Contemporary Retellings, Adaptations, and Read-A-Likes for Wuthering Heights

It's wuthering weather! March roars in like a lion, and out like a lamb - what more perfect time to sit inside, listen to the wind bluster, and warm yourself up with a passionate (but not too spicy) romance? The weather harkens to the tempestuous, passionate, obsessive tale of Wuthering Heights, recently adapted to a feature film starring Margot Robbie as the fickle Catherine Earnshaw, and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, the not-good-enough foundling who returns to win her love after he has made something of himself. The original novel includes the death of Catherine's father (and Heathcliff's foster father), an older brother who doesn't like Heathcliff, servants who help and hinder the relationship, and the atmospheric moodiness of the Yorkshire moors. Read on for a list of fiction with romantic elements featuring intense, destructive, obsessive, and/or star-crossed relationships; novels that  utilize literary elements, are heavily character-driven, and are influenced by setting or weather.

Abide With Me by Sabin Willett 🌶️
A juvenile delinquent leaves on a five-year tour of Afghanistan, and returns home a broken hero hoping to reunite with the heiress he had an intense ten-week tumultuous adolescent affair with--only to discover she is engaged to a wealthy attorney, and her father's finances are in ruins after his suicide. Determined to win back Emma and restore her family home, The Heights, Roy sets out to make something of himself and earn Emma's love and the town's respect. Set in small-town Hoosier's Bridge, Vermont, the setting plays into the narrative. As in other reframings of Wuthering Heights, all obsessive love ends tragically.

The Favorites by Layne Fargo 🌶️🌶️
When Katarina Shaw sees Sheila Lin win an Olympic gold medal in ice dancing with her partner, she immediately asks her father for skating lessons and begins training. When she befriends a local foster boy who has learned to skate through a hockey program for underprivileged youth, it doesn't take much convincing to get Heath to begin learning routines with her. Their undeniable chemistry, skill, and talent earn them a spot in Sheila Lin's ice skating academy, alongside her twin children, who are ice dance partners and being groomed for an Olympic bid as well. The narrative oscillates between Kat's point of view and interviews from a variety of sources, for a documentary about what went wrong between Kat and Heath that ended their partnership. Former competitors, coaches, journalists, siblings, friends, and more chime in as the dramatic story moves back and forth in time, covering nearly two decades of competition, training, injury, scandal, and setbacks against an obsessive and possessive relationship modeled after Katherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff's in Wuthering Heights. 

Here On Earth by Alice Hoffman 🌶️🌶️
March Murray and her teenage daughter Gwen travel to their Massachusetts roots for the funeral of the family's housekeeper who raised March; the return reignites March's passion for bad boy Hollis, the orphan her father took in--the one she spurned to marry a rich neighbor, whom she has left behind in California. March abandons all sanity and obligation in pursuit of obsessive love for a bitter man who can neither forgive nor forget her--but does he love her? Through a contemporary lens, Hoffman explores the themes of Wuthering Heights (obsession, violence, abusive relationships) alongside motherhood and middle age, passion and security, chance and destiny with her distinctive character development, almost-supernatural elements, and atmospheric, allegorical writing. New England weather, no less predictable than that of the Scottish moors, plays its own role in a narrative that moves back and forth in time.

How to Grieve Like a Victorian by Amy Carol Reeves  🌶️🌶️
When recently widowed professor of Victorian literature loses it at an underperforming student who happens to be the son of the dean, her supervisors suggest a sabbatical; she takes her six-year-son (Heathcliff!) off to London for an extended stay at her friend’s house, happily escaping after an almost-kiss with her husband's best friend, attorney Henry, who is helping her untangle some mysterious details of a trust for Heathie. While in London, she meets with her agent to negotiate a second book (and film!) based on her successful young adult novel, a romance hailed as the next Twilight that’s a magical take on Wuthering Heights. She bumps into another writer who writes popular thrillers, and allows him to pursue her, simultaneously charmed and repulsed by his behavior, and his attraction to her affectations of her grief. Lizzie finds herself befriended by Bella, who plays Cathy in the movie adaptation of Lizzie’s book, who is involved in a love triangles in both the film and IRL. This is wonderfully gothic, well-crafted tale of love and grief and longing that pays homeage to Wuthering Heights, complete with a love triangle, obsession, desperate longing, and hiking on the moors. 

