THE KEEPER OF STORIES

Stories must be preserved at all costs.

In April 1966, a raging fire broke out at the Jewish Theological Seminary on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, threatening to destroy its historic, multilingual, and multidisciplinary library. In what became known as Operation Booklift, religious leaders of various faiths worked tirelessly alongside the diverse community to salvage, clean, repair, and restore the collections. Seventy thousand items were ultimately lost, though miraculously 170,000 books and other materials were rescued. A food scientist proposed freeze-drying the soaked items, drenched from firefighters’ onslaught of water. Then a library volunteer came up with a more doable solution: inserting paper towels between wet pages. The call went out, and volunteers raised the necessary funds to purchase toweling. The urgency of the community is matched by the book’s compelling text. Pritchard’s forceful writing is marked by inspired turns of phrase. A recurring refrain set in blue type—“Keep our stories alive”—is breathlessly addressed to the walls of the library, to the firefighters’ blankets, to the sprays of rushing water, and to the pages themselves. The marvelous illustrations, created with acrylic paints, colored pencil, and collage, are abuzz with spirited, robust movement; Alko’s use of found objects, including what appear to be book excerpts, lends the narrative immediacy.

A stirring testament to the power of books to unite us all for good.