Librarians, Man. They’re The Best

When I’m feeling blue, all I have to do, is take a look at OPB’s latest stories. There’s a particularly great (by which I mean up-lifting) one out of the national NPR desk today, about Olly Neal, a man who, as a teen, stole a book from a library. The librarians caught on that he’d stolen the book because he didn’t want his friends to know he was a reader, so they drove to Memphis to buy more books by the same author whose book had caught the boy’s eye, and kept making sure that when he came in, a new Frank Yerby book was on the shelf:

“You’ve got to understand that this was not an easy matter then — because this is 1957 and ‘58,” Neal said. “And black authors were not especially available, No. 1. And No. 2, Frank Yerby was not such a widely known author. And No. 3, they had to drive all the way to Memphis to find it.”

But the women’s efforts paid off: Neal went on to attend law school and later became a judge, retiring as an appellate judge of the Arkansas Court of Appeals.

When Grady died, her son asked Neal to tell everyone gathered for her funeral the story of how the librarian nurtured his reading habit as a teenager.

“I credit Mrs. Grady for getting me in the habit of enjoying reading, so that I was able to go to law school and survive,” Neal
said.

I offer that last part for my co-blogger in particular. Reading! It will save you.