Autocrats invariably target not only human rights defenders and journalists but also writers and artists. They instinctively recognize the power of words and, by extension, free and creative expression to spark imagination, kindle hope, and allow people to imagine different and better worlds built on equality, freedom, and human rights. In the absence of free expression, other freedoms are quick to die, paving the way for autocrats to write their own rules…
-Marilynne Robinson, "Agreeing to Our Harm," NYRB, 7/18/24
On a hot Saturday morning in late June, I donated another cache of books to the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz, NY, my new small hometown, a well-read town, which also boasts many visual artists and a state university. An "elite enclave," in other words, in the distorted vision of some. Elting Library will have their 67th library fair at the end of September. There will be books on tables in the parking lot of the library, music, and plants for sale, a festive occasion no matter the weather. Last year it was raining that week, I recall, but no matter. Tents protected the paper books, sales were brisk--the fair yielded about $30,000 that day according to Crystal Middleton, the new director of the library-- and the post-Covid socializing among neighbors and visitors was intense.
Library fairs and book sales of donated books have been a fixture in many small towns across the United States since the 19th century. Volunteers gather to do the work of sorting, lifting, pricing and selling on the day of the event. It's labor intensive work, and some libraries have shifted to smaller events to supplement state and/or local government funding. At the Stoneridge Library, due west of New Paltz, the library fair has been abandoned, but there's a new bookshop which operates year round and raises about $10,000 per year, as compared to $14,000 from the past annual book fair, according to Jody Ford, the library's director. All the books in the shop are donated and the volunteers enjoy chatting to the shop's customers, members of their community, readers one and all. "It's a great success," Ford says.
Up in Woodstock, the barn behind the library is still taking donations for their 83rd library fair scheduled for July 22nd. Some libraries, such as the Gardiner Library have segued to book sales rather than Library Fairs eliminating anything other than the books themselves. It's still takes a lot of organizing, volunteerism, and muscle power, but is less complicated.
Will library fairs and book sales continue into the fast-paced digital world, or will they slowly disappear, becoming a quaint footnote in a town's history? It's hard to say from the vantage of 2024. A community's devotion to its residents' continuing education and sense of belonging is most important, especially in an over-sized disparate nation such as ours. And for those of us who celebrate knowledge and civil discourse, books—what they contain, what they inspire—are our mental furniture and cultural legacy. It is no wonder that so-called "controversial" books have been targeted by the radical right. Organizations such as Moms of Liberty are intimidating librarians, parents and, by extension, their own offspring, homogenizing their education and reading lists with their self-righteous censoring.
I am haunted by the dystopian vision of the abandoned, trashed Boston Globe newsroom in the episodic adaptation of Margaret Atwood's prescient Handmaid's Tale, the hallways reverberating with June Osborne's solitary daily run as she awaits her rescue.
According to the PEN America data base, "Writers at Risk," there were 339 writers from 33 countries jailed in 2023, an increase of 62 writers compared to 2022 and 101 more than in 2019. American writers, journalists and artists are not rounded up or incarcerated, but that does not mean that pressure is not applied, or that cancellations do not happen, early signs of a despotism our "founders" would have abhorred.
This post is dedicated to Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter currently on trial in Russia for his reporting, Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things, who has been charged by the Indian government under the new Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for comments made in 2010 about Kashmir, and to Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi whose jail sentence in Iran may be extended.