Went to campus today, after nearly 2 months away, for a grad thesis defense. And thank goodness I did. Got into my office to find that some kind of leak--busted pipe? rain?--had occurred. Don't know when, but clearly the damage has been going on for some time. My office smells like a low-rent English hotel. There's mold growing on shelves. And the books: well, on the upside, very few books were damaged, along with a couple of years' worth of RQ. But those books that WERE damaged: damn sam. The shelves and shelves of Amazon.com replaceable books are fine. What got ruined: every last one of my poetry mentor's books, each one lovingly inscribed, each one infolding all his correspondence to me over the years. And also a 19c edition of Piers Plowman that used to be owned by another dear sorta mentor friend of mine from my PhD program, the Shakespeare Sonnet guy, also lovingly gifted to me with an irreplaceable inscription. Now its cover print isn't even make-out-able through the mold.
I'm sure the library's conservation folks can fix it. Right? RIGHT?
Portrait of Clara (as a chemist)
1 month ago
10 comments:
Oh noooooooooooooooo! So sorry!
Oh misery! I'm so sorry to hear about this. The worst is losing things you can't replace. Ugh ugh ugh!
horrible. so sorry.
Oh, no! Fingers crossed for you & the books.
All I can offer is sympathy and foolish hope. It's painful to lose such books. Can you tap the university to pay for any possible restorations?
I discovered, after something similar happened in my apartment, that most books can be repaired. However, it's costly. Sorry to say, you'll find yourself performing triage.
I'm so sorry. I hope the university will take care of it.
I'm so sorry to hear this -- my stomach just dropped as I read it. I hope at least some of them can be salvaged.
The same exact thing happened to my office a month or two ago. It was devastating, although most of the damaged books dried out. My only consolation was that they had discovered the source of the busted pipe and thoroughly repaired it. And the fact that my renter's insurance covered the books in my office as well. The university-owned computer purchased with my startup funds is another story. Had that been damaged, there would have been a $1000 deductible. I promptly moved it as far away from the window and the formerly leaky wall as possible.
That said, try writing to the presses that published your books and frequently send out review and desk copies. As luck would have it, I received a message from our OUP representative the same day my books were all drying out in funny book-decomposition poses on my office floor, asking if we had any requests. I immediately told her what had happened, she emailed back asking what was missing. I listed everything, including those books that weren't OUP editions. Two weeks later, I received 10 boxes form OUP containing all new copies of my books, including some OUP editions of the others published by other presses that I had lost. That doesn't make up for my early 20th century complete Yale Shakespeare series, but it's a start.
All--well, my institution will certainly pay to replace everything, but the problem is, of course, that even if I can purchase new copies of each of these 17 ruined books (and I can), it wouldn't replace them. It's a sentimental catastrophe, but not much else.
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