11 December 2017: "I wanted to show you this gem I found." --a student in my ENGL 204 class, taking out a two-volume edition of The Marble Faun from the 1880s that he found at a used bookstore last weekend.
So much about this charmed me. The student is non-traditional, a computer-science major, a veteran, and if you were prone to stereotypes, not the kind of person you think would be roaming used book stores and buying copies of lesser-known Hawthorne novels. But I learned long ago that these kinds of students can be the most interesting and dynamic students in a class. They are almost always hard workers, too, with such insightful readings and a passion for important cultural conversations. And he was excited enough that he carried them to campus (on the day of his final exam!) to show them to me.
Beyond that, the books themselves were lovely and (most charming of all?) had a hand-written note inside volume one, from someone giving them to her cousins for Christmas well over 100 years ago. Kind of magical, I think.
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