Stickeen, by John Muir. About a year or so ago, John and I drove out to Martinez in the East Bay to visit the John Muir National Historic Site, the Victorian Italianate mansion where the Scotland-born naturalist and Sierra Club founder resided from 1890 until his death in 1914. In the souvenir shop I acquired Muir's 1909 memoir of an 1880 trek across an Alaska glacier accompanied by a seemingly unexceptional little dog named Stickeen. I am surprised by how deeply moving this account is, culminating in an absolutely stunning battle for both their lives and illuminating Muir's new-found appreciation of the man-canine connection.
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London. This gripping 1903 fiction classic is another "dog in danger" story with a Bay Area connection. Stolen from a Santa Clara farm and shipped north to Canada for use as a sled dog in the Klondike Gold Rush, Buck evolves from pampered pooch to feral king of the pack. San Francisco native Jack London was inspired by his own experience in the Yukon, where he ventured upon dropping out of UC Berkeley in 1897. The Call of the Wild, often interpreted as an allegory highlighting our fragile veneer of civilization, has never been out of print.
The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abyssinia, by Samuel Johnson. On our February visit to Westminster Abbey I noted the Poet's Corner resting place of the venerable Dr. Johnson, renowned lexicographer whose groundbreaking A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) preceded the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) by 150 years. Immortalized by James Boswell's genre-defining biography The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), he is considered England's most distinguished man of letters, achieved despite deafness in one ear, blindness in one eye, and a propensity for involuntary physical and verbal tics (what would later be called Tourette's). Often compared to Voltaire's Candide, The History of Rasselas (1759), Johnson's only work of fiction, is the fanciful tale of a young man who flees a cosseted life of splendor to wander the world as a vagabond in search of the meaning of happiness. The magical prose makes for a most enjoyable read!
84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff. This delightful book compiles a 20 year sequence of correspondence, starting in 1949, between the author, a quintessential New Yorker, booklover, and anglophile, and Frank Doel, the chief buyer at a London antiquarian bookshop. Ms. Hanff seeks obscure editions and Mr. Doel fills her orders or suggests alternatives. An utterly charming epistolary relationship flourishes. So beloved was this 1970 bestseller that it was eventually adapted to film in 1987 with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. A few bookstores do remain on Charing Cross Road, my favorite being Foyles, a multi-floor extravaganza and a browser's dream.
The Last Days of Socrates, by Plato. Via four dialogues that survive from antiquity, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, Plato fleshes out the trial and 399 BC death of his teacher, the classical Greek "street" philosopher Socrates. Dismissive of the official gods of state, Socrates was found guilty of apostasy and of corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens. Refusing alternatives of banishment or escape, he drank willingly of the hemlock cup. My takeaway is that the undermining of authorized narratives has apparently always been a dangerous pursuit. Plato is most noted for founding The Academy, the first institution of higher education in the Western world.
