On Wednesday April 27, 1870, 62 people were killed and 251 were wounded in a tragedy reported across the nation. The floors of the court room and clerk’s office of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, located in the Capitol building, collapsed taking a crowd of about 350 men with it to the floor 25 feet below.

In an effort to create more space in the crowded capitol building, a floor was erected over the hall where the House of Delegates met. It was in this second floor that the court of appeals was held. In doing this the architect, instead of inserting the floor-beams in the walls, rested them upon a slight ledge, or offset, projecting about four inches from the wall.  This frail ledge was made to support timbers measuring two feet by ten inches, assisted by a row of pillars in the hall below.  This was probably sufficient for ordinary use, but a few years previous to the disaster, in order to improve the appearance of the Hall of Delegates, the pillars were removed. Despite a definite concavity of the floor the space continued in use.

So on the fateful day in April, a highly contested Richmond Mayoralty Case was to be heard. A large audience was packed into the courtroom to hear the proceedings. Only one judge was in his seat and the bells had just struck 11:00. Suddenly, a large girder broke in half, the floor sagged loosening the supports on the ledge and it all plunged down carrying everyone with it. The Fire Department and numerous volunteers spent hours digging through the debris and carrying the dead and wounded out under the trees for recognition and treatment. On the day following the catastrophe many of the dead were buried and businesses were closed.

If you would like to learn more about this, The Capitol Disaster (Special Collections F234.R5 C61) by the Hon. George L. Christian, a survivor, is full of first hand information.

Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools sold more copies than any other novel that year, but her short stories are what she received the most acclaim for.

Long before all of this, she wrote A Christmas Story, “the true story of an episode in the short life of my niece, Mary Alice…” who died at 5 and a half years old. The story covers the last day Porter spent with her niece, right before Christmas.

It begins with Mary Alice asking her aunt why they celebrated Christmas. Porter explains with a combination of Biblical and folk stories and records the child’s precocious reactions. When they buy a gift for Mary Alice’s mother, she says she will “say” it is from Santa.
“You don’t believe in Santa anymore?”…..”No, I don’t,” she said….”but
please don’t tell my mother, for she still does.”

The Galvin Rare Book Room has a lovely copy of this story, illustrated by Ben Shahn, and signed by both Miss Porter and Shahn. (PS3531.O752 C5 1967) Come take a look.

Richard Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987,

Richard Wilbur

and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989. He uses everyday experiences to illuminate his large body of work. He also wrote the lyrics for several songs in Leonard Bernstein’s 1956 musical “Candide,” including “Glitter and Be Gay” and “Make Our Garden Grow.”

Also in the 50’s, composer Richard Winslow asked his friend, Wilbur, to write a hymn to be performed at a Wesleyan University Christmas concert. The result was “A Christmas Hymn” or “A stable-lamp is lighted.” Using a line from the New Testament book of Luke, he included the repeated line “And every stone shall cry.” In an interview, Wilbur said, “If you write a hymn and are serious about it, you have no business filling in with maverick notions of your own. A hymn has to be perfectly orthodox…It is a great challenge.”

He obviously met that challenge for since its publication, the hymn has been adopted by the Episcopal, Lutheran and other churches. It was also included in the University’s 43rd Annual Service of Lessons and Carols on December 7. Sung by the Women’s Chorale, the hauntingly beautiful melody was the perfect accompaniment to Wilbur’s stirring words.

There is a copy of The Poems of Richard Wilbur in the Rare Book Room, “inscribed with pleasure for the Boatwright Memorial Library” by the author. It includes “A Christmas Hymn” and many other wonderful poems. Come take a look.

Walt Whitman at 70.

Walt Whitman suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed in 1873. By 1888, he was very frail and in ill health. He continued to work on his most famous work, Leaves of Grass, publishing his “complete” version in 1891.

But in 1888, having had another physical setback, he was working on a new collection of prose and poetry called November Boughs. The volume was published that same year with the publisher securing the rights to print further copies in 1888, 1889, and 1890, for a royalty fee of 12 cents per copy sold.

Of the one hundred and forty pages, there is a long preface called “A Backward Glance O’er Traveled Roads,” a combination of two articles Whitman had published in 1884 and 1887. It contains a retrospective on his literary theories and practices. He also admits that he was not accepted in his lifetime, but that he hopes for future recognition.

“Sands at Seventy” is a collection of approximately 60 short poems. And while they lack the fire and music of his early work, he included these poems in his final Leaves of Grass, noting their enviable self-knowledge.

The collected prose pieces summarize many of Whitman’s themes and concerns. Central is his passion for democracy and the strength and importance of the common man. He even holds forth on William Shakespeare, taking the stand that “only one of the ‘wolfish earls’ so plenteous in the plays themselves, or some born descendant and knower, might seem to be the true author of those amazing works—works in some respects greater than anything else in recorded literature.”

There is much more included in these 140 pages. The Rare Book Room’s copy was a gift in memory of Dr. Roger Millhiser, and published in 1888. Come by and take a look.