MY OLDEST BOOK

I have quite a number of books here but this one is the oldest

and best loved for a reason.

This is the book that started it all.

I must've been around 8 when my folks bought it for me because
they bought it as the Stop & Shop in Dorchester on Gallivan Blvd.
There were three books, actually. One of the others was “Hans

Brinker and the Silver Skates”. I can’t recall the third one, but

this is the only one of the three I still have some 50 years later.

Its age shows physically. The binding is loose and frayed and

there’s some red crayon on the cover. Some of the black and white

illustrations inside show where I traced them with a pencil so that

the carbon paper underneath would copy the image to the notebook

paper beneath that.

The first edition was published in 1924 but this one is the third

edition dated 1956, which would confirm the year I think it was

given to me.

From this book, I dove into mythology. The librarian at the

Codman Square Library steered me to the “Age of Chivalry”

in Bulfinch’s Mythology and I devoured the whole book. As

I got older I read any books I could find on ancient and medieval

history and I still have quite a few of them that I’ve bought over

the years within easy reach as I type this. I also have quite a few

Arthurian novels and nonfiction books on the subject. And I've

seen nearly every movie or tv show ever made about Arthur

and his knights.

It sparked a lifelong love of history and reading that led me to a
college degree in History and later in life nearly 18 years as a

bookseller. I suppose it's fair to say that it eventually thus led

me into genealogy.

I wonder how many people’s lives have been shaped by something

they read as a child?