Stalking celebrities at the library

What do you do when you have a free morning in New York City–one of the most vibrant and exciting cities in the world? You go to the library, of course. I’d heard there were five hugely famous celebrities at the main branch of the New York Public Library, and I wanted to meet them.

Public libraries have always been special places to me. When I was 12 I took a library sciences class at Baker Middle School in Troy, Michigan. With great nerdish pleasure, I stacked books and learned the finer points of the glamorous Dewey Decimal system. Then, as now, I loved being around books and loved being around people when they were reading them. So of course I go to the library while on vacation. Duh.

Not just any library

The New York Public Library is famous. It’s appeared in countless TV shows and movies (from Law and Order to Breakfast at Tiffany’s), and it’s been cited as a resource for writers from Norman Mailer and John Updike to Betty Friedan and Nora Ephron.

On the day I decided to go, it was beautiful so I walked. I wandered along 57th Street, where CJ and I were staying, and all the way down Lexington Avenue to 41st Street. CJ was busy taking his dear Uncle Oscar to an appointment, so I was on my own. (You might remember that Uncle Oscar made an appearance as the somewhat ineffective chicken babysitter in An Olive Grove at the Edge of the World.)

Although it was only mid morning, already New York’s August streets were hot. As I walked, I saw the random and fascinating people one often sees there. One man, dressed as a construction worker, carried a tiny vase of exotic flowers. A woman in a Chanel suit had giant rolls of blue paper. Restaurants and stores and office buildings were everywhere.

The road to the library

When I turned off Lexington and onto 41st, I was delighted to find the sidewalk dotted with inspirational quotes about reading. That street is also called Library Way. It felt like I was on a grand procession to some sacred temple. I stopped to take pictures of my favorite quotes as busy New Yorkers stepped around me and scurried on their way to urgent appointments at important places.

This was my favorite quote of all:

'I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens.' – E.B. White (1899-1985) Click To Tweet

But this one seems especially important in today’s political climate:

'I want everybody to be smart. As smart as they can be. A world full of ignorant people is too dangerous to live in.' – Garson Kanin (1912-1999) Click To Tweet

Library Way ends at Fifth Avenue at the main entrance to the New York Public Library. The grand Beaux-Arts facade, with its inviting steps and massive stone lions, seemed to announce, “This is where learning reading happens.”

I knew the celebrities I was seeking were not far away. Although they are famous around the world, I was in no hurry. They weren’t going anywhere. In fact, they’ve been living at the library since 1987.

Shopping in full nerd mode

Once inside the library’s beautiful entry hall, with high arches above me, I went straight for the library shop. I was like a kid in a candy store. There was a fantastic book bag with this quote from Cicero, which I know from personal experience to be absolutely true:

'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.' – Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC) Click To Tweet

I bought a collection of essays from George Orwell entitled “Why I Write” and some other nerdy things like refrigerator magnets with quotes from Michelangelo.

My next stop was a famous room that I’d wanted to visit ever since I first saw pictures of it years before. It’s so famous it appeared in the film Ghostbusters. I made my way up the Byzantine stone stairways to the third floor.

Let me take this moment to confess a peculiarity of my character. I have an inordinate fondness for public reading rooms with high ceilings. The Fine Arts Reading Room at the Detroit Public Library was the first such room I ever stumbled across, and I used to travel out of my way just to go there to read. Later, when I studied at Oxford in the summer of 1987, I sought out the reading rooms of Corpus Christi College and the Old Bodleian Library like a junkie in search of his next big fix.

The Rose Main Reading Room

Once on the third floor, I immediately made my way to the biggest room in the biggest public-library branch in the country’s biggest city. The 105-year-old Rose Main Reading Room is nearly the length of a football field. It has 52-foot-tall ceilings festooned with billowing pink clouds, gilded curlicues, and flute-playing cherubs.

In 2016, the city completed a USD $12.9 million dollar restoration of the room, after one of the 180 massive plaster rosettes fell from the ceiling. Not something you’d want to land on your head while you’re reading. (Nobody was hurt, since it happened at night.) The restoration has returned the room, and that ornate ceiling, to its original splendor. It is amazing.

I sat there and read my new book from the library shop, and I gazed up at the ceiling and out at the people sitting at the long desks all around me.

Then, after almost an hour, I was finally ready to meet those celebrities. I headed back down the stone stairs to the ground floor.

World famous celebrities

In the middle of the library’s Children’s Center on the ground floor, behind a climate-controlled large glass case, sit the most famous stuffed toys of all time — Winnie-the-Pooh, Kanga, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger. These are the actual stuffed animals that were given to Christopher Robin Milne when he was a little boy in the 1920s. They were brought to the United States in 1947 and remained with the American publisher E.P. Dutton until 1987, when they were donated to The New York Public Library.

The Children’s Center is really just a small children’s library. There are miniature tables and chairs and shelves of children’s books everywhere. In front of the big glass case, adults were taking pictures of their children with the celebrity toys. I also took a picture of the toys. What I really wanted was to take a selfie with them, but to be honest I was a bit embarrassed. What sort of fully grown man takes a selfie with Winnie-the-Pooh? I didn’t even have a kid with me as an excuse.

Instead, I looked at those toys closely. You can see that that they have been loved. They are worn in spots. Eeyore really does have a pin holding his tail in place. It’s pure magic that these stuffed animals inspired such beautiful stories. Standing there felt a bit personal. I understand how animals – whether stuffed or real – can inspire stories. The affinity I felt with Milne’s animals as a child has only grown as I’ve been inspired by my own animals (of the real variety) to tell my own stories. Okay, I’m not A.A. Milne, but I get what he was doing.

In the end, I decided to boldly claim my inner geek and take a Winnie-the-Pooh selfie. (Okay, I guess I took several.) And you know what happened? I was not humiliated. Instead, suddenly the entire crowd of grown ups broke down and started taking the selfies they’d clearly all be dying to take. Some parents were practically pushing their kids out of the way to those selfies. It was a complete and total Grown Up Winnie-the-Pooh Selfie Bonanza. Pure magic.

How about you? Are you a Winnie-the-Pooh fan? Would you have taken a selfie with a bunch of silly toys? Leave a comment below and let me know.