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A Peek Inside The Home of the President and First Family

By Stuart Mitchner

This White House Book Scene features a remarkable first couple who bonded through books and reading, a shared interest that led to the creation of the first White House library. Equally remarkable is the rags to political riches back story of one of the most obscure American presidents, Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), whose personal history has a backwoods, born-in-a-log cabin, reading-by-candlelight charm that prefigures the story of Abraham Lincoln, who moved into the White House a decade later.

As Princeton University history professor Sean Wilentz points out in the lead essay in Catherine M. Parisian’s The First White House Library (Penn State University Press 2010), Fillmore “had a greater appreciation for literature and letters than most presidents.” Having grown up in rural poverty, he “prized books and libraries as the chief vehicles of his own ambitions,” and his courtship of his “doted on” teacher Abigail Powers (1798-1853) was “nourished by books.” On his various business and political journeys as a self-made lawyer and member of Congress, Fillmore “made it a point to bring books back to his wife, carton loads at a time, as presents; and well before he became president in 1850, “he had accumulated an impressive library of his own.” During his brief time in office (1850-1853), the Fillmores entertained cultural celebrities of the day, including Washington Irving, the visiting English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, and the Swedish nightingale Jenny Lind.  more

Shipwrecks, Mutinies, & Survival At Sea

By Stuart Mitchner

The sea never changes and its works, for all the talk of men, are wrapped in mystery.

—Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

A well-traveled old friend once told me, “If you want to know what it’s like to command a sailing ship, read Conrad’s The Secret Sharer.” In fact, the story has less to do with the unnamed narrator’s command of an unnamed ship than with the author’s command of the suggestive psychological nuances of the captain’s relationship with the fugitive he rescues and hides in his living quarters. Formerly the chief mate of a ship anchored nearby, the man had been hastily accused and confined for killing a rebellious crew member during a violent storm. After a single conversation, the captain believes the other’s story and empathizes with him, even to the extent of imagining the fugitive as a double of himself. He takes advantage of his status as commander to help conceal his “secret self” from the crew, even when his choices are risky and suspect, most eventfully when he steers the ship dangerously close to an island so that the fugitive can safely escape, “a free man, a proud swimmer striking out for a new destiny.” more

By Stuart Mitchner

When 5-year-old Albert Einstein was sick in bed, his father gave him a compass. According to Curt Wilkinson in Words That Changed the World: Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (Laurence King 2020), the boy was “entranced by the invisible forces that attracted the needle, keeping it pointed to the magnetic north.” Six years later, Einstein was given a volume that he called his “sacred little geometry book.” In time the compass and the book became “two wonders” that roused his curiosity about the way the universe worked.  more

The Princeton Public Library and Labyrinth Books will welcome author Coleen T. Murphy and professor Sam Wang to the Library’s Community Room on Thursday, February 1 at 6 p.m. The item in discussion will be Murphy’s book, How We Age: The Science of Longevity.

Most people would like to look younger or to slow down the process of aging. As a professor of genomics and molecular biology at Princeton University, Murphy runs a research lab dedicated to the process of aging, which remains one of the least understood processes within the human body. The book suggests the development of new therapeutics to combat aging. She also proposes the potential for new aging model systems. more

In New Memoirs, Two Former College Presidents Explore What Made Them Who They Are

Interviews by Wendy Greenberg

Two extraordinary women, both with leadership roles in higher education — and each with ties to Princeton — have written compelling memoirs that were published in 2023.

Drew Gilpin Faust, the first female president of Harvard University (2007-2018), whose father, uncle, and brothers were Princeton University graduates (she might have been, but Princeton didn’t admit women in 1968), has dug deep into her childhood and adolescence to understand the roots of her rebelliousness in Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury.

Ruth J. Simmons, president of Smith College (1995-2001), the first woman president of Brown University (2001-2012) and the first Black president of an Ivy League institution (and a former Princeton administrator), relives her journey from poverty in rural Texas, and circles back as she becomes president of Prairie View A & M University (2017-2023) near her hometown, in Up Home: One Girl’s Journey.

