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By Staff -- Library Journal, 6/1/2007

Toledo concerns

The Toledo–Lucas County Public Library (TLCPL) wishes to express its deepest concern over the inaccuracies reported in two separate articles that quote mystery writer Sara Paretsky.

In a Chicago Tribune editorial titled “Refusing to allow pressure to silence a critical voice” (4/1/07), Paretsky falsely accused TLCPL of requesting that a speakers bureau notify her to change her proposed remarks before a talk cosponsored by TLCPL and Toledo's local daily newspaper, The Blade.

Paretsky's Toledo appearance and talk on March 19, 2003, was part of a 12-year series titled “Authors! Authors!” wherein prominent authors such as Jodi Picoult, Sue Monk Kidd, Eric Jerome Dickey, David Gergen, Khaled Hosseini, and many others have been invited to speak about their published works. Paretsky made similar claims against TLCPL in “Q&A: Sara Paretsky,” by Margaret Heilbrun (LJ 4/15/07, p. 88).

Not once, in the 12 years of hosting Authors! Authors!, has TLCPL, which arranges for the authors to appear in Toledo through their respective agents or speakers bureaus, ever requested an author, including Paretsky, to change their proposed remarks. It is TLCPL general policy to request that authors speak about their books and on literary topics such as getting published, but we simply do not know the full spectrum of their speeches before they are delivered.

TLCPL contacted the two speakers bureau agencies involved in bringing Paretsky to Toledo in 2003 (American Program Bureau and Premiere Speakers Bureau). Officials from both agencies have no recollection of our library contacting them and requesting that Paretsky change her proposed remarks.

In a letter sent to TLCPL (4/19/07), Premiere Speakers Bureau agent Cindy Skaff wrote:

...I was the agent who handled this contract, and I have no personal recollection of any requests from the library for Paretsky to tailor her remarks in any way.... None of our records indicate that we received such a request from the library, and we have no records that such a request was communicated to American Program Bureau [Paretsky's agent]. In fact, I booked other speakers for [TLCPL], and we have no record that they ever attempted to censor a speaker. We can only conclude that Paretsky was mistaken in her comments about the Toledo–Lucas County Public Library.

We at TLCPL strongly believe that libraries are beacons of democracy. We do not believe in measures such as censoring authors and deeply regret that Paretsky has chosen to portray our great and historic institution in such a negative manner.—Clyde Scoles, Dir., Toledo–Lucas Cty. P.L.

I spoke in Toledo on March 19, 2003, a few hours before our government unleashed its massive wave of bombs against Iraq. It is hard now to remember the enthusiasm with which people greeted the impending war: around three-quarters of the nation supported [the invasion].

I had two concerns as I flew to Toledo four years ago. The first was how important libraries are for all readers and writers. We depend on libraries, and libraries need the support of their communities. In these hard times, we need each other more than ever. I don't know Toledo's funding situation, but I do know that, nationally, most library budgets are one-third what they were 20 years ago. It's important to me to support libraries so that their home cities continue to support them.

My second concern had to do with the impending war. People who questioned the rationale for invasion, or who questioned the President's method of dealing with terrorism, felt alone and isolated. Our patriotism was insulted; Fox, CNN, and talk radio made it hard for any dissenting voices to be heard. Looking back at my journal entries and emails from that week, I see how I worried that my views on censorship were so far removed from the mainstream that I shouldn't even be giving voice to them.

I did speak on censorship and the silencing of dissent, however. My recollection of what happened that week differs from the library management's, but I think we can agree they provided an important forum for their community. The Toledo library made it possible for Toledoans to come together in a difficult time. More than 350 people braved a heavy rainstorm to hear me, and that is a tribute to the community's involvement in their library.

Many people, after my lecture, told me they had thought they were alone in their opposition to our government's policies, so skillfully had the government silenced dissent. The library made it possible for them to feel less isolated. I got more emails from those who attended that event than I've ever received after any other reading, so strongly did people feel about the chance to have someone speak publicly about their fears of what our government is doing.—Sara Paretsky, Chicago

It's a mystery how Capital Crime Press senior editor Alex Cole was called Alex Cox in our mystery preview “The Killer Genre” (LJ 4/15/07, p. 38–41). In that feature's blog listing, Crime Fiction Dossier writer David Montgomery also edits Mystery Ink.