Or how money is slipping through my hands (well, it is but that subject is painful and I don't want to go there. "I'll think about that tomorrow").
Or how to cook your beans so they don't make you gassy (good topic but not for today. "Fiddledee dee ")
Nope, I'm going to talk about my First Edition of Gone with the Wind. Years ago after my mother-in-law died I went through her stuff. Isn't it nice that I held off until then?Anyway, one of the things that I kept (not to be confused with all the other crap I've kept. I have totally mad packing skills. Did I tell you that? I do! It's like a gift) was this book. I didn't keep it because I thought it had or may in the future have some monetary value. I kept it because it was my MIL's favorite book.
I knew I could never get rid of it.Near the end of her life my MIL was too frail to hold a book and her eyes were too bad to see the words on the page. This was a sad sad thing for a former high school Literature and English teacher.
I would come over to her house everyday for tea and cookies and to read to her. It was from this book that we first started our daily tea. It was from this book that we developed our friendship and it was from this book that I came to understand her and to fall in love with her. For 10 years we followed this ritual. Is it any wonder that 10 years after her death I would become a librarian? (Though she wanted me to become a nurse. Poking people with a needle? I don't think so.)
Along with her poetry books it is a comfort to me to have this book sitting on my shelf.
Why did I chose today to talk about this particular book? Because today is the day of a surprise screening of the Gone with the Wind movie in Hollywood.
Love,
M
PS: photos courtesy of http://www.gwtwbooks.com/FirstEdition/PointsOfIssue.htm because I was too lame this morning to take a picture of my copy this morning.
It's amazing how much an object like a book can mean to us. Well beyond the words on the pages.
ReplyDeleteMy dad a great collection of 1st editions. I'm guess my step mother tossed them out or just gave most of them away. The bitch. haha ;-)
I have a gorgeous two-volume, vintage copy of GWTW, but that? Envy doesn't even BEGIN to describe it. Your MIL sounds as if she was a lovely woman.
ReplyDeleteI've never read it, nor watched the movie, but I love the back story.
ReplyDeleteWOW!!!! Wow! A first edition! WOW!
ReplyDeleteLinda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Jay: The Bitch is right. You never give away 1st editions.
ReplyDeleteJan: My MIL was a lovely woman. I still hold her very close to my heart.
SK: I had never read it until then. I've never seen the movie either. The back story is as special as it gets.
Linda: I KNOW! I didn't have a clue that it was a 1st edition until about 4 years ago.
What a beautiful story! What a wonderful memory. I have a...second edition of Gone With the Wind. Isn't that the saddest thing? It's inscribed to my daddy back in the day, which is why I love it.
ReplyDeleteIs it not amusing that the book marks the tribal hate imported to the new world between the Butler and the O'Hara. But equally it marked the profound difference with both of them and those of English ancestory.
ReplyDeleteI've never actually read the book, but I mean to. Maybe I'll do that now :)
ReplyDelete