Wednesday, March 19, 2008

a pleasant coincidence

I just sat down in my comfy chair with a cup of coffee and my warm blanket to begin reading Alan Taylor's William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic for class. This book won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize in American History. I get most of my books used on Amazon or Half.com, so the first thing I noticed was the little price tag that says $17.95 placed over the original price of $17.00. Er, I hope I didn't actually pay $17.95. Anyway, I read the back cover of the book, then I looked for a bibliography but ended up reading the acknowledgements at the back of the book. (I like to see historians thank all the librarians and archivists at different institutions and imagine that some day historians will be thanking me in their books...) Next I opened the front cover and read the short blurb about Alan Taylor himself.

And then...then I turned the page and there was a handwritten note in blue ink reading: "For Andrea, with my best wishes & best of luck for your research, Alan Taylor, 5-8-97 Albany."

Why, thank you very much Professor Taylor!

2 comments:

Nic said...

She must have loved the gift!

ALF said...

that's so fun!