On the Southern Literary Trail discussion

I think based on the comments it's easy to see how consistent and deliberate kirk was about living his life. Your story is my story or a very close version. A testimony to a life well lived.

I have set up a special thread in the General Bookishness section where we can access Kirk's bookshelves and comment on the books that we find there. The link is called Kirk Smith's reading memorial.

In addition, the thread includes a link to the donations page of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Library System for anyone who wishes to make a contribution in his memory.

I think books donated to Kirk's local public library will be a beautiful tribute to him.

Josh, I do agree! A collection of Kirk's favorites to the OKC library.

The OKC library told me they would not be able to guarantee these would be put on the shelf or into circulation. More to come, but a monetary gift is all that would be encouraged by the library system itself. Likely any books sent there would be incorporated into a book sale/fund raiser. They were very nice and understanding however.

Josh wrote: "The OKC library told me they would not be able to guarantee these would be put on the shelf or into circulation. More to come, but a monetary gift is all that would be encouraged by the library sys..."

It is unfortunate to here of the OKC Library's policy. However I have discovered it is not unusual. Our Tuscaloosa Public Library had one tattered copy of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. I bought a new copy to replace the old. I was informed it was not needed. Further, working as a volunteer in our Friends of the Library Store, I was shocked at the copies of essential literary works discarded by the library to make room for popular best seller titles. Perhaps it would be fitting to gift works on Kirk's reading list to readers we friend in this community, particularly younger readers who send us friend requests. I was also particularly struck by LeAnne's placing volumes in little neighborhood libraries. Just a thought. Also, regarding books placed in Friends of Library stores, even new copies are sold for a pittance of their value. So, should you be inclined to donate books to OKC, I would suggest they be decent readers' copies, not new ones.

Josh has a decent idea where it could be fairly easy for trail members to participate but he wanted to check with Janice, kirks wife, first to make sure she was ok with it. However, didn't want to contact her just a day after Kirk's memorial service. More to come as an option.

Josh wrote: "The OKC library told me they would not be able to guarantee these would be put on the shelf or into circulation. More to come, but a monetary gift is all that would be encouraged by the library sys..."

I was thinking of making a cash donation with a letter listing some of Kirk's favorite authors and a request that, if possible, the contribution be used to enhance the library's holding of their works. Whether they do it or not, I'm sure the funds will be put to good use.

Should y'all decide to drop off books at the Little Free Libraries around you, click here and scroll to the bottom. See the map? Just plug in your zipcode, and zoom in.

I got piles of books from two different Goodwill stores - Miss Jane Pittman, Mockingbird, some Carson McCullers, etc, plus some elementary school books - enough to completely fill up two little library boxes.

Another idea, in the event that the public library option is not what folks want to do is to purchase a little free library from the nonprofit organization and place it somewhere near Kirk and Janice's neighborhood. The first one of these actually was built as a memorial to be a mom and a teacher who absolutely loved reading.

Kirk would be tickled to hear us all talking about reading 💙

https://littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/

Thanks, LeAnne. That comes in handy.

The comments I've read about Kirk's love of sailing reminded me of this essay. I actually read this at my mother's funeral service.

“There She Is Gone”

Henry Van Dyke captured the death experience thus:

"I am standing on the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then, someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!' there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: "Here she comes!"

Thanks so much for posting the site for the Little Free Library map. I've just found a dozen within 5 miles of where I live. I had no idea!

There she is gone

Thank you for posting this I had read this a long time ago and forgotten all about it had I remembered it I would have read it at mom s funeral last week

I am going to share an anecdote if I may

My mother was obsessed with a well packed suitcase to a point that when I visited or my daughters she would unpack our cases and pack them properly :) It drove us nuts !

I have a vacation pre planned for Saturday , so I am going but this morning when I left the house outside there was a brand new suitcase discarded and empty - thanks Mom :)

The Henry van Dyke piece is just beautiful. Jane, mothers have a way of influencing us even when they're gone.

Diane, you are so right about that. I notice it in so many ways.

