Robin Agnew
One of the pleasures of owning a used book store are the various detria you discover inside old books - book marks, sales receipts, plane tickets (remember when they issued those?), wedding photos, photos of pets - books are a beloved repository. Once I found cash but that was only the once. Often there are inscriptions that make you wonder how the book was let go - "From Granny, Christmas 1985" for example, seems like something to keep. Recently inside of a nice hardback copy of Ngaio Marsh's Death in a White Tie we discovered not a mere inscription but a whole letter, which I'm reproducing here:
"Dear Mrs. S_______,
You are one of my favorite teachers. It's not going to be easy leaving you or any of my favorite teachers. I'm giving you this book because I read some of these mysteries, and I really liked them. I hope you will like them to (sic). I know that a few times in the year, I did get a little mean and I did talk to (sic) much but I didn't mean (it). You didn't get rid of me yet. (Don't worry) I'll be seeing you again soon.
-Heart-
J_______M_________ 6-10-91"
This was written in that kind of loopy, girly teenage handwriting that you somehow give up after high school. Who knows how long Mrs. S. kept her book - hopefully she enjoyed reading it. Who knows what happened to J? This letter goes right up there with the wedding photo from the Renaissance festival that my husband recently discovered. It's immortality of a kind, even if it's only in a dusty used bookshop.
Merry Christmas!