Nelly Dean: A Return to Wuthering Heights by Alison A. Case 🌶️
In this reimagining of Wuthering Heights through the eyes of the Catherine's loyal young servant, Nelly Dean is raised alongside her employer's children Catherine and Hindley practically as a member of the family until Heathcliff is added to the mix. Her love affair with Hindley's son Hareton results in an illegitimate heir, reduced to a life as an illiterate, uneducated laborer by a vengeful Heathcliff. The slow pace is rife with passion, violence, betrayal, revenge, and especially suffering as Nelly endures the thoughtless cruelty of the gentry she serves.

Solsbury Hill by Susan A. Wyler 🌶️ 
When a surprise call brings twenty-something up-and-coming fashion designer from New York to the Yorkshire Moors, Eleanor discovers she is to inherit Trent Hall, the family estate, where Bronte composed some of her singular novel. Having left behind her childhood sweetheart turned cheating fiancé, Eleanor encounters her dying aunt's ward, the enigmatic Meadowscarp McLeod, as well as the pervasive ghostly presence of Brontë herself. Following a long history of women in her family making mistakes in their romances, Eleanor finds herself caught between her love for Miles and for Meadowscarp amid the howling winds off the moors. This atmospheric and inventive romance makes a case that Wuthering Heights’s central theme of finding (and losing) a great love amid the moors was based on actual events, as proven by letters Eleanor discovers with the aid of Bronte's ghost.

What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix by Tasha Suri 🌶️
As the abandoned son of a lascar—a sailor from India—Heathcliff has spent most of his young life maligned as an "outsider." Now he's been flung into an alien life in the Yorkshire moors, where he clings to his birth father's language even though it makes the children of the house call him an animal, and the maids claim he speaks gibberish. Catherine is the younger child of the estate's owner, a daughter with light skin and brown curls and a mother that nobody talks about. Her father is grooming her for a place in proper society, and that's all that matters. Catherine knows she must mold herself into someone pretty and good and marriageable, even though it might destroy her spirit. As they occasionally flee into the moors to escape judgment and share the half-remembered language of their unknown kin, Catherine and Heathcliff come to find solace in each other. Deep down in their souls, they can feel they are the same. But when Catherine's father dies and the household's treatment of Heathcliff only grows more cruel, their relationship becomes strained and threatens to unravel. For how can they ever be together, when loving each other—and indeed, loving themselves—is as good as throwing themselves into poverty and death? This fresh take on an old classic subverts the default whiteness of the original text.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffennegger 🌶️🌶️
Time traveling is a genetic disorder like epilepsy in this story modelled after The Odyssey, with Henry always slipping out of time, and his beloved wife Claire, an artist, left behind like Penelope, longing and waiting for his return. She has known him most of her life, as he was drawn back through time to her in his 40s; when they meet in their 20s, he is a familiar sight to her, but to him, they have only just met. The narrative focuses on their tumultuous star-crossed relationship; her art, which is sculptural and involves mostly birds, crafted from handmade paper; his work as a librarian at a world-class institution; their desire to conceive a child; and their search for a cure to Henry's inconvenient disorder. Tons of literary allusions, the Chicago locale, and their punk rock aesthetic create a multi-sensory, rich backdrop to a story that to some will resonate as star-crossed fated mates--and to others, a warning tale of grooming and privilege.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley 🌶️🌶️ 
The narrative of this science fiction book moves back and forth between the tragic disaster of the ship Erebus, stranded at the Northwest Passage for several years, and present day Britain, where a time travel device allows specific people with potential to be rescued from certain death and brought forward in time to play a role in the fight against climate change. An agent assigned to a traveler inconveniently falls for her charge, and their relationship is an intense slow burn that incorporates both passion and destruction. The characters are complex, the writing excellent, the plotting clever, the narrative compelling.  There is a bit of a disconnect with typical time travel stories, where the basic premise includes rules like "the future is already set" and "going back into the past cannot change or derail things," and "you can’t meet your future or past self." If you are willing to suspend your disbelief, you’ll be rewarded with a tale that will have you googling the Northwest passage and crushing on Commander Graham Gore as unapologetically as the author and the narrator.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 
Can you wholly love two separate people with your one heart? Claire, a war nurse on holiday with her officer husband Frank, seeks to rekindle their marriage, spent mostly apart during WWII. She gamely trots off to look for flowers to press in the Scottish highlands while he's on a family history search. On a  pagan feast day, she slips through a pair of standing stones and finds herself 200 years in the past, deeply in danger and in the middle of a skirmish between the locals and the British army. Only marriage to a Scotsman--Jamie, a laird with a price on his head--will keep her from being apprehended by the British, and she finds herself developing feelings for her new husband, while still longing for her first one. The adventure is as heart-pounding as the passion; violence, love, betrayal and passion are recurring themes, and both locations and secondary characters are richly drawn. Claire is a feisty, twentieth-century feminist whose mouth gets her into trouble on more than one occasion, and the historical and cultural details are thoroughly researched.

