It wasn’t my intention for my bucket list to take me to the Sonoita library. My original muse was Nora Ephron, the writer and filmmaker (“When Harry Met Sally”). She wrote a funny piece for The New Yorker magazine about the Kindle e-reader introduced in 2007 by Amazon. Ephron had immediately ordered one and wrote about her frustration in not getting a delivery because the first-generation Kindle was sold out in a matter of hours and was out of stock for months. Curious, I ordered a Kindle online.
Soon after I took delivery of the device in 2009, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was awarded to “Olive Kitteridge” by Elizabeth Strout. I downloaded a free sample and read it. A few days later, my interest piqued, I downloaded the e-book for the bargain price of $9.99. That was the beginning of my bucket list – to read every Pulitzer Prize winning novel or work of fiction. I dreamed of building a massive digital library at $9.99 a book. I was naive.
Amazon had a dispute with publishers and some offerings were much more than $9.99. Also, Amazon was unable to offer some previous prize winners as e-books. I started checking the books out of the Phoenix central library. However, I was stunned to
discover that some of the novels were not in the library catalog. I couldn’t believe that a Pulitzer Prize winning book would not be in a major library. I did find some older works at Bookmans, a used bookstore chain with locations in Phoenix and Tucson. I took to visiting all the locations. I picked up the new prize winners at Barnes & Noble in hopes of getting a first edition.
I was knocking off about 10-12 books a year and now I was looking for books going back several decades. Upon moving to Sonoita in 2014 I have to admit I wasn’t overly impressed with the outward appearance of the Sonoita branch library. Inside, I discovered the inspirational muses of the interlibrary loan, Barbara Hershberger, Virginia Fain and Dorothy Rhodes.
All three library clerks were fun to work with and they found me books that came from as near as the city libraries in Tempe and Mesa and as far away as Ames, Iowa. Often, they didn’t have to look much further than Colorado.
One book, “Journey in the Dark” by Martin Flavin, came in from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It was a hardcover and a first edition (no dust jacket so its value wasn’t much) but I researched the author and found that Carmel was the little town where he resided at the time of his death. Since the book couldn’t be found anywhere else I imagined he donated the copy to the library there.
I have made it back as far as 1934. It is taking longer to locate books by interlibrary loan and the search thus far for “Now in November” by Josephine Johnson has come up empty. The first-generation Kindle is “dog-eared” and the battery life is low, so I am not anxious to download the book.
The Sonoita Library operates under an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Nogales and the county. According to Rhodes, a state grant, which is coming up for renewal, provides for part time positions at the library.
Further uncertainty has arisen with the closure of the Sonoita court, although the county has no plans to close the building at this time.
Even though I haven’t reached the end of my bucket list yet (the Pulitzer Prize for the novel was first awarded in 1918), I want to thank Barbara, Virginia, and Dorothy for always being helpful. I will see you soon! The 2018 Pulitzer Prize will be awarded April 18th.