Poet and fund raiser David Thompson Watson McCord (1897-1997) was born in New York City in 1897 and grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and rural Oregon.  He earned a BA and an MA at Harvard University and was later awarded honorary doctorates from 22 universities.  McCord’s poetic innovations include the invention of a five-line form he called “symmetrics.”  McCord authored and edited more than 50 books during his life.  His collections of poetry include Oddly Enough (1926) as well as the children’s collections Far and Few (1952); One at a Time: His Collected Poems for the Young (1974), which won the National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children; and Every Time I Climb a Tree (1967).  He is also the author of the prose collections About Boston: Sight, Sound, Flavor & Inflection (1948), An Acre for Education: Being Notes on the History of Radcliffe College (1958), and In Sight of Sever: Essays from Harvard (1963).  He edited the anthology of humorous British and American poetry What Cheer (1945, reprinted in 1946 as The Pocket Book of Humorous Verse).  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/david-mccord   

Books fall open, you fall in,
delighted where,
you've never been . . .

True books will venture,
Dare you out,
Whisper secrets, 

Maybe shout,
across the gloom,
to you in need
Who hanker for
a book to read. 

David Thompson Watson McCord  Read the rest of the poem at https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/44686-books-fall-open-books-fall-open-you-fall-in-delighted   

Anita Shreve (1946-2018) was an American writer, chiefly known for her novels. Shreve's novels have sold millions of copies worldwide.   She attended Tufts University and began writing while working as a high school teacher.  One of her first published stories, Past the Island, Drifting, (published in 1975) was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1976.  Among other jobs, Shreve spent three years working as a journalist in Kenya.  In 1999, while she was teaching Creative Writing at Amherst College, Oprah Winfrey selected The Pilot's Wife for her book club. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3530.Anita_Shreve  

The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Paralympics took place August 28, 2024 in Paris, France.  The Phryges, anthropomorphic Phrygian caps, are the official mascots of the summer Olympic and Paralympic Games this year.   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2850 August 30, 2024