Note: The chili peppers denote the steaminess, or spice level, of the book's romantic/intimate elements; visit https://www.romance.io/steamrating for the key.

Zephaniah Baker: Head Librarian and So Much More...

We recently wrote a post about the early years of Worcester Public Library where we briefly introduced you to our first head librarian, Zephaniah Baker. While Zephaniah Baker isn't as well-known a figure in our library's history compared to Dr. John Green or Samuel Swett Green, he certainly had a number of professions and interests that we felt might be worthy of its own blog post. In addition to being the first head librarian charged with starting and maintaining the public library, Baker was a minister, farmer, bookseller, world traveler, author, and architect! So sit back, relax, and get ready to read about the man the Worcester Evening Gazette described in 1964 as a "screwball genius!"

Zephaniah Baker (Photograph by 1890s photographer Herman Schervee of an earlier image of unknown origin), from the American Antiquarian Society

Zephaniah Baker: The Beginning

So who was Zephaniah Baker? Zephaniah Baker was born July 17, 1815, in Dudley, Massachusetts to Mercy and Jacob Baker, a farmer, and was the third of their five children, the last of whom died in infancy. Zephaniah also had four half-siblings from his mother's first marriage to Zebulon Morris, who died in 1806. 

Many of the details of his early life appeared in the autobiography that he wrote in March 1889, a little more than five years before he passed away. While we have not located a copy of this autobiography, it is referenced in a publication by one of our other former head librarians, Robert K. Shaw, Some Notes on Zephaniah Baker, 1815 - 1894, that was read before the Worcester Historical Society in 1936. One of Zephaniah's reminisces of his youth mentions his love of books after a girl he befriended moved away, "She was forgotten, as I got hold of reading, then books became my society, aside of Mother and home" (Shaw, 1936, p. 3). Baker was listed as a student at Nichols Academy studying Greek in 1835. Beloved father Jacob Baker died in 1836 when Zephaniah was 21, as a result of injuries incurred two years prior in an accident. 

The Clergyman

Zephaniah Baker took comfort in religion after the death of his father, and later became a Universalist minister where he preached at services throughout New England. He married his first wife, Frances Maria Shedd, (hereafter "Mrs. Baker"), on June 1, 1840 in Chester, Vermont.

Reverend Baker and Mrs. Baker moved around a couple of times in his role as clergyman, including to Connecticut and New York. Not all of his Fifth Universalist Society of New York congregants appreciated his labors. According to the September 20, 1848, issue of the religious newspaper Boston Investigator, one objector declared, "He appears so much like a mechanic!!" (Yes, the quote did in fact have two exclamation marks). Unfortunately, Reverend Baker was "obliged to relinquish [his duties as minister of the New York congregation] on account of bronchial difficulty, whereby speech was denied him" (Lincoln, 1862, p. 338). By 1850, Baker and his wife were living in Akron, Ohio, where his occupation was listed as "Clergyman Uni" (Universalist) in the 1850 federal census.

1850 Federal Census Record Showing Zephaniah and Frances Baker

Baker and his wife would occasionally write columns or be featured in articles in the Boston-based Trumpet and Universalist magazine when they returned to New England. Baker would also continue to perform weddings and preach even after he became Worcester's head librarian in 1860.

The Bookseller

By 1854, the Bakers were back in Massachusetts, and Zephaniah Baker took ownership of a Worcester book and stationery business at "The Old Stand" (184 Main Street, opposite the American Temperance House) from Edward Livermore. Baker renamed the company as "Z. Baker & Co." and by January 1855, opened a second bookstore at the No. 2 Worcester House Block (Main Street between Elm and Maple Streets). In the same month, Z. Baker & Co. offered a special offer on books to entice tobacco users to give up the habit. 

