Librarians-Turned-Novelists

Librarians-Turned-Novelists

This article relates to A Short Walk Through a Wide World

Douglas Westerbeke, author of the debut novel A Short Walk Through a Wide World, did not start his career as an author. In fact, he is a librarian in Ohio, at one of the largest libraries in the United States. After spending the last decade on the local panel of the International Dublin Literary Award, he decided to try his hand at writing—and we're glad he did! In this video, he discusses "The Everyday Magic of Libraries" and the "non-stop education" that is being a librarian.

Westerbeke is in good company. A number of famous writers began their careers in the library. Here, we explore a few:

Nancy Pearl is known as "America's Librarian." Born and raised in Detroit, she received her master's degree in library science in 1967 from the University of Michigan and an MA in history from Oklahoma State University in 1977. She has received many awards, including the 2011 Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal and the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. Pearl has spent much of her career dedicated to readers' advisory and working to understand why people like the books they like. She became a novelist in 2017, with the debut publication George and Lizzie. In this video, she discusses the transition from being a librarian to becoming an author.

As a young child, Beverly Cleary lived on a farm in Yamhill, Oregon, which was, according to her author website, "a town so small it had no library. Her mother arranged with the State Library to have books sent to Yamhill and acted as librarian in a lodge room upstairs over a bank. There, young Beverly learned to love books. However, when the family moved to Portland, Beverly soon found herself in the grammar school's low reading circle, an experience that has given her sympathy for the problems of struggling readers." As a young woman, Cleary went on to pursue library studies. In 1939 she received a bachelor's degree from the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington, and she accepted a position as a children's librarian in Yakima, Washington. Of course, she would go on to write the Ramona series, among many other books for young readers, and become one of the most honored American children's authors. She earned numerous awards, including the Newbery Medal (1984), Newbery Honors (1978, 1982), a Hans Christian Andersen Award nomination (1984), and the National Medal of Art from the National Endowment of the Arts (2003).

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, is best known for writing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass; however, in 1855 he also worked at Oxford University's Christ Church Library as a "sub-librarian." At this time, he also received First Class Honors in Mathematics (B.A.) and was appointed a mathematical lecturer. Ten years later, he would publish the first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The list goes on: Jacob Grimm, Joanna Cole, Madeleine L'Engle, Ursula LeGuin, Jorge Luis Borges... all authors influenced by the freedom, power and creativity that libraries foster.

Cleveland Public Library, where Douglas Westerbeke is a librarian, courtesy of Cleveland Public Library

Filed under Books and Authors

This "beyond the book article" relates to A Short Walk Through a Wide World. It originally ran in May 2024 and has been updated for the April 2025 paperback edition. Go to magazine.