After reading Reenie's recent journal entry entitled "Chance Encounters" about a woman she met today at rehab, I just had to jot down my small connection to her story here.

When I saw that her new friend Helen's husband's name was Allen Tate, that rang bells in my head -- not clear bells at first but bells nonetheless. I clicked on the link she provided which took me to Allen Tate's WikiPedia page and oh-boy-howdy... there it was, all about him. I quickly read down through the information and saw he had published one novel in his life called The Fathers which set off loud Notre-Dame-type bells ringing in my head. I have that book upstairs!

So I went up and found the book right there on the end of the top shelf of my bedside bookcase:

~

I have had this book for many, many years. I can't remember where I bought it but it was in a used book store around here most likely. I used to peruse those shops all the time back in the day.

Inside the front cover is this inscription:

"For Constance, her own copy; only the autograph is Allen's _______ February 24, 1948"



and the rest:




~

Kip and I were marveling over what we'd just learned about this old book.







So there we are.

We were all pretty darned impressed with this news.

As to the inscription page, I don't find another page with the author's signature or autograph, so I'm assuming this was his personal inscription to "Constance," whomever that may be, when he gave her a copy of his book on Feb. 24, 1948, which, by the way, was exactly two months and several days before I was born!

Here's page 1 of the book just to whet your whistle:



I just looked in the back cover of this book and it was a library book - it was withdrawn from the Marine Corps University Library in Quantico, VA, but no date is given. So I am assuming, again, that "Constance" somehow had given it to a local library when she was done with it or had passed away maybe. It appears to be a First Edition.

So that is so cool! Remember that phrase "Six Degrees of Separation" ? This must be an example of that somehow.

Reenie, thanks for making my otherwise lackluster day a much more interesting one and one in which I found something to write about here in this plodding journal of mine other than food and dogs.



Now I have another book to add to my stack down here.

Cheers for the ties that bind....

Bex

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