Special Offer, Worcester Daily Spy, January 20, 1855.

The second bookstore store was short lived. Z. Baker & Co. sold the store at No. 2 Worcester House Block by April, and a couple of months later became enmeshed in a competitor war in the local newspapers with Edward Livermore. Edward Livermore had left Worcester after originally selling his business to Baker in 1854 to build a publishing company in New York City but then started a new book business in September 1855 at the No. 2 Worcester House Block in Worcester (yes, one of the former locations of Z. Baker & Co.!) with J.K. Banister (also spelled Bannister in some newspapers) as his agent. Baker felt Livermore should not have dared compete with his business. Below are three notices published in the Worcester Daily Spy on October 5, 1855. Edward Livermore's Worcester store would last less than a year but he continued to be a publisher in New York thereafter.

Correspondence by Z. Baker & Co., Worcester Daily Spy, October 5, 1855

Correspondence by J. K. Bannister, Worcester Daily Spy, October 5, 1855

Correspondence by J. K. Banister, Worcester Daily Spy, October 5, 1855

By late October 1855, Z. Baker & Co. added a partner and became "Baker, Trumbull & Barnes" but in May of the following year, the partnership was dissolved and the name of the company reverted back to Z. Baker & Co.

Advertisement for Z. Baker & Co., Worcester Daily Transcript, July 11, 1857

Z. Baker & Co. existed for two more years, with the addition and then dissolution of a copartnership with William H. Sanford in 1857. William H. Sanford took over the business and acquired the books and other merchandise from Z. Baker & Co. in November 1857. 

The final references to Baker & Co.'s bookselling business in the local newspapers occurred in 1859 and 1860, when Z. Baker and his former business partner, Moses Barnes, were sued by John Marcy over an outstanding loan of $1000, even though Barnes claimed the note was a forgery. The jury of the second trial eventually found for Marcy.

The Author, Publisher, and Builder

Of course, Zephaniah Baker wasn't only interested in merely selling books during that time. In 1856, Baker wrote and published a book entitled, The Cottage Builder's Manual, that consisted of his thoughts, plans, and specifications for constructing cottages. Baker was the architect of several round houses during the height of that architectural style's popularity, including 12-sided and 8-sided structures, at least one of which still exists today in Dudley! The Cottage Builder's Manual is currently available to read electronically in the public domain at the following Google Books link. In 1857, Baker wrote another book about building houses entitled, Modern House Builder, From the Log Cabin and Cottage to the Mansion. This book is also available in the public domain via the following Google Books link.

Architectural Plan for a 12-Sided Cottage, from The Cottage Builder's Manual, 1856

Google Streetview Image (captured Aug 2023) of a House Built by Zephaniah Baker

Zephaniah Baker would also publish other books throughout the years. For instance he would publish an English translation of the Chinese Classics as translated by James Legge of the London Missionary Society. Of course, English publishers in London felt that only they had the right to publish an English language translation by Legge, but it seems that Baker's publication was allowed to occur in the absence of international copyright law.

The Chinese Classics, translated by James Legge and published by Z. Baker

The Head Librarian

February 17, 1860 brought a new career for Zephaniah Baker: first head librarian of the Worcester Free Public Library. You can read more about his tenure at the library in our blog post but some highlights during this time include officially opening the library in its temporary Bank Block Building location; organizing and maintaining the library in its new Elm Street building location, along with Miss Callina Barnes as first assistant and his wife, Mrs. Baker, as the second assistant; and instituting several changes, including opening the library's first reading room. 

The Second Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library indicated that, "Mr. Baker's almost intuitive knowledge of books has been of great service" (p. 4). Zephaniah Baker was also generous with his own books and his desire to put needed books into the hands of patrons. In fact, as he wrote in The Eighth Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library, "I have loaned freely from my private collection when the Library did not have the book wanted. It has been my endeavor to meet each and every call for books as expeditiously as possible, and in the exact spirit of the request" (p.15). Zephaniah Baker would be in charge of the library until 1871.

