Coincidence #1: A young man comes into Babbitt's in search of a particular story, "The Man Without a Country." He tells me the author is George Hale and that it's Civil War fiction. "George Hale" on the search page produces nothing, and keywords "Civil War fiction" bring up some novels but not the kind of fiction anthology I am hoping for.
Meanwhile, Sarah is climbing the tall ladder up to Fiction Anthologies in search of Soldier's Christmas Reader, as she's preparing our holiday book display. "Does that have this guy's story in it?" I ask.
"Don't know," she says, handing me a short stack of Christmas books.
It's edited by George (George!!) Macy. I open to the table of contents, and there's "The Man Without a Country," by Edward Everett Hale! Him! I know him. Unitarian minister man!
"The Man Without a Country?" I say, approaching our young man. **doo-doo-doo-doo**
Coincidence #2: Two young men come into the shop in search of some of the hard-to-find Pulitzer Prize winning novels for a blog project they are doing together. They are collecting and reading all 84 (I thought they said 85...?) books, blogging about it, and plan to collaborate on a book together. It's not, I think, The Pulitzer Project, but if they don't know about that, I hope they'll click the link and visit: handy, with list, reviews, participants, challenges, and links to other book-prize sites.
These guys look on their own for a while, in the fiction aisle, and then Sarah checks the database for some they can't find, including In This Our Time, by Ellen Glasgow, which isn't there. "In This Our Time?" I say. "I have it right here!" And I pull it from the stack of books that just came in, that I listed today, so new they haven't been uploaded onto our search page yet. **doo-doo-doo-doo**
**Twilight Zone music
So! One of the Pulitzer guys has his blog here (I see a Twitter box when I go there, but I just cancel it), and I couldn't find the other one. So if either or both want to comment here, I will be able to click on your blogspot icon, I think, and find you!
I loved this kind of search, find, and deliver moment of strange coincidences when I worked in both bookstores and libraries. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThese types of coincidences are charming, especially when you're on the hunt for a text. And makes me think those writers definitely want their works found. Doo-doo-doo-doo
ReplyDeleteHey there Kathleen! Thanks so much for taking the time to find our blogs; I'm humbled that we've made our way into Blogosphere super-stardom thanks to you, haha! I read your profile and it seems as though we have a lot more in common than mere reading interests -- I have also worked on literary magazines, in bookshops, and both Joshua and I have taught as substitute teachers. I'm currently working in a coffee shop in Evanston, but am still eagerly attempting to make my way back into the editorial life -- I just applied at Rotary International as an editorial coordinator (which I was doing before I got laid off by a different company).
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, it was a great pleasure to have met you yesterday and you better believe that I'll be dropping by your blog often!
Hey, Drew! The drew, drew the man, the drew man! (I sometimes watch The Office.)
ReplyDeleteSince you are in Evanston, check out RHINO. They are often in need of editorial help! Good luck with Rotary. Oh, and perhaps look into The Common Review (Great Books Foundation, 35 E. Wacker, downtown Chicago!)