ASSIGNMENTS:
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Claire Donato
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA
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REPORTS:
PREVIOUS NEXT
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Submitted to The Pitt News (The University of Pittsburgh's daily, student newspaper), The Tartan (Carnegie Mellon University's student newspaper), and The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (a Pittsburgh-based, daily newspaper with a blatantly conservative slant...).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Claire Donato
Caliban Bookshop
Pittsburgh, PA
claire@newyinzer.com
www.calibanbooks.com
Donato Adds to Rare Book Database Stevenson's Travels With a Donkey, Is Reminded of Childhood Stuffed Animal, Reflects on Memory
This afternoon, Claire Donato, a used and rare book cataloguer for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Caliban Bookshop, entered into company's book database a 1957, first edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels With a Donkey.
Donato's catalog entry, which appears in its full text at www.calibanbooks.com, as well as on several other book databases (including AddAll and Bookfinder), includes several pertinent details about the book-that it is in "very good condition...in [a] very good condition slipcase" despite "some discoloration and staining." Perhaps most importantly, Donato's entry also states that the catalogued edition of Stevenson's Travels... includes "adorable illustrations of [the] title's said donkey trotting through various scenes."
"I was touched by the illustrations included in this particular copy of Stevenson's text," says Donato, 20, a senior English major at the University of Pittsburgh who is often described as both "warm" and "bookish" by those individuals close to her. "Although I have never had an encounter with a real donkey in my intimate life, the illustrated donkey in this book, in its thin lines and visibly cheerful exterior, strikingly resembles a stuffed donkey from my past named Taffy, with whom I shared many nights as a young girl."
Although Donato refused to comment on how many nights she spent with her childhood Taffy, she did state that "...it is remarkable how old books, with their edgewear, original owners' often sloppy signatures, and cracked inner hinges, can move us to open our minds to memories past."
Expounding on memory, Donato noted that "...memories, in their various murky impressions and dynamics, can compel us to take actions in that present."
When asked how she would respond to her memory's association between Stevenson's donkey and her childhood Taffy, Donato smiled and noted the following: "I, for one, will drive home to my mother's attic soon and ruffle through garbage bags in search of Taffy worn, stuffed body."
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