Kirk Smith and I were complete strangers who became friends purely through Goodreads. It is my only social media outlet these days and I didn’t know many of the details of his personal life other than through what we shared in side-bar conversations that came from passing book recommendations back and forth.

Kirk seemed like a quiet guy on Goodreads a lot of the time and that’s actually one of the things I most admired about him. His quietness here was that rare kind you find in people with healthy egos who don’t need a lot of attention to be happy. It showed in his reserved and succinct reviews and in how he never bumped those reviews back to the surface of his timeline in search of more “likes”. I also admired how he politely kept his political and religious views to himself. In his honor, I’m just now aspiring to do the same. I can wear my “Make America Kind Again” and “Ctrl Alt Facts” T-shirts to the The Home Depot. I don’t need to do that here.

If his wife and family saw me saying he was a quiet guy, I suspect they’d laugh. I have no idea what he was like in person. For all I know, he could have been a loud hoot. He was definitely more animated in his personal messages - as many of you in this group are lucky enough to know.

Our own side-bar conversations mostly centered around our love of books, but we also shared a lot of childhood memories. I think those stories about our childhoods were what cemented our friendship and maybe that’s what led me to love him as a brother. Or it could be a combination of that and some parallels in in our lives that were floating below the surface that I wasn’t even aware of until this past week when I started learning more fully about his life through the rest of you. Thank you for that, all of you. You helped fill in a lot of the gaps for me: the family, the career, the hobbies and talents. He seems to have had a good and fully realized life.

Lastly and from the bottom of my heart - thank you, Kirk. You were a gentleman and a scholar and a truly good friend to many of us. I miss you dearly, but I promise to soon start smiling instead of crying when I think of you - especially when I read the rest of those books you recommended. Peace, brother.

Oh Doug.......just perfect.

Doug I appreciate you sharing these words. It helps me with the grieving process to hear such kind words about Kirk. It's hard to express what I feel but this actually helps me cope with the loss.

Doug, you honored Kirk beautifully.

Doug wrote: "Kirk Smith and I were complete strangers who became friends purely through Goodreads. It is my only social media outlet these days and I didn’t know many of the details of his personal life other t..."

Beautifully said, Doug. Thank you for thoughtful words about our friend. I know of no one who could have expressed a tribute more fitting.

💙 Doug.

Writer, Journalist, and Columnist, Russell Baker died quietly at the age of 93 at his home in Leesburg, Virginia, following complications from a fall.

Here on The Trail, Baker would be best known for his autobiography Growing Up for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

From Wikipedia:

Born in Loudoun County, Virginia,[3] Baker was the son of Benjamin Rex Baker and Lucy Elizabeth (née Robinson).[4] At the age of eleven, as a self-professed "bump on a log," Baker decided to become a writer since he figured "what writers did couldn't even be classified as work."[5] After leaving school, he took a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University in 1942, studying for a year before leaving to join the Navy as a trainee pilot. He left in 1945, continuing his degree in English at Johns Hopkins University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1947.

I considered Baker a "Southerner for all seasons." The man was brilliant as a reporter, receiving the Pulitzer Prize for his work with the New York Times, making him the only person to receive the Pulitzer for Arts AND Letters. I remember him as the man who replaced Alistair Cooke on PBS's Masterpiece Theater. I admired him for his dry but gentle sense of humor, which he displayed in writing and in person. He edited The Norton Book of Light Verse which I turn to for a boost of spirit, and The Signet Book of American Humor for a good cackle.

His sense of being a Southerner who knew his roots always impressed me. In a sense it defines what makes Southern Literature Southern.

We all come from the past, and children ought to know what it was that went into their making, to know that life is a braided cord of humanity stretching up from time long gone, and that it cannot be defined by the span of a single journey from diaper to shroud.--Russell Baker, Growing Up

Rest in peace, Mr. Baker. Though you became a skeptic at the tender age of five. I'll read a little light verse for you today. My thanks for all your wry, droll, but gentle observations on the foibles of being human.

Lawyer, I had not heard of Russell Baker's passing. Another empty space in the Pantheon. Thank you for posting.

