Читать книгу BOOKS FOR ALL - Barb Warren - Страница 3

My great-aunt Anne Hadden, first county librarian of Monterey County, was responsible for establishing the county library from scratch in 1913—to offer books to all residents who wanted access to them. The job was a big challenge, and for sixteen years Anne dedicated her life and energies to its success.

For many years, I have collected Anne’s handwritten and typewritten manuscripts, as well as copies of newspaper articles and journal publications about her work. Knowing that she had always wanted to publish her stories, I decided to bring them to life, along with my own chapter introductions to her writings in order to provide historical context. Thus there are two authors of this book: Anne Hadden, my great-aunt, and myself.

Anne was born in Ireland, the oldest child of a doctor practicing in Dublin. Her grandfather David Hadden, also a doctor, was called the “Famine Doctor of Skibbereen,” honored by the town in southern Ireland. In 2010 he was recently recognized by a newly created Irish ‘Memorial Day’ in remembrance of the famine. Anne’s great-grandfather John Hadden was a Methodist minister, an early circuit preacher, also in County Cork.

This ancestry served Anne well in the years she was a librarian. Doctors, ministers, and librarians share similar qualities. Anne had an outgoing, friendly desire to help people, and was patient and sympathetic. Librarians want to help people and, as a result of raising awareness, often help society advance.

Today, a century later, the economy of California is struggling to continue Anne Hadden’s lifetime work for public libraries—that of providing everyone access to books so that they can educate themselves.

I am proud to publish Anne’s writings. They give us a wonderful idea of the person she was and of the service she gave to Monterey County and its residents.

NOTES: To honor and “showcase” Anne’s manuscripts, which vividly describe early California library adventures, I have put her writings in BOLD print throughout the text, under the caption ANNE HADDEN, in her own words. No quoted material has been changed.

The abbreviation for the Monterey County Free Libraries is MCFL.