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Letters to the Children of Troy

As Jack Cheng tells the story:

In 1971, Marguerite Hart, the children’s librarian of my hometown of Troy, Michigan, wrote to dozens of politicians, writers, artists and otherwise notable individuals asking them to send in a few inspirational words for the children of Troy on the opening of its first public library. […] I remember going there to binge on Matt Christopher books in elementary school, and to research class reports and use the computers later on.

In response to Hart’s request, 97 letters were eventually returned – from individuals as wide-ranging as Isaac Asimov and Pat Nixon to Neil Armstrong and Dr. Seuss. Considered in sum, the letters speak to the the untold social value of libraries and the transcendental wonders of books. E.B. White, in his letter to the children of Troy, wrote that books were people – “people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book”:

Dr. Seuss also wrote, pressing the children with an important task:

While many of the letters were addressed to the children themselves, like Isaac Asimov’s and Dr. Ben Spock’s, others were addressed to Ms. Hart herself – or speak of how “a world without books would be a world without light” and of the important role libraries play in storing the knowledge of the world.

As poignant as some of the letters are, though, what has captivated me most is the legacy of a truly great children’s librarian shining through it all. Ms. Marguerite Hart must have been a real local treasure to the city of Troy, and it’s her vision for what libraries can become that seems to be her greatest legacy. As Troy’s library recounts, she once said:

The public library has a choice of roles to play in a community. It may be a vital, telling force, a source to which its patrons turn first, or it may be a passive entity, doing its work as a background for community activity. I believe that like the City of Troy, to which it belongs and which it represents, our new library must take a prominent place. Before children are able to read independently, a librarian helps them to know the library as the place they may explore when they do read. She helps them discover reading as a pleasurable experience, the quality of which derives from the attitudes within the library and that of the community it serves.