Of course, the Civil War occurred during Baker's tenure. Both Bakers were involved in the abolitionist movement, with the head librarian writing a letter to the editor of the Worcester Daily Spy supporting the fight to be "free of this accursed rebellion and the curse (slavery) that has bred it."

Editor Spy, Worcester Daily Spy, January 18, 1864

Zephaniah's personality shines through some of the remarks shared in Robert K. Shaw's publication. One office boy for a nearby bookstore remembered Zephaniah Baker during the late 1860s as being "a man of genial temperament" and a "ready conversationalist." However, "[Zephaniah] and his cronies would often linger to chat after the closing hour of eight in the evening, to the intense disgust and annoyance of the impatient office boy" (Shaw, 1936, p. 1A)

The World Traveler

Zephaniah Baker took a two-month trip abroad without his wife towards the end of his tenure as head librarian to visit libraries and acquire books to add to the library's collection. He also wrote about his experiences in Europe in several Worcester Evening Gazette and Aegis and Gazette columns, where he cantankerously complained about the English and their prolific use of profanity. He seemed to love France and Switzerland, but was not a fan of Scotland (specifically the Scottish people and their alleged vices). He mentioned that his birds accompanied him on his voyage and complained about the food on his passage back to the United States on one of the Anchor Lines steamships. He also seemed to despise his short stay in Liege, Belgium, stating, "Our train left us for the night at Liege, and for a long time, I was quite sure we had been dropped in Sodom" (Aegis and Gazette, April 23, 1870).

Passport Application for Zephaniah Baker, June 1869

Notes on Foreign Travel, Worcester Evening Gazette, December 6, 1869

Notes on Foreign Travel, Aegis & Gazette, January 22, 1870

The Farmer

In addition to all of his other activities, Baker had a farm in Dudley, where he raised horses and showed some of them at exhibitions and related agricultural shows. He was also involved in the Dudley Farmers' Club and served on the executive board for a number of years after his retirement from the library. The 1870 death of one of his horses, a massive horse weighing 2,250 pounds known as Clydesdale Tom, was so noteworthy that it was mentioned in the Worcester Daily Spy! Eleven months later in 1871, the papers reported that Baker intended to have the skeleton of Clydesdale Tom properly mounted as a natural history specimen. We're not sure what happened to the remains in the interim between Clydesdale Tom's death and the mounting of the skeleton, or where the mounted remains were finally displayed.

The Retiree

Zephaniah Baker announced to Worcester that he was starting up his bookselling business again in December 1870, a couple of weeks before it was announced that he would no longer serve as head librarian of the Worcester Free Public Library. It appears that this business located at 3 Lincoln House Block was short-lived. 

Zephaniah Baker and Mrs. Baker* were living at different addresses according to the 1870 federal census and divorced presumably in the early 1870s. Divorce was a somewhat uncommon practice in those days, although not rare. They never had any children. Oddly enough (or maybe not so odd since we've definitely seen errors in vital records while doing local history or genealogy research in the past), her death record in 1891 indicates that she was the widow of Zephaniah, even though she died before him. 

He later married his second wife, Sarah Dwight on April 27, 1873.  He was 57 and she was 35 at the time of their marriage and they also never had any children. According to a letter by Mr. D. H. Dwight, a cousin of Sarah, "[Zephaniah] was a fluent and interesting talker, of generous disposition and well liked by the young people; a brainy man, but rather eccentric" (Shaw, 1936, p. 24).

As we previously mentioned, Zephaniah Baker continued to write in his later years. In addition to his autobiography, Baker authored a chapter on the history of Dudley in the two volume book, History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published in 1879.

Zephaniah Baker died at the age of 79 from stomach cancer on November 24, 1894, in Southbridge. He was buried in the Baker family plot at the Village Cemetery in Dudley. Sarah Dwight Baker would die in 1919. Randomly, the Worcester Evening Gazette in 1964 claimed that Baker built a carriage with a round body and that when he died, his mortal remains were left to Harvard College. We have not seen any proof to back up these statements so we'd take them with a grain of salt.

Conclusion

So there you have it: biographical sketches of our complicated but multitalented first head librarian, Zephaniah Baker. We hope you've you learned a something new today. For more information about the history of the Worcester Public Library, we invite you to view our older blog posts at the following link.

P.S.

