of animals. She even made a brief return to television in the early 1980s with Doris Day and Friends, a show about animals.
Day as Calamity Jane, her favorite film role
Because of her sunny
disposition and wholesome personality, Doris Day was often called “The Girl
Next Door.” But her 1975 memoir, Doris
Day: Her Own Story, revealed a life that was not all sunshine: her parents
divorcing when she was young, a childhood accident that crushed her right leg
and ended her early dreams of becoming a dancer, an abusive first marriage, and
a later marriage to a man who squandered her considerable fortune and left her
deeply in debt (something she never knew until after his death).
Day received many honors over her long career. And in 1994, the Ohioana Library honored Day with its Pegasus Award in recognition of her lifetime achievement. By that time, Day no longer traveled from her home in Carmel, California. She sent a beautiful letter and signed photo, which today are among the treasures in the Ohioana Collection. The letter displays all of Day’s warmth and charm, and recounts her favorite childhood memory of Cincinnati – riding the roller coaster at Coney Island!
Doris Day’s letter to Ohioana on winning the Pegasus Award, from the Ohioana Collection
When Doris Day died last May at the age of 97, it was the passing of a true Hollywood legend. She was a phenomenal success in every field of show business she entered – recordings, films, radio, and television. And her philanthropy and devotion to animal welfare was as renowned as her entertainment career.
Doris Day’s signed photo, from the Ohioana Colleciton
We hope you enjoyed taking this “Sentimental Journey” celebrating a remarkable woman.
You can hear Doris Day
perform that song with Les Brown at this link:
