begin putting books
in your way – more actively
they will possess you
Adapted the book, So Well Remembered, by James Hilton (Boston: Little, Brown And Company, 1945) where Mr. Hilton has his hero writing a letter to his young son …
Which is why I intend soon to begin putting books in your way,
because the more freely and vividly you see things while you are young,
even if you can’t fully understand them,
the more actively they will possess you when you grow up —
especially if, in adult life, you have hard battles to fight and bitter disappointments to face.
New worlds, Martin, are for the young to explore;
later one is glad of a new room, or even of a view from a new window . . .

As I understand it from listening to my online radio station, when they changed the guard at Buckingham Palace today, those Redcoats in their Bearskin hats came to attention and the Band of the Coldstream Guards broke into a military performance of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5.
I cannot add much to the tributes being delivered AROUND THE WORLD today for this woman but I will say that the news break that mentioned the musical tribute also said that the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library book program had given away over 300 million books.
Serit arbores, quae alteri saeclo prosint said Cicero quoting the poet Statius in his Synepheb.
Serit arbores, quae alteri saeclo prosint … “she plants trees, which will be of use to another age.”
Which has come through the ages as, “Blessed is she who plants trees under whose shade she will never sit.”
I have read a lot of history so far in my life.
I am pressed to match what Miss Dolly did with some historical precedent.
Mr. Carnegie gave away libraries.
Miss Dolly gave away books.
You do have to sign up.
You do have to sign up but no questions are asked.
Not who the parents were.
Not what church they went too.
Not how much money they had.
Just signup and enter your birthday.
And once in the system, every month, until their 5th birthday, a new book comes in the mail.
I was able to sign up 4 of my grand children in the program.
But I don’t know of another celebrity-created philanthropic program or any other philanthropic program that matches the Imagination Library’s combination of scale, longevity, simplicity, universality and direct personal benefit.
And that’s what makes it so interesting.
Dolly took something incredibly inexpensive on an individual basis, a children’s book, and built it into a philanthropic system that has delivered more than 325 million individual gifts.
Scale.
Longevity.
Simplicity.
Universality.
Direct personal benefit.
Serit arbores, quae alteri saeclo prosint … Indeed!
Thank you Miss Dolly.
Because the more freely and vividly you see things while you are young, even if you can’t fully understand them, the more actively they will possess you,
Miss you already.




