Is it possible to make the life and work of a librarian interesting?
Ida Leeson: A Life - an engrossing portrait.
AdvertisementAdvertisement
Author
Sylvia Martin
Genre
Biography
Publisher
Allen & Unwin
Pages
242
RRP
$29.95
Is it possible to make the life and work of a librarian interesting? Well, in the case of Ida Leeson, the first woman to become head librarian at the Mitchell Library, a good starting point is the assistance that she, as an expert on early South Pacific exploration, gave to the Charles Laughton version of Mutiny on the Bounty.
It is this approach to Leeson's life that makes this unusual biography so interesting. Here are images of Sydney before the Mitchell Library was built, of the poor who lived in the Domain during the Depression and found the library a source of warmth and solace, of the excitement of purchasing primary documents (Matthew Flinders's journals, for example), of the writers (James McAuley, Christopher Brennan, Marjorie Barnard, Miles Franklin) who gravitated to the vast resources of the library, and, of course, of the great contribution to Sydney's intellectual life made by David Scott Mitchell's bequest.
The result is an engrossing portrait of an interesting woman and a fascinating city.
Ida Leeson: A Life - an engrossing portrait.
AdvertisementAdvertisement
Author
Sylvia Martin
Genre
Biography
Publisher
Allen & Unwin
Pages
242
RRP
$29.95
Is it possible to make the life and work of a librarian interesting? Well, in the case of Ida Leeson, the first woman to become head librarian at the Mitchell Library, a good starting point is the assistance that she, as an expert on early South Pacific exploration, gave to the Charles Laughton version of Mutiny on the Bounty.
It is this approach to Leeson's life that makes this unusual biography so interesting. Here are images of Sydney before the Mitchell Library was built, of the poor who lived in the Domain during the Depression and found the library a source of warmth and solace, of the excitement of purchasing primary documents (Matthew Flinders's journals, for example), of the writers (James McAuley, Christopher Brennan, Marjorie Barnard, Miles Franklin) who gravitated to the vast resources of the library, and, of course, of the great contribution to Sydney's intellectual life made by David Scott Mitchell's bequest.
The result is an engrossing portrait of an interesting woman and a fascinating city.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten