For reasons
that might be gone into at a later time, I found myself the other night wanting
to re-read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown.” No doubt it
could have been done online, but it wasn’t necessary. I just sauntered over to
the bookshelf where I keep The Library of America and took down the author’s
Tales and Sketches, some 900 pages worth. Goodman Brown occupied pages 276 to
289.
It’s a
luxury, one of the few I can afford, to be able to do this. I began subscribing
to The Library of America, an attempt to provide definitive high-quality
hardcover versions of this nation’s written classics, when it first started in
the 1980s. A few years ago, when the offerings seemed to be getting more and
more abstract, I let my subscription lapse.
Despite
some issues with the series’ editors (why did it take them more than two
decades to get out a book of H.L. Mencken?), I regard those books as treasures
and go back to them often. The big name books and stories are all there, of
course, but that only scratches the surface.
From Abe Lincoln to Bill Clinton
Speeches?
You want speeches? LOA has the usual suspects, such as the Gettysburg Address,
but also the full text of Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech, which arguably won him
the presidency. Not to mention FDR’s first inaugural, Martin Luther King’s last
sermon, and Bill Clinton’s remarks on the 40th anniversary of the
integration of Central High in Little Rock. That last one is all but forgotten,
but also absolutely terrific.
There are
Edward R. Murrow’s World War II reports from London during the Blitz, casual
letters that Lincoln tossed off during the Civil War, reports on commerce that
Alexander Hamilton wrote for Congress, speeches and pamphlets produced during
the debate on the Constitution, and reporting of all kinds from the Vietnam
war.
Francis
Parkman’s seven-volume history of France and England in the New World is in the
canon, as is Henry Adams’ history of the United States from 1801 to 1817. (I’ve
read Parkman, but haven’t got to Adams yet.) If that’s a little too dry and
schoolmarmish for your taste, you could salaciously turn to Mark Twain’s
after-dinner speech on Onanism or Benjamin Franklin’s letter to a young man
about the virtues of older women as mistresses.
The Pleasures of Discovery
Much of
what I’ve written about above I would never have encountered without those
books on my shelves. From time to time, when I’m at loose ends, I’ll pick up
one of the books and thumb through the table of contents to pick out something
to read. And I’ve found a lot of neat stuff that way.
To me the
big difference between books and the internet is this: The internet is great
for looking up things you specifically want to know about; it’s not so great
for serendipitous discoveries. That’s where books excel. I can walk over to the
Library of America shelf on a slow day, scan the authors names, decide I’m in
the mood for a bit of Hamilton or Jefferson, pull down a book, and select
something to read that will about fill the time I have at my disposal.
It’s a good
way to be exposed to something you would never have set out to look for. That
exposure, in turn, holds the potential for adding to your store of knowledge
and exposing you to good ideas. Random learning, to be sure, but sometimes that
can be the best kind.
