Reading The Key Essay 14 of 17

First Love, Then Books

MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS, 24 X 12
ACRYLIC, INK, GESSO, PAPER, 1956 BEGINNING DICTIONARY, 1929 DICTIONARY, WASHINGTON DC VINTAGE SOUVENIR PHOTO, BARTLETT’S QUOTATIONS (ROSENBACH, EINSTEIN)

A love affair with books advances easily in the heart of a perpetual learner.

One of America’s best-known collectors of rare books, A. S. W. Rosenbach, said it this way: “After love, book collecting is the most exhilarating sport of all.” This quote is part of the abstract cruciform composition of this painting in the Reading The Key series. Rosenbach directed the development of several private book collections during his career in the first half of the 20th century in Philadelphia. He characteristically urged the conversion of those collections to public libraries.

Rosenbach’s 1936 quote is partnered with a quote from Albert Einstein stating that even an atomic bomb would not destroy civilization because “enough books would be left.” The viewer will also discover a vintage souvenir photo of the U.S. Capitol and the Library of Congress, and several dictionary slivers and pages. The overall mood is abstract and organic, not unlike the mind of a learner. Several iconic skeleton keys are stacked, beside and aside the other elements, like books on a shelf might be.

What is it about a book that seizes the learner’s heart and soul? Books are collected, given, bought and sold every day. The appeal is not only the information contained therein, but also the association of the object itself. Whether a stapled signature or Coptic binding in gilded leather, a book represents study, thought, expression, and simply, learning.

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©Ginger Meek Allen