Skip to main content

The Great Literary Trip: Day 7

I'm back! We have officially been on this journey for a whole week. Thanks for sticking around. Welcome to the day 7 recap.


Day 7

CITIES

Today was another NYC day. I had a plan today. Now, I've had a plan every day, but this morning I got to business early. I got out my G-2 ballpoint pen that I love so much, and I wrote down each stop that we were going to at *specific* times. I also wrote down the walking times between each stop. I had three different plans based on the location of our breakfast location. 

We ubered (is this a verb?) to our breakfast spot in south Manhattan and found ourselves at the gathering area for the New York City pride parade. A lot of streets were closed and blocked off. Most of the stores and publishers I planned for us to go to were along the parade route. We walked back to our hotel and decided to change our plans. 


LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE STOPS

The Central Park Carousel
The Central Park Carousel appears in J.D. Salinger's first and most well-known novel: Catcher in the Rye. The protagonist, Holden Caulfield watches his sister, Pheobe ride the carousel while he ponders the innocence and hope of childhood. It was extra special to see, ride, and ponder one of the first classic novels I ever read. 

The Central Park Literary Walk
Central Park has a series of statues of people that hold literary significance from Robert Burns to Sir Walter Scott. My favorite, of course, was none other than William Shakespeare. I have been lucky to see a lot of artifacts and statues that have connected to my love of the theatre and Shakespeare more specifically. From Shakespeare's original folio at the New York Public Library to his statue at Central Park, I have certainly felt accompanied in my love for Shakespeare throughout this trip. 


LIBRARIES

The Morgan Library
The Morgan Library was founded in 1906 to house the Morgan family's private library, artifact collection, and J. Pierpont Morgan's private study in his later years. After J.P. Morgan semi-retired from the financial district, Morgan spent most of his days in his luxurious, crimson-walled study entertaining clients and other businessmen, playing solitaire, and smoking Cuban cigars. If I had my choice of location to spend my later years, I believe I would pick the Morgan Library as well. (Or Santorini, but who wouldn't?)

The main rooms of the Morgan Library are Morgan's Private Study, the Family Library, and the Librarian's Office. All are equally gorgeous and open out into a decadent rotunda. Some highlights were the second Gutenberg Bible of our trip, an original copy of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (open to The Wife of Bath's Tale - one of my favorites), and a letter written by Mozart as a thirteen-year-old boy to his mother. Also, the Morgan family had one of the largest collections of first-edition Dickens that I have ever seen (which after a week of this trip, is saying a lot!). 

More important to me than any other artifact, however, is J.P. Morgan's essay on the importance of literature which he wrote as a fourteen-year-old student at Boston's English High School. Morgan pronounced most novels "useless trash" but allowed that "well written and true stories" can teach us "how to treat other persons with proper reverence and respect." I couldn't agree more.





I took 13,548 steps today. Check back in for another update tomorrow!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Author Spotlight: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley At my school, I am a Library Leader. (Library Leaders promote reading in the middle school and recommend books for the younger grades.) The Library Leaders had the fortunate opportunity of eating lunch and meeting with Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. We got to ask her questions and just talk with her. Mrs. Bradley also spoke to the whole seventh and eighth grade in assembly about her research. 1)      When/How does she write? Mrs. Bradley writes in the morning, but this depends on her chores for the day. She got into her routine when her children, now graduating college and out of college, were small and went to school. She would always wait until her husband took them to drop them off at school. She likes for her writing space to be very quiet. She prefers typing when she when she writes as to writing. (This may be pretty common; I do not know what the common format among writers is today. I just thought I would include eve...
Post a Comment
Read more

Long Way Down

A Long Way Down Written in verse, A Long Way Down by J ason Reynolds is a novel about making a moment’s decision. *DISCLAIMER: The story deals with grief, mild cussing, and gun violence. Plot Summary: Will doesn’t live in a so great part of town. This African-American teen’s brother, Shawn, is shot and killed by a member of gang member in a near-by part of town. Will decides to follow ‘The Rules’. (‘The Rules’ are passed on through generations of members of this community and they are: 1. DON’T CRY 2. NO SNITCHING 3. ALWAYS GET REVENGE.) Will decides to kill the gang member who killed Shawn. He HAS to follow ‘The Rules’. He gets on the elevator to go down to the Lobby and the elevator stops at every floor. People that have been shot in the past and were in his life get on the elevator at every floor. This thriller is written over one minute and nine seconds. Author Praise/Critique: Jason Reynolds is a very talented poet. The book is very visually pleasing because ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Reading and writing, reading and writing, reading and writing: that's what I hope to keep doing all summer (with some swimming and seeing friends mixed in there too!). Here's another review! This is Stuart Turton's The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle,  and it's a doozy.  SUMMARY THE RULES OF BLACKHEATH Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let's begin... Evelyn Hardcastle WILL die. And every day Aiden Bishop WILL try to identify her killer and break this neverending cycle he has somehow found himself in. But every time a new day begins, Aiden inhabits the body of a different guest at Blackheath. Some of Aiden's hosts will be more helpful than others. Some of Aiden's hosts are more capable than others. Some of Aiden's hosts start to overcome Aiden's true personality. Then again, who is Aiden? A...
Post a Comment
Read more