The Big Read comes to Plains

It’s not everyday a New York Times Bestselling Author comes to Plains, but last Wednesday night as part of Sanders County’s first Big Read, that’s exactly what happened.

“I just think anytime that we can have somebody of that renown fame in little Plain, is amazing,” Plains librarian Carrie Terrell said. “Let’s face it, they don’t really come to Plains. They do the big circuits.”

Matthew Pearl, author of the Poe Shadow, came to discuss his recent book and Poe in general as Big Read members asked questions, received autographs and enjoyed complimentary refreshments.

This year’s Big Read, an event where community members come together to read the same book, is centered on Tales of Edgar Allan Poe. The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.

“Everybody read Poe in high school or junior high, I’m sure, and it’s kind of nice to read him now as an adult and have a little different frame of mind,” Terrell said.

Pearl, who has spoken at two previous Big Reads about Poe, began writing as a vehicle to escape from the pressures of attending Yale Law School.

“It started as an outlet for continuing that love I had for literature, just in a different way,” he explained.

Pearl’s latest novel is a historical fiction surrounding the mystery around Poe’s death stemming from his own fascination with his favorite author’s untimely demise. Although Poe is a literary icon today he was so misunderstood at the time of his death that, according to Pearl’s research, there were so few people attending his funeral that the pastor performing the ceremony, a relative, cut his prepared eulogy short.

“If my novel can inspire or motivate people to read more Poe, that’s the highest compliment I could get,” he said.  “An opportunity like the Big Read, which is more about Poe than it is about my novel, is something I’m really glad to participate in.”

Pearl traced his own love for Poe back to his days in high school, when he read the author for the first time, but said the longevity of his admiration has to do with the depth of his writing.

“I think Poe specifically was the first writer that I had read that I wanted to keep reading more than was required of me as a student,” Pearl said. “I think part of the reason is that he’s just so surprising. Every story is doing something different and he has so many different voices. You sort of never run out of new Poe’s to find.”

Pearl’s appearance was one of many events on the Big Read schedule. Each library in Sanders and Lincoln County (Plains, Thompson Falls, Troy, Eureka, and Libby) will have a kick-off event, book discussion, and a movie screening.

The Big Read events were made possible by a National Endowment for the Arts grant, which covered the cost of the books, DVDs and Pearl’s travel expenses. This year’s events are part of a joint venture between Sanders and Lincoln Counties.

According to Melody Coldron of the Libby Library, most of the leg-work for the grant was done by the libraries In Lincoln County. Their expertise in obtaining the grant money was essential to get the ball rolling for the smaller libraries in Sanders County.

“They hadn’t done it and we’d done it a couple times… so we said, ‘we’ll tell you what. We’ll lead and you guys can be a part of it,’” Coldron said.

“It’s great because we would not have the money to do this otherwise,” Terrell said. “I just think it’s so much fun and it’s kind of neat when a community gets together to read the book and discuss it.”

Admittedly, Terrell said that some were less than pleased when they heard this year’s event would be centered around Poe, but she remained optimistic.

“It’s wonderful that they, the national endowment of arts, do this. It brings culture to little rural places that wouldn’t have the option to do it any other way,” she said.

Upcoming events in Sander’s County include book discussions in Plains (Nov. 15 at 6) and The Raven showing (Dec. 6 at 6) and the book discussion in Thompson Falls (Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.). All events are held at their respective public libraries.

Terrell said The Raven screening will be open to the public, even those who have not been a part of the other events. There will even be free popcorn.