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• A Winter Read

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• The Difference a Book Can Make

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• News from the MHC Family

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• Upcoming Events

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• Grant News

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• This Month’s Publications

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• Quote of the Month

“In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self of what the book says is the proof of its veracity.”

— Time Regained
Marcel Proust

It is truly winter in Maine. Most of us, at least, experienced a bit of snow over Thanksgiving, and many of those sensitive to the cold gleefully took our stormy day as a good reason to stay inside where it was warm — with a book. My own book was Swann’s Way, and many people I know are also reading it in preparation for the upcoming Winter Weekend.

The Maine Humanities Council’s Winter Weekend is a very good motivator to read a book like Swann’s Way. While it is one of my favorite books, I will not deny that it is long (the Lydia Davis translation being used for Winter Weekend is 496 pages). It is also filled with complicated sentences (though André Aciman in a recent New York Review of Books maintains that this is less true in the Davis translation than that by Scott Moncrieff). It is filled with beautiful sentences, though, and beautiful imagery. Few writers can evoke such powerful, ethereal emotions as does Proust in Swann’s Way, nor such memorable ones. Swann’s Way is, I think, an ideal book for a winter read. It takes the reader into Combray in the summer and weaves through fascinating characters (the young narrator’s independent and heroic-minded grandmother, the lovely yet devious red-haired Gilberte, Bergotte the writer — who charms and later disappoints the adolescent and idealistic narrator, the odd yet intriguing Baron de Charlus, the gently pitiful musician Vinteuil, the alluring Odette de Crécy, and, of course, dear, kind Charles Swann himself).

I think of the inherent quality of Proust’s writing when I read the passages about Vinteuil’s music. Both Proust and Vinteuil are both brilliant at sharing things that touch deeply, things that are powerful. Even if you don’t read Swann’s Way this winter, I wish all of you a December and New Year of health, great thoughts, and things that touch deeply.

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Bread Song is the story of a young boy named Chamnan, who lives in a small seaside city. He and his family, who have recently moved to the United States from Thailand, own the Thai Mountain Restaurant on Wharf Street. Every morning, Chamnan and his grandfather cross the street to visit Alison’s Bakery. The people in the bakery are very friendly, but Chamnan is afraid to speak to them in English. One day, Alison the baker has an idea for how to help Chamnan overcome his shyness. Then she invites him back to the bakery at a special time to hear her bread sing.

It’s worth reading the book to get the rest of the story. For now, suffice it to say that the mystery of the bread song gives Chamnan confidence and enables him to feel at home in a new place.

It’s not always easy to explain or predict what will make us feel at home. Frederick Lipp, author of Bread Song, certainly feels a strong connection to the city of Portland. He set his story there, where he lives and served for many years as Minister of the First Parish Church. Alison’s Bakery is based on Standard Baking Company on Commercial Street, where there really is a baker named Alison. Because of these local connections, and because it is such a compelling story, Born to Read offered copies of Bread Song to child care programs in its Volunteer Reader Program.

One child care program in Phillips, Maine, received the book at a very opportune time. Its group of children included a four-year-old girl from Vietnam named Kim*, who was very shy. Her comprehension of English was slowly improving, yet she scarcely ever spoke. A language specialist was working closely with her, and her mother had started volunteering at the program to lend a hand. When Bread Song arrived, the story captivated both Kim and her mother, who saw themselves reflected in the experiences of Chamnan and his grandfather. The gentle story and pictures helped Kim feel at home in Phillips, and in the English language, in ways that English lessons alone could not have done.

Thanks to Fred Lipp for creating such a powerful picture book. Born to Read is honored to promote it and watch the impact it has on children in Maine.

*identifying details have been changed

(report by Brita Zitin, Born to Read program officer)

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Two Council programs attracted television coverage this month. Maine Public Broadcasting’s popular “Made In Maine” series featured a whole program on barns, including a segment on the Smithsonian’s Barn Again! exhibit which toured Maine this year under the sponsorship of the Maine Humanities Council. Meanwhile, Program Officer Lizz Sinclair and former Board chair Dr. Geoff Gratwick spoke with reporter Jon Small about the Literature & Medicine program for his Sunday evening community news program for WABI-TV in Bangor. The interview aired on November 27th.

And finally, Stephen Podgajny, member of the MHC Board, has just been hired by the Portland Public Library as Director. He was previously Director of the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, where he worked for the past 18 years. In 2000, Steve was named the Maine Librarian of the Year, so this new job is hardly a surprise, but we at the MHC know him most for his groundbreaking work on the Maine State Cultural Affairs Council, which he helped to create. Steve will begin his new job on February 1, 2006. From all of at the MHC, Steve – congratulations!

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For upcoming events funded by the Maine Humanities Council, please click here.

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The major grant deadline has passed, but the discretionary grant deadline is rolling.

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Last month, the University Press of New England released Creating Portland: History and Place in Northern New England, edited by Joseph Conforti. Conforti, former (and founding) director of the graduate program in American and New England Studies at the University of Southern Maine, is the author of five books on New England and is a scholar in many MHC programs. Creating Portland also includes an article by the MHC’s own in-house scholar Charles Calhoun, as well as former MHC Board member Donna Cassidy and many other scholars who have participated in MHC programs.

University Press of New England writes of Creating Portland:

From the colonial period, Portland has been defined by its diverse array of peoples. Native American inhabitants possessed a strong sense of place rooted in spiritual beliefs, environmental practices, and tribal lore. Puritans, Quakers, and Baptists brought religious diversity to Colonial Falmouth (one of several early names for Portland). By the late eighteenth century, free blacks formed an important community. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Irish, Italian, Greek, and Jewish immigrants made their way to Portland. Today, more recent immigrants include individuals from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In addition, Portland has a thriving gay community.

Geography, history, and public policy all shaped modern Portland. The core of the city is on a peninsula with a protected harbor on Casco Bay. Across time, Portland residents have exploited geography to develop a natural resource economy. Portland has been a fur trading post, a fishing center, a lumbering and shipbuilding community, a commercial entrepot, and a tourist destination. Portland’s proximity to the sea has been the overriding factor in its development, and is a central theme of the historical essays in this volume.

A model of contemporary place studies, Creating Portland brings together essays by fourteen scholars on the history, geography, arts, literature, and built environment of Portland over the course of three centuries. Illuminating Portland within the larger context of New England regionalism, and unified by a focus on Portland as a living, changing urban center, Creating Portland is an invaluable guide to the city and a resource for scholars, students, residents, and tourists.

Congratulations to Joe and all the scholars who contributed to this wonderful volume.

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“A highlight of my week is when I walk through the door of the daycare and see the children waiting for me with smiles and hugs. The Born to Read program is a wonderful way to keep in touch with the ‘young’ people. The commitment to this assignment has provided me the opportunity to give something to the community. As I focus on the joys of reading I feel I am more connected to my community and I feel that I am making a significant contribution to the children of my community!”

—A RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) reader wrote this to Born to Read about experiences in the volunteer reader program in 2005.

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