By Khalida Sarwari
Not everyone might know this, but a large number of writers and photographers call Saratoga home. In celebration of the area’s rich literary heritage, the Saratoga Library will display the works of more than 200 authors, photographers and illustrators throughout the month of September.
The Authors Hall of Fame exhibit will be located at the end of the main lobby Sept. 3-30. Some books from the collection will be available for checkout.
In the past, the exhibit has featured the works of such authors as Ellen Hawkes, Les Landin, Audry Lynch, Barbara Marinacci, Eleanor Kamb Ray, Willys Peck, Bonnie Stone and Gerald Uelman. Lynch’s most recent book, The Rebel Figure in American Literature and Film, in which she draws a connection between movie star James Dean and novelist John Steinbeck, was recently honored at the Hollywood Festival of Books.
The exhibit is held annually by the Friends of the Saratoga Libraries to celebrate local authors and expose the community to their work, according to Dona Tobiason, the Friends’ community affairs chairwoman.
“I just think it’s recognition for the local authors,” she said.
The group created the Saratoga Authors Hall of Fame in 1989 as a way to contribute to the Chamber of Commerce’s weeklong community-wide Celebrate Saratoga event, and for a time the exhibit was held in September so that it would coincide with Saratoga Heritage Day, Tobiason said.
The Saratoga Library has been the venue for the Authors Hall of Fame display nearly every year, except from 1999 to 2002, when space restrictions at the library prompted organizers to move the display to the Friends’ used bookstore, the Book-Go-Round, in Saratoga’s first library building on Oak Street at Saratoga-Los Gatos Road. The display was
returned to the library in 2003, when the library reopened after an expansion.
The list of authors continues to grow every year, expanding from 50 in 1989 to 229 this year.
“Every year we pick up to five new people who’ve moved here,” Tobiason said.
The Friends of the Saratoga Libraries is continuing to compile an authors list and requesting published authors who are current or former residents of Saratoga to contact Tobiason at 408.867.4783.
“If they’ve been listed in previous years, we will of course list them again,” Tobiason said. “They don’t have to notify us; we have them on the master list.”
Saratoga’s authors will be featured in special library exhibit
