I was informed today that the copy of Polly Learns to Fly by Lillian Elizabeth Roy circa 1932, that I ordered last night is now on its way to me. This makes me unspeakably happy; I've been looking for it for yearsm since I knew there was such a thing. Last time I found one and ordered I got a note saying "Sorry, not in stock," which both confused and disappointed me. (Wouldn't you want to take it off your website, then?)
The Polly books are on the early end of those independent-girl series that flourished from the 1920s through the 1940s. The first one, Polly of Pebbly Pit, is dated 1921. I inherited three of them from my grandmother, along with various Judy Bolton and Connie Blair books from my mother, and read the Polly books to death. (Or else Mom snagged them. She has all the Judy and Connie books. Anyway, I don't have those.) I've been keeping an eye out for them in bookstores; I generally don't order them off the Net, because that's too easy. In this case I made an exception, because I've only ever seen this book available online once before.
Not only does this add to my Polly collection (I currently have the first three books, in which Polly meets her friend Eleanor, finds a gold mine, convinces her parents to let her go off to New York to school to to sell the "rainbow jewels" from a cliff on their ranch to finance it (while title to the gold mine is being worked out) and begins to study interior decoration. (She and Eleanor propose to make it an "art, instead of what the paint-slingers and upholsterers do for you".) It also adds to a collection I didn't realize was one until just now, of books about women flying. I also have Betty Cavanna's Girls Can Fly, Too! and a couple others - Patty Wagstaff's autobiography (she was the first female US aerobatic champion, and something about a race held by the Ninety-Nines. You know, someone needs to write a biography of Pancho Barnes. I am looking forward to seeing exactly what Polly learns to fly in, and how much detail there is. (Cavanna's heroine flew in a Cessna not much different than the 152 I learned in, except hers was a taildragger.)
I love the idea of having "special collections" within my library, even if each is only a few books.
Posted by dichroic at May 6, 2005 04:40 PMI love the idea of special collections! I think of all my children's picture books as one of my mini collections. Of course now I've read this I'm sure I'll find I have my eye out for 'flying girl' books for you over here in the UK :)
Posted by: ruthie at May 7, 2005 06:28 AM