Oscar wrote: "Lawyer, I had not heard of Russell Baker's passing. Another empty space in the Pantheon. Thank you for posting."

Sad news, Oscar. The kind I hate to post. But I think we should mark the passing of those who have made our lives richer by their words. Pantheon. A good word, Oscar.

Toni Morrison died last night at the age of 88. She died at home surrounded by family.

I just saw that, Diane. She has always seemed timeless to me.

I too just saw of her passing. Everything I’ve ever read of hers has been just wonderful. Rest easy Ms Morrison.

A tremendous loss.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/bo...

Oh , how very sad , such a loss to so many but a brilliant life and career giving joy to all

Just had it pop up on my screen before I opened your post. Sadly, I have never read anything by her, although I have several of her books on my MUST read list.

Ms Morrison, forever beloved

Beloved was the first book I ever read that gave me some small inkling of what it meant to be a slave. Specifically a scene where her infant child was lying under a tree, being stung by bees and screaming, but the mother couldn't go to her because she was brushing her mistress' hair. As the mother of an infant at the time, I couldn't even imagine the inhumanity of that.

Beloved, beautifully haunting. ❤️❤️❤️

Diane wrote: "Toni Morrison died last night at the age of 88. She died at home surrounded by family."

Tremendous loss. I was just at Barnes and Noble last week and passed by a section of her books and thinking that I really need to read one of her books these days.

Though not certain, I could probably claim the same thing Diane. I recall struggling with Beloved, as if I was not qualified to read it with the attention and understanding it deserved. It's one of those books always in the back of my mind that requires a reread in my maturity.

Toni Morrison was one of the great novelists of our age. When I read of her passing, I was deeply saddened. I remember her for allowing me into a world of love, loss, and dignity, which I would not have understood without the wisdom of her writing. Here is Toni Morrison giving her Nobel Prize Lecture. Toni Morrison, December 7, 1993. The Nobel site also includes a transcript of Ms. Morrison's remarkable speech.

And I Catherine. Beloved deserves a reread soon. I feel a nomination coming on. Sooner the better. I wonder if we can cheat and push it up for Sept

John wrote: "And I Catherine. Beloved deserves a reread soon. I feel a nomination coming on. Sooner the better. I wonder if we can cheat and push it up for Sept"

Yes, John. And it's not cheating. I have the Moderator's Choice for September. About to message all members.

Anne Rivers Siddons died last night. She died at her home in Charleston from lung cancer. She was 83. Especially significant because Tom chose her book "The House Next Door" as his MOD choice for October. Stephen King described it as "one of the 10 best horror novels of the 20th century".

I recognized her name when Tom chose her and realized I had never read any of her books. I'm not a fan of horror tales, but there are always exceptions to any rule. I'm sorry to hear of her death.

Her best known book is Peachtree Road. I read that and some of her others many years ago. She was a good friend of Pat Conroy.

I think I read Peachtree Road long ago and recall Pat praising her work in his collection of stories and essays. But she wrote horror?

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/o...

Here’s the announcement

Cathrine, just one horror book. I picked it up because of the deceptive title, "The House Next Door", then couldn't put it down. The suspense builds slowly but surely.

Thanks for posting, Laura. I can't do that on my tablet.

Library has it so I'll join in on that read.

I am sad to hear that. Still have Peachtree Road on my shelf since it's my hometown.

My home town as well, Jan, but I have not ever read it.

Sara wrote: "My home town as well, Jan, but I have not ever read it."

I wanted to give you the link to an article that appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on her death that highlighted other books of hers and also a posthumous memoir by Pat Conroy I hadn't known about, but not sure I can get around the digital rights protection! Here's a try:
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/atlant...
Or, maybe this would work:
https://epaper.ajc.com/popovers/dynam...

Thank you so much, Jan. Makes me feel as if I missed the life of someone I would have loved knowing. I read Conroy from his first novel to his last, I wonder why I never picked up a Siddons. I will try to read The House Next Door with the group next month, but I am in the middle of a move, so maybe not. At any rate, I will definitely read both it and Peachtree Road as soon as time allows and hold to that old saw, "better late than never."