Glendale History: March Madness, 1909 Style

(click on the photograph to view a larger version in a new window)

With men's and women's NCAA Tournaments beginning this week, it seems apropos to share this picture of the 1909 Glendale High School girls basketball team. (Unfortunately, no information on how far they advanced in their bracket is provided on the back of the photo.)

This photograph is one of the thousands available to library patrons and researchers at the Special Collections Room in the Glendale Central Library.

The Special Collections Room also contains news clippings, books, maps, and other materials that cover the history of Glendale, neighboring cities, and California in general. The collection is particularly useful for local history and genealogy research projects. Special Collections also houses the Cat Collection, one of the largest collections of feline-related materials in the world.

The Special Collections Room is currently open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m and 1 to 3 p.m. and by appointment. Please call (818) 548-2037 for additional information.

This Week in Reading March 29 - April 4

Literary Names of Note This Week

Nobel Prize in Literature: Poet Octavio Paz (1990)

Novelists and story writers: Antoine Prrevost, Washington Irving, Mayne Reid, Nikolai Gogol, Emile Zola, Edgar Wallace, Ernst Junger, Roberto Arlt, Marcel Ayme, Margarite Duras, John Fowles, Milan Kundera, Tom Sharpe, John Jakes, Judith Rossner, Judith Guest, Marge Piercy.

Poets and Playwrights: George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, Edward Everett Hale, Edward Fitizgerald, Paul Verlaine, Maya Angelou / Edmond Rostand, Sean O’Casey, Howard Lindsay, Robert E. Sherwood, Rolf Hochhuth.

Thinkers, Spiritualists, Scientists, Historians, Officials: Mose Maimonides, Rene Descartes, Camille Paglia, A.C. Grayling / John Burroughs, Abraham Maslow, Jane Goodall / William Manchester / Al Gore.

Humorists, Essayists, Editors, Journalists, Biographers, and Others: Eric Idle, Amy Sedaris / Ted Morgan, Herb Caen, Kenneth Tynan / Giacomo Casanova, Kittty Kelley / Leo Buscaglia.

Mystery / Crime / Suspense Writers: Dan Simmons.

Fantasy / Science Fiction Writers: Anne McCaffrey, Samuel R. Delaney.


Romance / Historical Fiction Writers: George McDonald Fraser.


Graphic Novelists / Cartoonists / Illustrators: Sandra Boynton / Steven T. Seagle.

Children’s / Teen Authors: Hans Christian Andersen, Anna Sewell,, Mark Shulman.

As always, a week of events to read about.

This Week’s Questions: 1) This week many Glendale High School students need to find out about an author for a current assignment. At least two born this week are among the favorites asked about at the Central Library Reference Desk and branches. Here’s a little about both writers.

One intended to “become America’s first black female Proust," the other wanted “to change consciousness … to imagine a better world.”

Both had difficult lives; one was born in Detroit, the other in Saint Louis. They both wrote poetry as well as fiction, and both became spokespersons for civil rights and women’s issues. Who are they?

You can find out much about these two and many other authors or poets in Biography Resource Center and Magill on Literature in Glendale Public Library Online Resources with your library card number. There are biographies, bibliographies, and analyses of their work, with pictures!

2) Two authors born this week both wrote stories about headless horsemen. Who are they?

Answers to Last Week’s Question:

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Poem – Robert Frost – The Death of the Hired Hand

“Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come. That's why we want to be considerate of every man— Who knows what's in him, why he was born and what he can do?” Play – Maxim Gorky – The Lower Depths

“And now the fancy passes by and nothing will remain, and miles around they'll say that I am quite myself again.“ Poem – A. E. Housman – A Shropshire Lad

“Every day a little sting, in the heart and in the head.” Poetic lyrics in a play – Stephen Sondheim – A Little Night Music

“All pretty girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and men expect them to be.” Play – Tennessee Williams – The Glass Menagerie

“The pennycandystore beyond the El is where I first fell in love with unreality.” Poem – Lawrence Ferlinghetti – A Coney Island of the Mind