History

A history of the Athenaeum library would not be complete without acknowledging the borrowers without whom the institution would have no point. But historical records of borrowings before 2011 (when the system was computerised) are limited. Fortunately, a few surviving registers from 1969 to 1975 provide a vivid and detailed snapshot of what members of the Athenaeum were then reading. Beyond the lists themselves it provokes questions about the part the library played in Maldon culture at the time, the way tastes have changed, and even the impact of reading on personal identity.

Membership dipped from 45 in 1970 to 25-30 over the next few years. What is striking is that nearly all were women. This is very different from the all-male early days of the institution, but it also suggests that in Maldon reading books was very much a female habit at this time. A predominance of women members still holds, if not to the same degree: in 2024, of 195 adult members, 135 are women.

In 1969, members could borrow five books at a time, and usually walked away with the full number. A visit to the library was clearly a regular activity and the most avid readers took out more than two hundred books a year. What does that suggest about available recreational alternatives? Radio serials and radio plays were popular, but television was limited, and technology had not yet displaced book reading with screen time. The only thing we know for certain is what books were borrowed over this particular five-year span.

By far the most popular genres were Romance and Crime, curiously with a side interest in Westerns. There was less demand for literary novels and non-fiction. Among the Romance authors we find Georgette Heyer, Catherine Gaskin, Barbara Cartland, and Deidre O’Brien; for Crime, Edgar Wallace, John Creasy, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, and Georges Simenon. Zane Grey and Lee Thomas were popular writers of Westerns, while under general fiction we find Elizabeth Bowen, Paul Gallico, Kingsley Amis, Cecil Roberts and Lionel Davidson. The main Australian writers were Katherine Susannah Pritchard, John Morrison, Hal Porter, Jon Cleary, and Frank Dalby Davison.

Popular titles include Girl on her Own, She Had To Lie, Snake in the Grass, House on the Hill, Lonely House, Riders of the Purple Sage, The Other Girl, The Paper Chase, Hunt the Man Down, Madness Farewell, I’m the King of the Castle, Frosted Windows, Don’t Argue with Death, Six Gun Thursday, Strawberry Street, The Golden Thread, Texas Cowman, A Tribe of Women, The Buccaneers, The Rough Road, The Guests Arrive, Long Way to Shiloh and House Next Door.

While selections tend to be repetitive, readers occasionally went off-trend. Australian works such as Langley’s The Pea Pickers, O’Grady’s They’re a Weird Mob, Maie Casey’s An Australian Story, Alan Marshall’s These Are My People, as well as Pepys’ Diary, Joyce’s Dubliners, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, and a book on Papua (preparing for independence at the time). Perhaps interest in reading Bridge Over the River Kwai or Dr Zhivago was generated by the movies. But these marginal borrowings only serve to emphasise the overwhelming preference for Romance and Crime.

We can only speculate about why they made the choices they did: to what extent was it influenced by magazines, by suggestions from the librarian or from friends? We can also drill down. While attachment to genre is a matter of habit, can an individual’s borrowing record suggest a personal life? (Most of us would surely admit to the role of books in reflecting our personal interests.) The selection of Young Parent probably indicates the age and situation of the reader but when she follows up with a weekly bundle of Trapped by Love/I Seek my Love/With All My Heart/Time for Love and soon after with Another Spring/Long Before Dawn/Man Who Forgot it is hard to resist constructing a narrative of marriage in some distress.

In a wider sense, this example speaks to the role the Athenaeum library has played in the emotional life of Maldon. The history of emotions is emerging as a significant field of research, and we may wonder about the role of reading in shaping our small community’s life.

The part the Athenaeum book collection played in supporting distinctive gendered roles is apparent when we consider the reading habits of the few male members. Their borrowings favour travel, history, Australiana, war, with novels only a sideline. We find such titles as May Day Tomorrow, Dusty Wheels, Company of Eagles, The Gold Seekers, Big Country, Hullo Australian, My Brother Jack and Never the Twain Shall Meet. These speak to ideas of masculinity at the time. While the number of male borrowers is too small to confidently draw conclusions, we may guess that most Maldon men stuck to the newspaper.

The 1969-75 records of borrowing tell us something about the inner life of this cohort of the community, but the question remains: did the book collection impose itself on the borrowers or was it responsive to their interests? By managing a substantial part of the community’s reading, the Athenaeum was playing a mentality shaping role, for shared tastes play a distinctive role in every community. We know this from experience even if that influence is impossible to quantify.

A limited capacity to buy books has meant the library has historically been heavily dependent on donations. So what assumptions were made about suitable material to donate or accept? In 1979 one outsider expressed a clear view of what she perceived to be appropriate. The library received regular consignments of books unwanted by the metropolitan Athenaeum and selected by a librarian at the city institution based on her understanding of Maldon’s reading tastes. In a note accompanying three cases of books she wrote “…they aren’t very heavy reading, so I hope your people like them.”

Examining the 1969-75 registers has a significance that goes beyond our curiosity about the borrowing habits and the book collection at that time. It provides a basis for comparison with what today’s borrowers choose. Over a recent twelve-month period almost 75% of books borrowed were fiction. Crime made up 50% of that number but Romance and Westerns no longer featured. Non-fiction (especially Australian), was up, revealing a strong interest in Indigenous history. David Marr’s Killing for Country and Bain Atwood’s The Good Country ranked highly. The marked change from the patterns of 1969-75 probably reflects a different demographic but it also tells us something about the changing life of the minds of Maldon.

Bill Garner
on behalf on the Maldon Athenaeum Library
2024

References:

Borrowing registers (1969-1975) held in the Maldon Athenaeum Archive Collection. For use within the library only.