We are blessed with the friendship of a good woman - who is also an accomplished author - Joanne Oppenheim of 'Dear Miss Breed' and 'The Knish War on Rivington Street' fame.

She and I share a passion for all things Eleanor Roosevelt and hold in high esteem E.R.'s life example. We also understand, more with each passing day, the import and effect of her words in the context of today's global political and cultural mileau.

Today, on her site, Joanne posted a 'A Clipping from Dear Miss Breed's Papers'  - I agree, we need Eleanor and her fearless courage today.

This is a screen grab from Joanne's site of E.R.'s clipping, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 7 Dec., 1941, from My Day, a Syndicated newspaper column by Eleanor Roosevelt 1935 through 1962:

This is the text:

“… the great mass of our people, stemming from these various national ties, must not feel that they have suddenly ceased to be Americans.

 “This is, perhaps, the greatest test this country has ever met.  Perhaps it is the test which is going to show whether the United States can furnish a pattern for the rest of the world for the future.  Our citizens come from all the nations of the world.  Some of us have said from time to time, that we were the only proof that different nationalities could live together in peace and understanding, each bringing his own contribution, different though it may be, to the final unity which is the United States…Perhaps, on us today, lies the obligation to prove that such a vision may be a practical possibility. 

 “If we can not meet the challenge of fairness to our citizens of every nationality, of really believing in the Bill of Rights and making it a reality for all loyal American citizens, regardless of race, creed or color; if we can not keep in check anti-Semitism, anti-racial feelings as well as anti-religious feelings, then we shall have removed from the world, the one real hope for the future on which all humanity must now rely.”                                               -E.R.

You can visit Ms. Oppenheim's site to read the post yourself here.

goordreads.com

Frank Yerby wrote The Treasure of Pleasant Valley.

Mr. Yerby was "born in Augusta, Georgia to Rufus Garvin Yerby, an African American, and Wilhelmina Smythe, who was caucasian. He graduated from Haines Normal Institute in Augusta and graduated from Paine College in 1937. Thereafter, Yerby enrolled in Fisk University where he received his Master's degree in 1938. In 1939, Yerby entered the University of Chicago to work toward his doctorate but later left the university. Yerby taught briefly at Florida A&M University and at Southern University in Baton Rouge.

Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular fiction tinged with a distinctive southern flavor. In 1946 he became the first African-American to publish a best-seller with The Foxes of Harrow. That same year he also became the first African-American to have a book purchased for screen adaptation by a Hollywood studio, when 20th Century Fox optioned Foxes. Ultimately the book became a 1947 Oscar-nominated film starring Rex Harrison and Maureen O'Hara. Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the Antebellum South. In mid-century he embarked on a series of best-selling novels ranging from the Athens of Pericles to Europe in the Dark Ages. Yerby took considerable pains in research, and often footnoted his historical novels. In all he wrote 33 novels." (goodreads.com)

Why am I telling you this? Because The Treasure of Pleasant Valley changed at least one American's life; because he stole it from his school library.

Then he returned it. On the shelf beside his book, he saw another Yerby novel. He was struck by the reading bug and unbeknownst to him, his school's librarian, Mildred Grady, was his first supporter. He went on to attend law school, became a judge and retired as an appellate judge of the Arkansas Court of Appeals. His name is Olly Neal of Little rock, Arkansas.

The story Boy Lifts Book; Librarian Changes Boy's Life (NPR: Story Corps. October 2, 2009, broadcast on the Morning Edition) is a small story about one boy and his first book. It is simple and profound. It is as large as the history of the written word and those that guard it and it makes clear the power of the book and the integral role librarians occupy in our culture.

Restore your belief that books have power and librarians are the superheros of our society.

Read the Transcript here. (it will open in a new window)

The two groups of executors, the estate and the Rosenbaum Museum, who have overlapping responsibilities to settle Maurice Sendak's estate are unable to reach an agreement two and a half years after his death. 

Mr. Sendak had a long standing relationship with ‎the Rosenbach Museum and Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, loaning them books in his collection and the museum featured over 70 exhibitions of his work over decades.

Mr. Sendak's estate claims that the collection he had loaned to the Rosenbach is just that, a loan. The Museum disagrees. 

The courts became involved and "‎...after years of bickering, the probate court ordered that most of the books be returned to the estate...88 of the contested books, including the Potter (Beatrix) books, will stay at the Rosenbach, while 252 will go to the foundation and the estate." (http://bit.ly/2fAKkmA‎)

Read more here at the Philly.com: http://bit.ly/2fCoN9M

However this unfolds, it's certainly going to be a Wild story to add to Mr. Sendak's legacy.

‎Explore the Rosenbach site: https://www.rosenbach.org/

ScrnGrbCrd: Smithsonian.com; Philly.com

'A revolution has been happening (in Somaliland) in publishing books, reading, writing and literature,' says Musa...."

"Hamdi Ali Musa saw her first book when she was 10. Now 25, she's one of Hargeisa's only librarians." (shown in photo)

Somaliland is a self declared state (some sources say 'republic') and an autonomous region of Somalia.

It is also a region of Africa whose roots go back to the Neolithic Period. On the outskirts of the Capital, Hargeisa are the Laas Geel complex cave paintings  "containing stratified archaeological infills capable of documenting the period when production economy appeared in this part of Somalia (circa 5th and 2nd millennium BCE)".(Wikipedia)

The capital of this republic is Hargeisa (Somali: Hargeysa, Arabic: هرجيسا‎‎ is the second largest city in Somalia after Mogadishu. (source: Wikipedia).

And here's a fascinating fact ... for centuries until recent history (the end of the 1800's) when European Imperialist interests turned their attention to the region, splitting it up, negotiating treaties to alternately divide or reunite it and eventually leaving it to handle its own particular brand of civil war ... this country's people passed on their ancient legacy of stories in the Oral Tradition.

That's all changed now for a number of reasons, the need to join the community of nations being one of them. Books and their authors represent the renewed hope of these people who are widely spread across our globe as a diaspora - a country as an idea. Since 1972 the swelling initiative to support books written in Somali has been chiefly lead by the desire to gather together in a literary and a real way, the hundreds of thousands of Somalis that have fled this ancient land during its fight for independence and have not returned.

Somaliland has no passport agency and is not 'officially recognised' by the international community. It has no support from international aid agencies nor funds flowing to it from the World Bank. It does have a Book Fair, (site text not it English) and that's where librarian Hamdi Ali Musa enters this story. "The (Book Fair is the) biggest annual event in Somaliland, drawing 11,000 attendees this year, (is) an advertisement for a republic that showcases itself as a kind of "anti-Somalia."

I can not find any details about Hamdi Ali Musa other than what is reported by NPR (and republished by the online 'Samliland Informer'.) I am encouraged as should we all be, that a young woman is the stewart of this growing body of Somali literature, taking her country with her into her future.

Here is the link to the Hargeisa Library on Twitter. @HargeisaLibrary. Somliland skipped right over the 1900's and scooted right into the 21st with its communications and social media!

Credit: NPR, Wikipedia, Twitter

http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/30/pablo-neruda-childhood-and-poetry/?utm_content=bufferd45d0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer