43 pages • 1 hour read
Wendy Mass, Rebecca SteadThe Lost Library
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Historical Context: Public Libraries in America
In the United States, book-lending libraries are as old as the nation itself. Benjamin Franklin founded the first one in the 1700s; it took the form of a subscription club through which book owners exchanged books with other members. At this time, literacy was increasing, as was availability of books beyond the Bible. However, books were expensive and thus only the wealthy had access to them. In 1731, Franklin expanded the membership library, allowing non-members to access the books in its collection by providing a piece of collateral. Though books had to be mail ordered from England, other membership libraries sprang up throughout the colonies.
In 1790, Franklin donated several of his personal books to a town in Massachusetts named after him. Franklin stipulated that the books be available to the town’s residents, and thus the first public library was born. Following this, government-supported libraries funded via public taxes began to appear. The first was in Petersborough, New Hampshire, in 1833. When the Boston Public Library opened in 1854, it became the largest in the nation, with a collection of 16,000 (“A History of US Public Libraries.” Digital Public Library of America).
In 1876, the American Library Association was established. One of the key aspects of its mission was to “enhance learning and ensure access to information for all”—a goal that remains central in the 21st century (“About ALA.” American Library Association). Though these early libraries were established by wealthy, educated men, women quickly began to serve as library volunteers and then as employees. By 1900, libraries were among the very few fields dominated by women employees (“A History of US Public Libraries”). In the century that followed, as literacy level rose, libraries became increasingly patronized by people of all classes. The communal nature of libraries—their democratization of learning and their ability to unite people through shared love of literature—is key to The Lost Library’s depiction of The Magic of Books and Reading.
Historical Context: The Little Free Library
The Little Free Library, like the nation’s public libraries, also sprang from the efforts of a single person. In 2009, a man named Todd Bol built a small wooden replica of a one-room schoolhouse. It was meant as an homage to his mother—a former teacher. Bol filled the wooden structure with books, stationed it outside of his home, and added a sign encouraging neighbors to borrow and read the books it offered. Many of Bol’s neighbors admired the design of the small library, so Bol built and distributed others. The endeavor gained steam when University of Wisconsin’s Rick Brooks recognized the small library’s potential to serve communities in need of books.
The name “little free library” dates to 2010, with Bol and Brooks giving away plaques featuring the name to anyone who wanted to construct their own version. Their popularity spread, with 400 little free libraries in 2011 and 4,000 by 2012. In 2012, the organization became registered as an official nonprofit. Since then, the organization has successfully brought access to books to many underserved communities. Presently, little free libraries exist in all 50 states and in 70 countries (“The History of the Little Free Library.” Little Free Library).
The little free library in The Lost Library exists to fill exactly the kind of gap Bol and Brooks identified; since its public library burned down, Martinville has lacked not only a mechanism for borrowing books but also a means of building a community of readers. The little free library partially remedies this problem, which the reconstruction of a public library at the novel’s conclusion promises to address further.
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