“When a book expresses a human experience, or a new idea which gives it coherence and meaning, then it may be said to live – to have a personality – to be “something.” 

This excerpt from the typed letter glued to the inside cover is what brought me to purchase this book from the antique store. The name of the book, “The Art-Literature Readers” seemed to be a melding of my life. For me it has always been the combination of words and art. The copyright from 1907, offers hope, encouragement, that wee ideas from the besides of children, small collections of words and pictures handed from librarians’ desks to chubby hands, explanations written on blackboards in front of eager minds, these wee ideas can last. Can live. On and on. 

It is childish, I suppose, but who hopes better than youth? So I will continue as if there were no beginning, nor ending. Just a fluttering of words on wings. Carrying a smile, a dream, a hope, a belief that knowledge is freedom, that love is meaning, that life is something, really something!!!