“I believe the Latin is monumentus serendipitus”

I received the most wonderful note from Carter Hasegawa via Goodreads the other day.  It was so pleasant that I felt inclined to post it on this blog.  He obliged me with his permission.  Check out this post, particularly if you’ve any interest in Ursula Nordstrom or Mary Stoltz.

Lately while taking the T to work (Harvard Book Store), I’ve been reading "Dear Genius." The last letter I read before I got to my stop was a letter UN wrote to Mary Stoltz whose nephew, Emmett, so badly wanted a pig.

"The zoning laws made that impossible in St. Louis, his parents arranged to have him own a pig which lived in Tennessee. He has pictures of his pig. He receives letters from the farmer about his pig, He puts aside part of his allowance to provide mash for the pig. And he is saving money and making plans to go to Tennessee on his vacation and see his pig."

This is of course one of the first early readers, "Emmett’s Pig."

Yesterday at work, while helping a gentleman special order some books we didn’t carry, I noticed he was holding a copy of Sendak’s "In the Night Kitchen." I mentioned to him the letters I had been reading specifically about Sendak and how fascinating they were.

The customer asked, "is that about that woman who was editor at Harper for all those years?" I told him that it was.

He said, "I think she was my aunt’s editor."

"Oh, who’s your aunt?" I asked.

"Mary Stoltz. She once wrote a book about me. My name’s Emmett."

Can you believe it? Of all the people working in the store that day, Emmett of Emmett’s Pig came to me for help only moments after I read about him. Crazy.

After I realized who he was, I went up to our break room and I got my copy of "Dear Genius" to show him. I pointed out the passage that referred to "his" book and left it with him to go through. You should’ve seen the grin on his face when he brought the book back to me. He also showed me a picture of his aunt that was in the book and mentioned wistfully that he hadn’t seen the picture in years.

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