Horseback Librarian

Horseback Librarian, a fictional telling of librarians who rode horses and pack mules through the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky handing out books and magazines to families in a rural setting, will be featured as a serialized novel within the coming months. This work of literature features a girl named Lanette Dade, who has been studying education at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. One day she is called to meet with one of her professors, who informs her that it may be difficult for her to continue college due to the financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression.

To help pay her way through college, Lanette lands a job with the Pack Horse Library, a Works Progress Administration (WPA) program established under the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The story of Lanette’s journey into the Appalachian Mountains and what she encounters will be seen by viewers through her letters written to her cousin, Maisie MacIntire.

The story described above is an original piece produced and still a work in progress by Deanna Twedt, an alumnus of Powder River County District High School and a current student at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota. Twedt is majoring in English Education with a minor in music. She plays the clarinet in the university’s student band, participates in a group called the Three Peaks Review, who meet weekly to share feedback on students’ poetry, and works part time as a desk clerk in the library on campus. Once graduated from BHSU she plans to teach English in a high school setting while publishing books on the side.

Horseback Librarian

Prologue

September 28, 1934

Dear Maisie,

With great despair, I assume you have heard the news from my parents. Unfortunately, it is true. I reckon I ought to have expected it would happen sooner or later in this day and age. No one can rely on anything anymore it would seem. Nevertheless, I am devastated to have fallen into this circumstance. Perhaps if I had not been so full of hope and believed everything would work out well then I wouldn’t have been utterly disappointed upon my recent meeting with Professor Parks.

I’m sure you’re dying for details, so I might as well tell you exactly what happened and what I plan to do in the meantime. Well, to start off, it took place last week on a Thursday when Professor Parks sent a colleague to call me into his office. I had just finished my British Literature class when this middle-aged woman came up to me, asked who I was, and informed me that Professor Parks would like to speak with me. She didn’t tell me what the meeting was all about, only that it was extremely important. As you can imagine my mind was racing with ideas as to why he urgently beckoned me forth.

At first, I feared he was going to tell me I had failed a class and would not be able to continue my studies. Of course, that thought is plain ridiculous, but at the time it seemed like a plausible reason. Then I began to wonder if something terrible had taken place back home and that I was to be notified immediately. Why he would be the one to tell me that news I haven’t the slightest. My legs wobbled as I neared his office.

Professor Parks sat behind an oak desk with golden sunlight gleaming in through the tall narrow windows behind him. Lining the rest of the walls were bookshelves filled with college catalogs, the Harvard Classics Five Foot Shelf, encyclopedias, textbooks probably from his time as a student, and plenty of accordion folders. The carpeted floor was littered with pillars of stacked papers. I don’t think I had ever seen so much paper in all my life. He was in dire need of some filing cabinets. Yet, somehow, there was still enough space for an armchair, which was where I sat and nervously faced him.

He is just how I picture a professor would look; tall, well dressed, and wearing round glasses. At the moment, he held a yellow pencil between his fingers while looking up to address me. His smile was polite, but I could tell there was no amusement in his eyes.

“What is it, sir?” I questioned.

I vaguely remember him sighing and leaning his elbows on the desk before explaining, “I’m regrettably sorry to inform you of this news, Miss Dade, but I’m afraid we can no longer support you through college.”

In that instant, I swear my heart took a leap in a similar fashion as Jack would jumping over a candlestick. “What?”

“I understand this may come as quite a shock to you after working so hard to earn your scholarship, but you see the family who has been supplying the money for your scholarship has…fallen upon hard times as most people in this country have as of late. Therefore, unless you can give us the three-hundred dollars you will have to be turned away.”

There was absolutely no way I had that kind of money…not now and probably not for a long time. After shaking my head incoherently, I inquired, “Right now or by a certain date?”

“Preferably right now, but…we might be able to make an exception and accept down payments every month. For instance, by the end of October we would expect at least one-hundred dollars in full.”

