Provincetown Public Library Receives Rare Moby-Dick Manuscript
Dr. J. Michael and Donna Pedro Lennon, longtime residents of Provincetown now living in Westport, Massachusetts, continued their support of the Provincetown Public library with an extraordinary gift the weekend of the Moby-Dick Marathon Reading. The Lennons donated a rare copy of the first serialization of Moby-Dick; or, the Whale, published by Harper’s Magazine in 1851, in honor of the Moby-Dick Marathon and trustee Stephen Borkowski’s effort to establish it in Provincetown.
Dr. Lennon is the author of the recently published Norman Mailer, A Double Life, and is the President of the Norman Mailer Society. He was in Provincetown to read at the Moby-Dick Marathon and returns annually with Donna every August. The gift of the rare 1851 edition was accepted by Laura Shabott, chairman of the Library Board of Trustees.
“We are grateful for their steadfast engagement and extraordinary generosity over many years,” says Shabott. “The Board of Library Trustees is privileged to accept such a tome for the town’s collection.”
This three-day annual event at the Provincetown Public Library unites over 120 members of Provincetown’s literary, art, theater, and academic communities to read Melville’s classic work Moby-Dick aloud over a total of 24 hours. It is a free and public event, joining the seaports of Mystic, Connecticut, New York, New York, and New Bedford, Massachusetts, in honoring our maritime whaling heritage.
Located downtown on Commercial Street, the Library is both a literal and metaphoric center of the Provincetown community, housing nearly 40,000 books, archives, and ephemera, more than 30 works of art from the Town’s Art Collection, and the Rose Dorothea Schooner half-scale model and Lipton’s Cup.
Help Truro Beaches
Truro beaches need your help! Please join the Truro Community Emergency Response Team for the June 3, 2017 Quarterly Beach Clean- Up in Truro. Trash, and especially plastic, is a hazard for all marine life. Turtles, sharks, and whales can mistakenly ingest plastic bags and balloons which cannot be digested. Water and shore birds can get entangled in balloon ribbons and plastic six-pack rings.
Meet at the Corn Hill Beach parking lot on Saturday, June 3, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. to help clean the bayside beaches. Dress for the weather and join the group for as long as you wish to pick up trash. Kids are welcome! We’ll provide bags and gloves. You can sign up online at truro-ma.gov (click on Truro Beach Clean-Up in the Departments list).
Beach clean-up is sponsored by Truro’s Recreation and Beach Department, Department of Public Works, Community Emergency Response Team, and Conservation Department.
For more information, contact Truro Conservation at 508.349.7004 extension 119 or Jennifer Rose at 301.385.2006.
And many, many thanks to the March volunteers who covered 9 miles of beach, filling a DPW truck with trash and recyclables, including over 300 pieces of plastic and foam!
