Big House Library. Courtesy photo

Library News:

A new exhibit in the Upstairs Art Gallery at Mesa Public Library opens at 6 p.m. today, Sept. 7, with a talk by Bathtub Row Press publications director Sharon Snyder.

Bathtub Row Press publications director Sharon Snyder

Entitled “100 Years of Los Alamos Ranch School – The Boys and Their Books”, the exhibit includes books by authors who attended the Ranch School from Snyder’s personal collection. Also included in the exhibit are works of art and books from the Library’s “local author” collection, which is comprised of nearly 500 items. The exhibit runs through Sept. 30.

Some of the authors deemed “local” may surprise even the most dedicated historians. The Library defines “local author” as being by someone who lived or worked in Los Alamos.  Books by Gore Vidal and William S. Burroughs, both of whom attended the Ranch School, are tagged with that “local” designation. Author Judy Blume set her book “Tiger Eyes” in Los Alamos, where she lived for two years. Each of these prominent authors has expressed publicly how much they disliked their time in Los Alamos, but each of them lived here at an unhappy time in life. In his memoir “Palimpsest” Vidal writes, “Fortunately, wherever I was, even Los Alamos, the library was my center. At fourteen, I wanted to know the entire history of the entire world.”

Sharon Snyder is the author of At Home on the Slopes of Mountains, a biography of New Mexico poet and author Peggy Pond Church. She also coauthored, with Toni Michnovicz Gibson, Los Alamos and the Pajarito Plateau. Sharon is a historian interested in northern New Mexico history, focusing on Los Alamos, Santa Fe, and the La Junta Valley.

Also on display in the exhibit are artworks by local artists, many of which are in the library’s circulating art collection and are available to check out.

For more information about library events, call 505.662.8250, or visit the Events tab on the library’s website www.losalamoslibrary.org