Let’s just say I felt as if all my plans for the future had suddenly dissolved into little particles of dust. “Where in the world am I going to find that kind of money?” The daunting question tumbled out of me.

Professor Parks eyed me with deep sorrow as if he, too, wondered if money like that still existed in the United States of America. “I wish that I didn’t have to burden you with this news. You are a great student and I would hate to let you go, but the college needs something in return if you are to continue studying here.”

“You said I have until the end of October?”

“Yes, for the first down payment.”

I nodded in response, contemplating what kind of job I could find that would guarantee me one-hundred dollars within the next few weeks. “Thank you, Professor Parks, for…letting me know and giving me some time to figure this out.”

“Of course, Miss Dade. I wish you luck in this endeavor.”

“I’m gonna need it,” I said before I left his office and walked out onto the campus green in a daze.

What would you do, Maisie, if you had been in my situation? Would you have cried, thrown a fit, given up? Trust me, those options were tempting, but I didn’t want to give up. All throughout high school I had wanted to go to college, and I have been happy during my time here. Earning an education degree is exactly what I desire. I have come so far that it’s too late to go back.

Ever since last Thursday I’ve been scurrying around town searching for a job and it’s been easy to determine that I’m not the only one in dire need of money. Maisie, there are lines of people everywhere; in front of the bank, restaurants, soup kitchens, factories, lumber yards…you name it. Any place with a “Now Hiring Sign,” people are there, hoping to be chosen for the job. Others are seeking money. Most are waiting for food. I’ve heard stories of people evicted from their homes or rushing off to California to pick grapes. I’ve seen the homeless in their bare feet and ragged clothes, starving and ill. I pray I never find myself in that situation nor you, Aunt Miriam, and Uncle Henry. Not my parents or anyone else for that matter. Being deprived or should I say ripped of something you had worked so hard for is totally unfair.

So far, I haven’t had any luck in obtaining a job. I can’t decide whether they aren’t hiring me because I’m a young woman or they already have enough hired workers. I’m still washing my landlady’s laundry. She gives me a nickel per wash day. Not to mention, helping in the library on campus pays ten cents per hour. Therefore, I have a few coins to pay for meals, but not enough to pay for tuition…or a train ticket home.

Evening

You may disagree with the job I have acquired today. In my eyes it was a stroke of luck that I found this job. I know you will be against it when you find out where I have to go. Yes, this job will take me away from Lexington. Doesn’t make much sense to accept a job that takes me away from college, does it? Well, don’t worry because I talked to Professor Parks about it and he has agreed to notify all my professors, who will send me a list of assignments every week. I will be able to come back for my final exams at the end of the semester. Just hear me out when I tell you what I am going to do.

Starting on Monday, I will join a group of newly recruited women at the Lexington Public Library where we will hop in a car and be given a ride to Pineville, which is in Bell County. From there we will split up and go to different outposts. As of yet, I do not know where I will be posted, but I will let you know in the near future. I did not join the postal service, but rather a new WPA project set in stone this year in Leslie County. You’ll never believe it. I am to be a horseback librarian! Wherever I am stationed will be the location of a small library. I am to pack a wide variety of books and magazines onto the mules I will be supplied with and ride up into the Appalachian Mountains to hand out those resources to rural families. While I will not be paid one-hundred dollars, I am guaranteed twenty-eight dollars a month. If I get that for September and October, I will have fifty-six plus the fifty I’ve already saved up, which means I will have enough for my first down payment with a few extra dollars to spare. How I’m going to earn one hundred by the end of November is still a mystery to me, but I’m sure everything will work out. I’m just so glad to have found a job and one that I am eager to start.

Please, do not worry about me, Maisie. I promise I will be careful and focus on my studies. I will not let my job interfere with my homework. Nevertheless, I need to work if I’m to pay off my tuition. Wish me luck, dear cousin! A new journey is about to start!

Your Friend,

Lanette