Yes, I’m like the girl in the Cake song: never there. But something cool happened last month that I’m finally going to post about. When he died Lloyd Alexander left many of his materials to Brigham Young University, because of the friendship he shared with Professors James Jacobs and Michael O. Tunnell, two of the foremost Alexander scholars.
Last month BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library opened a permanent exhibit, displaying some of Alexander’s papers, manuscripts, memorabilia – even his Newbery Medal and the harp that inspired the character of Fflewddur Fflam. The exhibit includes a recreation of the “box”, Alexander’s home office. You can see the very typewriter on which he plucked out The Chronicles of Prydain.
This is very cool for me on a personal level. The Prydain books are the first I have a clear memory of, after The Hobbit. And The High King is the first book that ever made me cry. (I’m trying to think of another, but it may have also been the last.)
During Jacobs and Tunnell’s lecture the day the exhibit opened I learned several things about the eccentric and reclusive, but seemingly very charming, Alexander. Fans of Alexander don’t hesitate to grumble about the travesty that was Disney’s adaptation of The Black Cauldron, so I was particularly interested to hear them talk about Alexander’s reaction to it. He said, basically, a book is a book, a movie is a movie, and no matter how they probed they couldn’t get him to say a bad word about Disney.
A classy guy, who will be well-remembered.
I am overjoyed to learn that somewhere in this world there is a permanent exhibit dedicated to this outstanding and underappreciated master storyteller. If photography is allowed, I hope you will share an on-line album with Mr. Alexander’s devoted fans. Thank you. (I, too, was, no AM, moved to tears whenever I read The High King.)