Abolitionist Library Returns

A library encases cultural bounty that may change the direction of our lives. Scenes of The Compromise which are set in the Abolitionist Library attempt to show that learning is constructive and generates consciousness. Ideals are tested and remade. It enables an understanding of relationships, social identities, political values, and spirituality. These affordances, the story aspires to say, come to each of us through generations of cultural knowledge and broad societal work to provide the conditions for learning. Not all of us are educators, but not one of us is excluded from the responsibility of securing these for others. Several characters take form in these scenes: a wealthy benefactor, mentors, activists, teachers, and teachers-to-be, including those who call the learner to aspire, persist, and resist.

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An American Story

We may learn how to “make a difference” worth making, but we do not all agree on what differences to make. We feel and act as groups, but also as individuals, overcoming confusion and seeking truth in our existential struggles. My novel tells a story about people learning to make a difference in the United States, and I hope there is plenty of diversity and good air to breath.

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The Abolitionist Library

My Gamble Library is an improvement on history. The fictional library has books to the ceiling, now-famous paintings, a globe, maps, architectural drawings, ancient manuscripts, the classics, new literary fiction, philosophical essays, unpublished work copied by hand, the New-York Daily Tribune, and contraband abolitionist newspapers. Almost exclusively, women were not allowed into university libraries and public libraries came many years later after the Civil War. Even so, a benefactor could have donated her treasures to the education of all women.

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Fourth of July Declamation

The nation’s ideals continue to be questioned through acts of civil disobedience. I also respond as I write and revise my fiction, including the chapter “Awaken the Nation” about a Fourth of July declamation at the female academy. I continue to intensify my characters’ responses to injustice, one’s brave disruption and another’s equally brave mercy.

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The Teacher’s Gift

“Sometimes things that have only the barest of associative connections will pay off in the end.” Robert Boswell, The Half-Known World This approach recently payed off. Tentatively, I began The Compromise with an assessment of Otis’s injuries. He was attacked the day he started working as an overseer, a role he was too immature to…

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