The book – Toni Morrison’s 1970 novel The Bluest Eye – from Burnaby, B.C.'s library, was found in the author's loft in New York.Courtesy of Michelle Sinclair Colman
Among the neat lines of books at Toni Morrison’s loft in Tribeca are many important works of literature and culture, sometimes personally inscribed to the late author from friends, students and admirers.
There is, on her bedside table, one of Robert Caro’s books on Lyndon Johnson, Stephen King’s Revival, and Barack Obama: The Story, by David Maraniss. On the crisp white shelves lining the living room are books by Dickens and Kafka, Twain and Baldwin, books about slavery and hope, about writing and America.
And, among those more than 1,200 volumes, a surprise: a heavily marked-up copy of Ms. Morrison’s own 1970 novel The Bluest Eye – from the Burnaby Public Library.
The Nobel Prize-winning author had more than 1,200 volumes in her collection.Courtesy of Michelle Sinclair Colman
The library book was spotted by freelance journalist and author Michelle Sinclair Colman, who recently gained access to the Manhattan property to write about the book collection Ms. Morrison had there.
“For me, books would seem to be the most important thing in her life…,” Ms. Sinclair Colman says. “If you could have anything of Toni Morrison, it would be her books.”
How the heavily marked-up library book came to be in the author's personal collection remains a mystery.Courtesy of Michelle Sinclair Colman
The home is being sold intact, and is currently preserved as though, Ms. Sinclair Colman says, the author “just stepped out for coffee.” The property is currently listed for sale at US$4.75-million. And while others eye the undisturbed interior of a residence that belonged to one of the world’s most respected and renowned authors, readers and bibliophiles have been thinking about her books.
Ms. Morrison’s books were arranged alphabetically by author, and the library copy of The Bluest Eye appears on a shelf of M’s, just past Birds of America by Lorrie Moore and 1934 by Alberto Moravia, in a section of Ms. Morrison’s own work. The book stands sandwiched between a six-volume Knopf box set of her novels and a copy of Beloved.
The book bears the original cover as published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in 1970, pale with text scrolling down the front, and a clear plastic book jacket. Inside, the text has been heavily underlined in pencil with the occasional notation in the margins, though not in Ms. Morrison’s own distinctive script.
“My impression, and this is based on nothing, is that somebody gave it to her because they saw how the reader was so engaged on every single page,” says Ms. Sinclair Colman, before pausing to consider that person, whose underlining and notes found their way back to the esteemed author.
“Can you imagine if you were the one that did that? And you found out that Toni Morrison saw what you had done and that meant something to her?”
The book was one of two library books in Ms. Morrison’s apartment. The other is a copy of The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle.Courtesy of Michelle Sinclair Colman
Beth Davies, chief librarian of the Burnaby Public Library, says a news alert first caught mention of the connection in Ms. Sinclair Colman’s story for Galerie Magazine, and soon messages began to come in, saying things such as “OMG” and “wow” and “amazing!”
“It just felt so special, but also so incongruous to have a book from our library in the collection of a Nobel Prize winner for literature,” Ms. Davies said. She said the find felt personally meaningful because The Bluest Eye had been a life-changing book for her growing up, and she liked the idea that a copy from her library maybe had the same kind of impact on someone. She described reaction to the find as “just surprise and delight.”
The book holds some clues to its history. A card envelope pasted inside shows it was in circulation before the system was fully computerized, and thanks to a bar code, Ms. Davies says staff can say “with reasonable confidence” that the copy came into the library on Aug. 19, 1983.
While some joked on Twitter about the library trying to get the book back – or poked fun at the idea of such an esteemed figure having an unreturned library book – a stamp confirms the book was actually withdrawn from circulation by the library, possibly because of the heavy notations inside. Ms. Davies said it would likely have been sold for about 50 cents at one of the library’s book sales.
After some further detective work, Ms. Davies said library staff believe the copy was likely withdrawn from circulation in 1995.
How the book then travelled the 5,000 kilometres from Burnaby to Manhattan and ended up in Ms. Morrison’s personal library is not known. There are, Ms. Davies notes, “so many possibilities.”
“It is just a lovely thought to think of a Burnaby Public Library book finding a home in such a prestigious place,” she said.
The book was one of two library books in Ms. Morrison’s apartment. The other is a copy of The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle. Its provenance, too, is a mystery.
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