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Look Who Else is 90: Literary and Cinematic Classics Also Celebrating 90 Years Alongside SCLSNJ
About Blog Post
May 27, 2020
by Pressroom
The Somerset County Library System of New Jersey (SCLSNJ) continues to celebrate 90 years of service excellence throughout 2020. But, the Library System isn’t the only one turning 90 this year. A number of media from SCLSNJ’s large collection are also celebrating nine decades.
“SCLSNJ is excited to continue celebrating our 90th birthday,” said Bob Helmbrecht, collection development librarian. “Our collection includes a number of titles celebrating the same milestone. American poet Langston Hughes’ first novel “Not Without Laughter” was published in 1930 along with a selection of other classic novels and films that are available for you to discover at your Library.”
Films, novels, and other forms of media can help shape who we are today. From current interests, to career paths, your SCLSNJ staff reminisce on their favorite classics and why they are still relevant 90 years later.
“I read ‘Murder at the Vicarage’ when I was in my 20s, and it started my long admiration of Agatha Christie, who could turn out a tight, well-crafted mystery like nobody's business,” said Lynn Hoffman, director of operatrions. “I'm actually in the midst of rereading all of her ‘Hercule Poirot’ books right now.”
“Even 90 years later, the humor of the Marx Brothers remains riotous and ridiculous,” said Chris Murrary, adult services supervisor. “'Animal Crackers' is among their best, with Groucho Marx's Captain Spalding, the African explorer, running off one-liners and comebacks at a mile a minute. 1930 was also a prolific year for science fiction, with Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard both releasing novels, and 'Analog Science Fiction And Fact' first coming into being (as 'Astounding Stories Of Super-Science'). Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks first brought Mickey Mouse to the newspaper strips in January, and Chic Young's 'Blondie' is still in newspapers today.”
“For most people, it is difficult to think of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ without remembering Humphrey Bogart's iconic performance in the film adaptation,” said Meredith Hoyer, youth services supervisor. “My first memory of Dashiell Hammett's hard boiled detective is straight from the well worn second hand paperbacks that my mom stocked our shelves with. Modern fictional detectives have never recaptured the magic of the resourceful tough guys and formidable dames of the 1930s.”
Much like our five senses, books can trigger memories from events throughout our lives. A childhood favorite can help us recall happy memories, while classic literature can take us back in time to our formative years. SCLSNJ staff share some of their treasured pastimes intertwined with nine-decade-old literature.
“I remember my grandfather, who is turning 90 this year, reading the story of Little Blue Engine to me as a child,” said Cassie Collucci, system training manager. “I am excited for my grandfather to share ‘The Little Engine that Could’ with my child at my grandfather's 90th birthday party.”
“I blame ‘The Secret of the Old Clock’ for getting me hooked on mysteries, still one of my favorite genres today,” said Linda Tripp, collection development librarian. “After bingeing all the Nancy Drew mysteries that belonged to my much older sister, it was off to my local library for the rest of the series, plus the Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, and anything else I could get my hands on.”
“When I was nine years old, I received a box set of the first ten books in the Nancy Drew series for Christmas,” said Lynn Mazur, youth services supervisor. “I was completely drawn into the story that Carolyn Keene created in that first book, ‘The Secret of the Old Clock.’ I tore through the rest of the series, and became a lifelong fan of mysteries!”
“I remember reading ‘As I Lay Dying’ for the first time for a college American literature class,” said Cathy DeBerry, adult services supervisor. “It has everything a great novel should have … comic relief, family drama, adventure, tragedy, the circle of life. And as sad as the novel is, I remember feeling a sense of relief as a young adult full of angst, living on my own for the first time, when I finished the novel, that we are all dysfunctional in some way, it's just that some hide it better than others.”
If you are inspired by SCLSNJ’s staff memories, have your own memories that you want to re-live, or want to create new memories, explore these and other 90-year-old titles with your Library System.
Adult Titles
- “As I Lay Dying” by William Faulkner
- “The 42nd Parallel” by John Dos Passos
- “The Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett
- “Murder at the Vicarage” by Agatha Christie
- “Not Without Laughter” by Langston Hughes
- “The Cat Who Went to Heaven” by Elizabeth Coatsworth
- “Freddy Goes to the North Pole” by Walter R. Brooks
- “The Little Engine That Could” by Watty Piper
- “The Secret of the Old Clock” by Carolyn Keene