dead books
Ryerson Room Notes
Havn’t been up on the second floor of Atwater Library since I did a drama course there in 2002 and got too weak to make it up the stairs
Up there at the tip top of the marbled staircase a pillared landing circling around a ceiling skylight that only lets in a milky ghost white light doom of gloom
old old darkbrown decayed left behinds of Anglo Ascendancy Montreal that are for me sinister reminders of the past
Framed illuminated prints of King George V in 1931 and another of Queen Elizabeth 11 in 1953 with a plaque stating “Donated by the Members”
Another framed sepia photograph print of the library staff in 1937 when the library was still called the Mechanic’s Institute
I take a closer look at the faces and sure enough recognize the hard glint in the eyes of the young assistant librarian,Estelle Bentley,who was Head Librarian when I drifted into the place in 1961 looking too obviously like a kid off the Avenues with my DA haircut and collar up like Elvis so obviously I could not be allowed into the bookstacks
Today I had one of the younger volunteer librarians help me up the steps to the Ryerson Research Center Room,housing the personal library of one of Canada’s best known Marxist historians,with large sections on political economy,history of the labor movement and Marxism
Two volunteer librarians were setting up when I entered and during the whole time I was there setting was all they talked about
Not the contents of the books or papers but where they properly belonged on the shelves
The Ryerson Collection itself is interesting but selective in a way that comments only too clearly on the Communist Party’s distorting and deflective take on working class history
Example:
There is a booksize study on the wrecking of the militant Canadian Seaman’s Union by the Canadian government but no mention of one of the CSU’s key organizers Dan Daniels who later quit the CP in protest
Dan told me that when he handed in his membership card,shortly after the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution by Soviet troops, he ended up yelling at the end of an argument
“Trotsky was right”
Its to Stanley Ryerson’s credit,I suppose,that he did not end up right of center like so many disillusioned ex-CPers but the complete collection of Stalin’s works lined up on the shelf still tells the tale
Dead books in a dying library
Havn’t been up on the second floor of Atwater Library since I did a drama course there in 2002 and got too weak to make it up the stairs
Up there at the tip top of the marbled staircase a pillared landing circling around a ceiling skylight that only lets in a milky ghost white light doom of gloom
old old darkbrown decayed left behinds of Anglo Ascendancy Montreal that are for me sinister reminders of the past
Framed illuminated prints of King George V in 1931 and another of Queen Elizabeth 11 in 1953 with a plaque stating “Donated by the Members”
Another framed sepia photograph print of the library staff in 1937 when the library was still called the Mechanic’s Institute
I take a closer look at the faces and sure enough recognize the hard glint in the eyes of the young assistant librarian,Estelle Bentley,who was Head Librarian when I drifted into the place in 1961 looking too obviously like a kid off the Avenues with my DA haircut and collar up like Elvis so obviously I could not be allowed into the bookstacks
Today I had one of the younger volunteer librarians help me up the steps to the Ryerson Research Center Room,housing the personal library of one of Canada’s best known Marxist historians,with large sections on political economy,history of the labor movement and Marxism
Two volunteer librarians were setting up when I entered and during the whole time I was there setting was all they talked about
Not the contents of the books or papers but where they properly belonged on the shelves
The Ryerson Collection itself is interesting but selective in a way that comments only too clearly on the Communist Party’s distorting and deflective take on working class history
Example:
There is a booksize study on the wrecking of the militant Canadian Seaman’s Union by the Canadian government but no mention of one of the CSU’s key organizers Dan Daniels who later quit the CP in protest
Dan told me that when he handed in his membership card,shortly after the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution by Soviet troops, he ended up yelling at the end of an argument
“Trotsky was right”
Its to Stanley Ryerson’s credit,I suppose,that he did not end up right of center like so many disillusioned ex-CPers but the complete collection of Stalin’s works lined up on the shelf still tells the tale
Dead books in a dying library
posted by davef at 2:24 PM
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