Time Travels

by Marissa Creamer Rowan Public Library

                Since the publication of H. G. Wells’s iconic novel, “The Time Machine,” time travel has remained a popular topic in literature.  In “The Time Machine,” the first of Wells’ science fiction novels, a Victorian scientist propels himself into the distant future and finds a world where suffering has been replaced by beauty, contentment, and peace. This apparent paradise is inhabited by the naive and delicate Eloi.  He learns that the Eloi are fearful of the dark, however, for in tunnels beneath their paradise lurk the sinister Morlocks. When the scientist’s time machine vanishes, he knows he must search these dangerous tunnels if he is ever to return to his own time.

                There seems to have been increased interest in time travel in recent years, as many new books featuring time travel adventures have been released. The young adult novel “Timebound” was originally self-published by Rysa Walker of Cary, N.C.  It gained national attention when it won the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in the YA category. “Timebound” tells the story of 16-year-old Kate, who is stunned to learn about a secret family history involving time travel and a conspiracy by a rogue scholar from the future to rewrite history and change society. When history alters and Kate’s family is lost, she must use her genetic ability to travel back to the 1893 World’s Fair and prevent the murder that changed everything.  In saving her family, however, she may erase the memory of the boy she loves.

                Catherine Fisher brings us another young adult story of time travel involving a mirror that provides a gateway into the past and the future: “The Obsidian Mirror.” The mirror of the title has great and terrible power; it can open a portal to the past, but those who venture in are often lost.  Three people seek the mirror:  one has been sent from the future to shatter its power; another, obsessed with its power, will protect the mirror at all costs; and the third needs the mirror to find a murdered father and save his life. All converge at creepy Wintercombe Abbey during a solstice blizzard, but only one can succeed. The story continues in the new release “The Slanted Worlds.”

                For a more humorous spin on time travel, try Scott Meyer’s “Off to be the Wizard.” Author of the online web comic “Basic Instructions,” Meyer brings us a comedic novel about computers, time travel, and human stupidity. Meet Martin Banks, amateur hacker, who stumbles upon a computer program that can manipulate reality. Despite his vows to keep a low profile, it’s not long before Martin’s “alterations” to reality get him into hot water.  With federal agents in pursuit, Martin flees back in time to Medieval England to live as a wizard while he tries to figure out how to get out of his predicament.  Of course, things don’t go exactly as he planned, and Martin soon learns that being a wizard is not quite as easy as he thought it would be. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride in this first installment of a planned series.

                Other recent titles involving time travel include: “The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells” by Andrew Sean Greer, “The Beautiful Land” by Alan Averill, and the “Ruby Red” young adult series by Kerstin Gier.  You can find all of these books and many other time travel adventures at Rowan Public Library.

The Greatest Generation

On June 6, 1984, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in France that some have ranked as one of the best of his political career.  On that day, the fortieth anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy, President Reagan gave tribute to the warriors who secured Pointe du Hoc.  Point du Hoc was a cliff that overlooked the Utah and Omaha beaches and had been fortified by the Germans with heavy guns.  U.S. Army Rangers, after a dangerous beach landing and strenuous climbing under murderous fire, finally succeeded in securing the cliff.  This amazing story is told in marvelous detail by Douglas Brinkley in his book, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc.  Brinkley also shares some interesting background stories about Reagan’s speech.  While Reagan commemorated a specific event in the invasion, some mark that speech as the beginning of a renewed appreciation for all World War II veterans.

Someone who covered Reagan’s visit to Normandy that year was NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw.  Impressed by the speech and inspired by the stories of aging veterans, Brokaw began documenting the experiences of the generation of Americas who survived the Great Depression and won the Second World War.  Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation, was published in 1998 and quickly became a best seller.  In the years that followed, Brokaw received a great number of appreciative letters from not only veterans, but from their families as well.  It seemed that everyone wanted to share their experiences or tell the story of a loved one who never made it home.  Brokaw compiled several of these missives into another book called, The Greatest Generation Speaks, in hopes that we could all share in appreciating their duty, honor, and sacrifice.  A third book, An Album of Memories, soon followed and it helped to tell even more stories of those who lived through the trying times of the 1930’s and 40’s.  This scrapbook of Americana contains not only fascinating stories, but also memorabilia and personal photographs that make those stories come alive.

In 2004, the National World War II Memorial was completed and officially dedicated.  This memorial, set on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was built to salute American men and women who served and sacrificed in the armed forces and civilian population during that time period.  Some have criticized that it took the government too long to acknowledge the World War II generation and that a large segment of the population did not survive long enough to see it.  Because so many of that generation continue to pass away every day, a strong push has been made to get the surviving men and women to the memorial before it’s too late.  The 2012 film, Honor Flight, documents the story of how one community came together to raise the funds to get its veterans to the memorial.  I challenge anyone to watch that movie and make it through the entire show without tearing up.

If you’ve known a member of the Greatest Generation or are lucky enough to still have them around, take a moment today to appreciate their courage and sacrifice.  If you happen to be a member of that generation, please accept my sincerest thank you.  Stop by a branch of the Rowan Public Library to learn more about the members of the Greatest Generation.

