A Trip to St. Agnes

Barns & Noble, 0 / New York Public Library, 1

As you get older your interest in obituaries increases. As a native New Yorker that means looking forward to the Sunday obits in the New York Times. I know people who die all the time in the Times.

This last Sunday there was an obituary for Joan Dye Gussow. She was a leading writer, thinker, and gardener. She predated and influenced writers and academics like Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle. She wrote a book, "Growing Older: A Chronical of Death, Life and Vegetables." Surely Barnes & Noble could order it for me so I stopped in their Upper West Side store on Broadway and 82nd St., rode the escalator to the second floor, inquired about the book to the owlish young man behind his computer, and was told that the book was out of print. A trip downtown to the Strand? No, St. Agnes Public Library was close by at Amsterdam between 81st and 82nd.

St.Agnes is one of the oldest public libraries in New York City. Andrew Carnegie himself founded it and occupies a beautiful building constructed in 1906. Caroline Mays wrote an insightful article in the West Side Rag on the history of St. Agnes.

"Yes," I was told. There was one copy of the book at the main library on 5th Ave and 42nd St.. Still, there was a waiting list of three other people who wanted to borrow it, which seemed to incense the librarian that the vaunted New York Public Library would have only one copy of this sought-after title. She assured me that in a few weeks they will have a copy at St. Agnes for me to borrow and that she was sure that the New York Public Library will be purchasing additional copies.

After thanking the librarian, I took some photos of St. Agnes. I await being summoned for my copy of "Growing Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life and Vegetables" by the late Joan Dye Gussow.

Richard Denby is a new contributor to this Substack. He is a writer and professional chef who now divides his time between New York and Mexico.