Each woman’s childhood made them who they are, setting them up to travel vastly different paths to the heights of higher education. Yet, they have some common ground. Each lost their mother as a teen. Each was motivated by the civil rights movement: one wrote to President Eisenhower when she was 9, pleading with him to end segregation; one lived segregation. Both experiences informed their responses to affirmative action as college presidents. more

By Stuart Mitchner

The most surprising stop on the tour of Midwestern cities my father treated me to when I was 12 was Racine, Wisconsin, home of the headquarters of Johnson Wax. Looking forward to Chicago with its skyscrapers, I wanted to drive on. “Just wait, you’ll see,” my father said. What I saw and was amazed by was a city of the future created by Frank Lloyd Wright. After Wright’s otherworldly Research Tower, skyscrapers seemed temporarily passé, so very 1950s. I left thinking of architects as writers whose works are big enough to live in. more

Dorothea von Moltke and Cliff Simms at home in Princeton.

Labyrinth’s Founding Family

By Wendy Greenberg | Photography by Andrew Wilkinson

“Lo the Poor Bookseller,” H. L. Mencken wrote in a 1930 essay: “The marvel is, indeed that [the bookseller] ever survives at all. It is as if a haberdasher, in addition to meeting all the hazards of the current fashion, had to keep in stock a specimen of every kind of shirt, collar, sock, necktie, and undershirt in favor since 1750.”

The picture of the underappreciated bookseller was brushed up when Jeff Deutsch wrote in the introduction to his 2022 book, In Praise of Good Bookstores: “The good bookstore’s collection comprises books that might have been published a month ago, a year ago, a half century ago, a couple of millennia ago. The attuned bookseller must provide a selection of books of all vintages.” more

With Help from The Lorax and Greta Thunberg

By Stuart Mitchner

“In The Lorax I was out to attack what I think are evil things and let the chips fall where they might,” said Dr. Seuss of his favorite book. In a 1990 interview with Publishers Weekly, Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991) admitted “I was a preacher in that book, but I got away with it by disguising the message.”

The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham were a joy to read aloud to my infant son, but The Lorax was more, much more. On the other side of the typically bold and bright Dr. Seuss cover was a dark world of night-blue endpapers dwarfing the bushy-yellow-mustached Lorax, who looked alone and afraid against a haunted night sky while the yellow eyes of the sinister, ever-invisible Once-ler peered through the slats of a boarded up purple window. My then-3-year-old son had no trouble identifying with the boy who finds himself on the Street of the Lifted Lorax at “the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows and no birds ever sing excepting old crows.” more

On October 15 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Washington Crossing State Park will host a presentation on Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War with Friederike Baer. The book examines the experiences of the estimated 30,000 German soldiers (collectively known as Hessians) that participated in the war on the British side.  more

By Stuart Mitchner

I’m looking at two photographs. In one my father is sitting with our first cat on his lap, a Siamese male named Kiloo, pronounced “kee-oo.” The small, framed photo occupies a shelf on this desk with an unframed one of me half a century later slouched on the living room sofa with our tuxedo cat, Dizzy, on my lap. Kiloo is poised, as if planning another attack on the clawed-to-rags arms of the living room sofa. Not Dizzy. He’s the picture of contentment, one big white “this-is-mine” paw on my leg. I thought of Kiloo as soon as I opened The Big New Yorker Book of Cats (Random House 2013), where the first thing you see is a full-page color photograph of the cat-clawed arm of a sofa — minor damage compared to the havoc wreaked by Kiloo. more

On Thursday, September 21 at 7 p.m. Labyrinth Books and the Princeton Public Library will play host to Yiyun Li and Lynn Steger regarding Li’s new story collection Wednesday’s Child. Her previous work, The Book of Goose, earned her much acclaim. Li will discuss her writing and her writing career with Steger, who is herself the author of the novels Hold Still, Want, and Flight. Her non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Paris Review, and elsewhere.  more

The Friends and Foundation of Princeton Public Library have announced that Beyond Words, their annual benefit, will be held on Saturday, October 21. This year will feature Curtis Chin, author of the upcoming memoir Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. more

New Hope, Pa., resident Cheryl Olsten has crafted a story that weaves a narrative of inclusivity, ambition, and the power of following your heart.

