This hardcover copy of the Jules Verne classic, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, has been in my life for as long as I can remember. A “Rainbow Classic,” this edition was published in 1946, the year of this “young fart’s” birth. It is generously illustrated and still has nearly all of its dust jacket intact. Considering it has moved with me from house to house and life to life a gazillion times, it has held up well.
I sometimes ponder a question that cannot be answered, given that the only ones I could have asked are long gone. How did this particular book wind up in the Sirota household? My dad and my older brother were not readers at all. My mom did read, but Jules Verne’s tales of high adventure were not her cup of tea. And yet the book was there when I was a wee lad, and it remains on my shelf to this day.
One of the striking illustrations in the book.
In the future, the book will be passed on to one of my daughters. I hope it will continue to be as cherished as it is now.
I would love to carry this treasure forward!
Then it shall be in great hands! ❤️❤️❤️
Mike, my father read that very edition to me in the early 60s when I was a boy. It was part of our evening ritual, and though the book is long gone, those evenings are among my most treasured memories. Kings, captains of industry, and generalisimos could not buy such riches. I’m glad Molly will be the keeper of so much more than just a book.
Great memory, Mark. Sorry that the book left your family, as so many things from our past tend to do. I’m so glad that this one stayed with me.