Histories of Rowan will help with Wikipedia edit-a-thon

by Gretchen Beilfuss Witt Rowan Public Library

As part of the 411 events in which Rowan Public Library is participating, Rowan Public Library will host a Wikipedia edit-a-thon on April 1st at 6:30 pm.  Wikipedia is a widely used internet resource for all types of knowledge.  In order to facilitate quick but accurate information, Wikipedia encourages those with access to documented information to actively participate in providing or editing data found in the online encyclopedia.  The Wikipedia edit-a-thon will provide an opportunity to craft paragraphs highlighting the rich history of Rowan's past full of interesting events and colorful characters. 

            There are several books that are important in reflecting an accurate picture of Rowan's past.  Carolina Cradle by Ramsey describes the first inhabitants of this land, the first white explorers and the pioneers that followed.   His work is an attempt to trace the process by which this section of the South was populated and the character of the initial settlers; how they worked with, organized and supervised one another.  The book offers genealogies, maps, land grant information, passenger lists and an extensive bibliography.

            The first and still widely respected History of Rowan and her prominent families was published in 1881 and written by the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Reverend Jethro Rumple.  In his nearly five decades in the community, he took the opportunity to speak to the children and grandchildren of those who participated in the colonial formation of the county, the Revolutionary War and the early years of the republic.  He began as pastor in 1860 and remained until 1904.  As such, he obtained access to family papers, oral histories and the like that are no longer available.  In his book, he gives short compiled genealogies, descriptions and locations of homes, businesses, and events and notes important community leaders.   It is an invaluable resource for Rowan’s past.

            In the bicentennial year of Rowan, 1953, a well-respected historian and native Salisburian, James S. Brawley wrote another history of Rowan county, “The Rowan Story.”  It both clarified some of Rumple’s information and included the later history of the county.   He speaks of the activities and persons who participated in the recovery of Rowan after the Civil War up to the current [1953] business ventures.  He addresses religious development, well-known citizens, railroads and distilleries, governmental members and clubs.   Brawley followed this work twenty years later with "A Brief History" a somewhat condensed but useful book on the important bits of Rowan's history.   With these books and the many other resources, the hope is to expand and enhance the data available in the online encyclopedia during and after our Edit-a-thon.

Also with regard to the noteworthy history of Rowan, the library will be hosting the premiere of the next episode of the "Ramble through Rowan's History" DVD series.  The movie, entitled “Courage & Conflict:  Rowan in the Civil War”, is approximately forty minutes in length.  The film covers from the pre-war organization of militia groups to the raid of General Stoneman who razed the Salisbury Confederate Prison in April of 1865.  The premiere will be April 10, 2014 at 7:00 pm in the Stanback Auditorium.

the possibilities of photography to create art

Rebecca Hyde Rowan Public Library

             For Diane Griliches, Vivian Maier, and Edward Curtis, taking pictures was a means to an end.  The different ends pursued illustrate the possibilities of photography to create art, capture a moment, or record history.

            Diane Griliches, the author of “Thinking Photography,” had a profession as a director of community musical theater.  But early magical years of snapping away with a Brownie box camera and spending hours in a dark room left their imprint.  As an adult, Griliches still feels the magic, but curiosity has led her to examine photography as “a gift of science to the arts.”  Her book covers technical and aesthetic elements of picture taking.  Griliches hopes that readers will be enticed into the joy of the hunt, the discovery, the capture, and the possibility of artistic creation.   The photographs in the book are collected according to theme (“The South,” “Animals,” “Children”) or process (high contrast, infrared, triton, hand-painted).  Griliches supplies notes, on technique or thoughts on the composition.

            “Vivian Maier:  Out of the Shadows,” by Richard Cahan and Michael Williams, is the result of a team effort.  Maier (1926-2009) was an amateur photographer whose took more than a hundred thousand pictures of what pleased her as she roamed city streets.  She ended life in poverty.  Her belongings, including photo negatives and rolls of undeveloped film, ended up in a storage facility.  In 2007, the trunks and boxes were bought for $250 by a Chicago auctioneer, who sold them in small lots.  One of the collections was made available to Cahan and Williams, who organized the pictures in this book into “a photo memoir,” placing Maier’s work in the context of her life: pivotal years in France and New York City, travel across the United States, Chicago, the beach, the year 1968.  It appears that Maier lived her adult life through a camera, and the photos are her daily journal.  Cahan and Williams are reminded of Emily Dickinson:  Maier “lived an irregular, mysterious life and was able to convey what she felt about our shared world in a way that helps us see that world anew.”

            “Edward Sheriff Curtis,” by Edward Curtis and Joanna Cohan Scherer, is a collection of photographs taken by Curtis of Native American tribes in the first decades of the twentieth century.  Curtis wanted to provide an anthropological resource of a “vanishing race.”  But since the old way of life was passing, and because Curtis insisted on accuracy, his subjects helped him create his photographs, putting on traditional clothes and demonstrating the old tools and weapons.  And then there is the artistry used by Curtis to produce his spectacular images.  Joanna Scherer of the Smithsonian Institution is an anthropologist and a photographer, and she says we can appreciate both the record and the artistic creation.