Within the pages of Mimi and the Gold Baton (Greenleaf Book Group), to be released October 10, readers will follow Mimi, and undaunted and spirited mouse, as she embarks on a journey through a world that embraces and celebrates differences. Through her poignant pursuit of becoming a “mousetro,” Mimi discovers an unexpected orchestra symbolizing the harmonious coming together of musicians from all walks of life.  more

Harvey S. Firestone Library, Princeton University. (Shutterstock.com)

As Libraries Write New Chapters

Compiled by Wendy Greenberg

Libraries, like most other organizations, have seen a decade adapting to new technology, to shutting down completely in the pandemic, taking on new community roles, and reopening, some with changes. Through it all, librarians have been steadfast leaders of their staffs and captains of their physical spaces. more

Join Princeton Public Library on Sunday, June 11 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. for a special Book Brunch Event with author Cassandra Jackson. Doors open at 10:45 a.m. and coffee and pastries will be served.

Jackson’s recently released memoir The Wreck: A Daughter’s Memoir of Becoming a Mother is an introspective look at the tendency for history to repeat itself and the challenge of turning inherited grief into a fresh start. Jackson also reveals the chilling parallels between the harrowing inhumanity of Jim Crow medical care and the underlying discrimination that still colors American health care today. During the course of retracing her family history, Jackson is left with a powerful sense of love and optimism that hope can transcend family trauma and be washed away for future generations. more

Labyrinth Books will host an informative presentation on “Abortion Access in NJ: Rights and Realities” on Tuesday, May 23 at 6 p.m.

Amol Sinha, executive director of the ACLU New Jersey, and Jackie Cornell, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey, will discuss how New Jersey fits into the new reality of reproductive health care being tied to and determined by a person’s zip code.  more

By Stuart Mitchner

A year before the invasion of Ukraine, I said in the Fall/Winter 2021 Book Scene that while I’d never actually been to Russia, I lived through “a St. Petersburg summer” in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and spent “my first Russian winter” reading The Brothers Karamazov. The phrasing suggests a naive belief in a literary realm beyond time, space, and politics, a land of no boundaries when, in fact, the novels I was reading were American editions published in New York. more

Amtrak recently announced that they are the official rail transportation partner for the Broadway show Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, now playing at the Lyric Theatre in New York City. As part of the collaboration with the show and Audience Rewards, the official rewards program for Broadway, Amtrak Guest Rewards members, Broadway enthusiasts, and Wizarding World fans can earn and redeem Amtrak Guest Rewards points on tickets to the show. It’s free for Amtrak Guest Rewards members to register with Audience Rewards. more

On May 26 at 2 p.m., join Labyrinth Books for a special discussion on the art and craft of fiction writing. Princeton University alumnae novelists will read from their work and speak with each other about inspiration, craft, and process. They will discuss the journey to publication, the themes that haunt their writing, completing their sophomore novels, and the lessons they took from writing at Princeton. This will be an open discussion with audience Q&A.  more

Join the Friends and Foundation of the Princeton Public Library on April 28 from 12 to 2 p.m. for the annual Book Lover’s Luncheon, featuring author, historian, and journalist Lynne Olson. This year’s event will be held at the Nassau Inn.

Olson is the New York Times best-selling author of Madame Fourcade’s Secret War, Last Hope Island, Those Angry Days, and Citizens of London. She has been a consulting historian for the National WWII Museum in New Orleans and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.  more