Susan Orlean
Auteur van The Library Book
Over de Auteur
Susan Orlean is a staff writer for The New Yorker and has also written for Outside, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Vogue. She graduated from the University of Michigan and worked as a reporter in Portland, Oregon, and Boston, Massachusetts. Orlean is the author of The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin: The toon meer Life and Legend. She now lives in New York City and can be reached via the internet at www.susanorlean.com (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder
Fotografie: Author Susan Orlean at the 2018 Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas, United States. By Larry D. Moore - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74083144
Werken van Susan Orlean
My Kind of Place: Unabridged Selections: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere (2004) 2 exemplaren
Thinking in the Rain 1 exemplaar
The Three Sisters [Essay] 1 exemplaar
Gerelateerde werken
Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker (2001) — Medewerker — 706 exemplaren
The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to The Onion (2011) — Medewerker — 244 exemplaren
Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do (2013) — Medewerker — 179 exemplaren
True Stories, Well Told: From the First 20 Years of Creative Nonfiction Magazine (2014) — Introductie — 51 exemplaren
Love and Ruin: Tales of Obsession, Danger, and Heartbreak from the Atavist Magazine (2016) — Introductie — 38 exemplaren
Lapham's Quarterly - Lines of Work: Volume IV, Number 2, Spring 2011 (2011) — Medewerker — 29 exemplaren
Flowers in Shadow: A Photographer Discovers a Victorian Botanical Journal (2002) — Medewerker — 22 exemplaren
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- Officiële naam
- Orlean, Susan
- Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten
- Sistrom, Susan
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- 1955-10-31
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- female
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- Cleveland, Ohio, USA
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- Cleveland, Ohio, USA (birthplace)
Columbia County, New York, USA
Portland, Oregon, USA
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
New York, New York, USA
Pine Plains, New York, USA - Opleiding
- University of Michigan (BA|1976)
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- journalist
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- The New Yorker
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Orlean has done her research. She takes us back to the beginnings, even to Alexandria. She focuses on their growth in the United States but lets us know libraries were everywhere and even today are part of every country. We learn of her personal attachment to libraries. She explains how she was drawn to her local library where she went with her mother. Those times are fond memories she shares with us. She wants to convey how special libraries are to many people. She also describes the difficulty she had trying to burn a book. She wanted to see what happened when a book burned, but it brought up too many emotions. Her husband had a solution. He gave her a paperback copy of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 specifically for the purpose. That she could handle. We also learn how totalitarian regimes focus on books and libraries. Book burning was their thing, and they saw it as a way of controlling and stifling any opposition. Libraries are just too important to people. Dictators understand.
We learn of the beginnings of the Los Angeles library in 1872. Orlean describes how it evolved with the growth of the city and the early librarians that nurtured it. She describes how each person who took control expanded its mission to be more than just a place to store books. The variety of what can be found at libraries is amazing. Of course there are books and maps and periodicals. As they became communal places, more and more were added — games, computers, patent records, photographs, manuscripts, cards, documents, audio files, records, film, almost anything one could collect that others might want. As the libraries' role expanded, larger and larger buildings were needed to accommodate the collections and the patrons. In the 1920s, they finally came up with the funding to create a Central Library and commissioned a building to occupy an entire block in the center of downtown. It was a thing of beauty. Sixty years later, it was showing serious signs of aging. Its collection was bigger than the available shelf space. It lacked many of the minimum standards required of new buildings, even simple things like fire doors and sprinkler systems were nowhere. It was a major fire hazard. Its vertical stacks became chimneys in short order. All that it lacked was a simple flame.
The Los Angeles Fire Department faced a major challenge. It took 70 units, hundreds of men, tons of water, special tactics such as blasting holes in a hallowed building and most importantly, more than six hours to bring the inferno under control. The damage was extensive. The Arson unit needed to find out how this started and determine whether arson was involved. After interviewing people who were there and inspecting what the fire hadn't totally destroyed, they were convinced it was arson and there was one man, Harry Peak, they were convinced was responsible. His story kept changing, admitting he was there, denying he was there, providing friends as alibi witnesses. The Arson squad felt their job was done. They were incensed when prosecutors declined to charge Harry Peak citing insufficient evidence. No one has been convicted. With the fire contained the librarians were not focused on blame. They wanted to save as much of the collections as possible. That meant rescuing what was salvageable. The water-damaged volumes needed to be protected from mold, and the main approach was freezing until restoration techniques could be developed to deal with the millions of damaged books, maps, documents, etc.
Orlean interviewed many of those still available. She also described the various directors and their relations with the board controlling the library. Each director added their own approach and expanded the role of the library. They were colorful characters. Eventually, the professionalization of the directors matched the development of library science. Several of the directors came to Los Angeles after heading up a series of larger and larger systems. Each having to deal with the challenges of homeless patrons, computerization, community relations, social service needs, etc. Many librarians come to their profession with a devotion for the role of libraries as public goods. It's not just answering questions, acquiring books, and maintaining order. Orlean widens the lens to get the fuller picture of the modern library. She clearly is on board.… (meer)