*Honestly, we found Frances Baker's life fascinating, especially her independent life where she was a teacher as well as a lecturer at the Worcester Natural History Society after she separated from Zephaniah. We'll have to share more about her in a future blog! 

Sources:

Baker, Z. (1856). The Cottage Builder's Manual. Z. Baker & Co.

Baker, Z. (1857). Modern House Builder, From the Log Cabin and Cottage to the Mansion. Higgins, Bradley, and Dayton.

Baker, Z. (1864, January 18). "Editor Spy." Worcester Daily Spy, p. 2. 

Baker, Z. (1869, December 6). "Notes on Foreign Travel." Worcester Evening Gazette, p. 1.

Baker, Z. (1870, January 13). "Notes on Foreign Travel." Worcester Evening Gazette, p. 1.

Baker, Z. (1870, January 22). "Notes on Foreign Travel." Aegis and Gazette, p. 4.

Baker, Z. (1870, March 5). "Notes on Foreign Travel." Aegis and Gazette, p. 5.

Baker, Z. (1870, April 23). "Notes on Foreign Travel." Aegis and Gazette, p. 3.

"Baker's Edition of 'The Chinese Classics.'" (1866, June 15). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 2.

"County News." (1871, November 4). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 1.

"Court Record." (1859, April 20). Worcester Daily Transcript, p. 2.

"Death of a Mammoth Horse." (1870, December 12). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 1.

"Dissolution of Copartnership." (1856, May 27). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 3.

"Our Rich Men." (1857, August 31). Worcester Daily Transcript, p. 2.

Free Public Library. (1862). The Second Annual Report of the Free Public Library, Worcester.

Grow, J. F. (1964, January 20). "Good Evening." Worcester Evening Gazette, p. 7.

Lincoln, W. (1862). History of Worcester, Massachusetts from Its Earliest Settlement to September 1836. Charles Hersey.

Shaw, R. (1936). Some Notes on Zephaniah Baker, 1815 - 1894.

"Supreme Court." (1860, April 18). Massachusetts Spy, p. 2.

The Worcester Almanac, Directory, and Business Advertiser for 1855. (1855). Henry J. Howland.

Z. Baker & Co. (1855, April 6). "Agents! Book Agents!!" Worcester Daily Journal, p. 3.

Z. Baker & Co. (1855, October 23). "Copartnership Notice." Worcester Transcript, p. 3.

New Releases - March 2026 Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

NONFICTION

A History of Women in Music from Antiquity to Present Day by Dale DeBakcsy
In 2024, women swept the Grammy awards, prompting headlines about their arrival in music. However, women have been shaping pivotal musical developments over the past 3,000 years. A History of Women in Music from Antiquity to the Present Day is a magisterial survey of their manifold contributions to musical history around the world, from Sappho to Nicki Minaj, M.S. Subbulakshmi to Madonna, and Hildegard of Bingen to AKB48. Here are the stories of the women who worked their way from the secret palace performers of sixteenth-century Italy to the quasi-divine operatic divas of nineteenth-century France, whose artistry made the Blues a profitable venue for Black vocalists at the dawn of the recording age, who composed chaste love ballads in the Middle Ages, and less chaste Hyperpop lust ballads in the TikTok Age, all while carrying out the decades-long battle of fighting for representation in some of the world's most male-coded musical forms, as singers of boleros and rancheras in Central America, heavy metal warriors and rap queens in the United States, operatic composers in Europe, reggaeton divas in Puerto Rico, and instrumentalists in a jazz landscape that only barely tolerated their presence as vocalists for forty long years. This book tells the long story of a global movement carried out at first country by country and woman by woman, until the weight of their amassed contributions burst open the gates of resistance, and cleared the way for women's musical prominence today. Whether you're trying to escape another Manic Monday, are curious What Love Has To Do With It (answer: quite a lot), or simply want to step Into The Groove for a while, there are stories and songs here aplenty to let you connect with the long and fascinating lineage of women who took the world by the ears, and poured therein the full measure of their rich musical genius. -Provided by publisher.

Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History by Caroline Tracey 
"Salt lakes are some of the world's most extraordinary ecosystems, but nearly all of them-from the Great Salt Lake to the Aral Sea and beyond-are drying up. Their decline is already the second-largest contributor to sea level rise, and their future loss will create widespread dust storms, threatening the water cycle, migratory birds, and human health. In Salt Lakes, Caroline Tracey takes readers on her travels across the American West, to Mexico, Argentina, and Kazakhstan, exquisitely describing the strange world of salt lakes, documenting their loss, and tracing efforts to save them. She delves into Mormon diaries, Soviet realist novels, and Australian Aboriginal paintings to make sense of how salt lakes have reflected the fast-changing natural world around us, while unraveling the lakes' lessons for her own life as she finds queer love and a sense of home in an imperfect world. Salt Lakes is a love letter to a strange and delicate ecosystem-and a moving call to fight for all that is fragile in our lives."
-Provided by publisher. 

Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination of Male Friendship Across America by Andrew McCarthy
Bestselling travel writer McCarthy (Walking with Sam) offers a heartwarming meditation on male friendship. A pointed question from his son—“You don’t really have any friends, do you, Dad?”—inspires the author to reconsider his “self-induced isolation” and set out on cross-country drive to reconnect with former close friends. Over the course of a sprawling journey from Appalachia to the Southwest, McCarthy not only rekindles his relationships but makes impromptu, thematically appropriate stops—like at a museum dedicated to lonesome musical legend Roy Orbison—and, most intriguingly, chats with men he meets in bars and other hangouts about their friendships or lack thereof. He encounters several sets of lifelong best friends (including Mississippi duo Chuck and Dan, whose grandfathers were also best friends) and a slew of alienated loners (“I stick to myself,” one construction worker explains). These surprisingly open conversations allow McCarthy to interrogate what blocks male connection, particularly men’s fear of vulnerability and their sense that it’s easier to be emotional with women. McCarthy’s journey exposes how infrequently friendship is discussed at all in American culture—as one journalist notes, “People are reluctant to discuss friendship because it has no immediacy, no monetary value”—even as there is a widespread hunger to talk about it. The result is a poignant, life-affirming look at American men yearning for closer bonds. -Copyright 2026 Publisher’s Weekly 

FICTION 

The Fortune Flip by Lauren Kung Jessen 
Jessen (Yin Yang Love Song) offers up a charming mix of romance and philosophy in this well-crafted contemporary. Perpetually unlucky data analyst Hazel Yen is having an awful day: her apartment building's pipes burst, she's laid off, and her divorce is finalized. She impulsively heads to a fortune teller, hoping for reassurance about things to come--only to have the reading interrupted by a drenched man in tie-dye walking a cat on a leash. He's Logan Wells, a perpetually lucky carpenter, and he offers Hazel half of what turns out to be a winning Powerball ticket as an apology for barging in. Their unexpected win causes their fortunes to flip, with Hazel experiencing a run of good luck and Logan bad, setting them on a quest to understand the very nature of luck--and each other. Though their initial meet-cute feels a bit contrived, the central couple is easy to root for: Logan is a golden retriever of a hero who gradually learns from overly honest Hazel how to work through the negative instead of ignoring it; meanwhile, Hazel learns to set boundaries with her gambling addict father and wannabe-influencer brother. Readers will be well-pleased with this insightful romance between two people who, in discovering more about each other, discover a lot about themselves. Copyright 2026 Publishers Weekly

Hard Times by Jeff Boyd
The relationship between the men and women in blue and the citizens of Chicago has been a tenuous one. Curtis Thompson experiences this every day while walking the beat as a Chicago cop, and each interaction carries the potential of escalation. The night he and his partner stop two young people, Truth and Dontell, it accelerates into a shooting that could end his career and tear the city apart. Buddy Mack is Curtis's brother-in-law and teaches at Mayfield High School on Chicago's South side. The ideological opposite of Curtis, he cares about his students, and when Truth's cousin Zeke informs him about certain information he has discovered, Buddy wants to help in any way he can. However, when Buddy learns of Curtis's culpability in the shooting of one of his students, his loyalties are torn between family and his career. This is a poignant novel that explores the tragic consequences of corruption, moral compromises, and the family ties that are often as polarizing as they are binding. VERDICT Boyd (The Weight) has composed a gritty and compelling drama with a stellar plot featuring a fascinating group of characters and a stirring denouement.  -Copyright 2026 Library Journal

Upward Bound by Woody Brown 
The residents and staff of an underfunded adult care center in Los Angeles form the core of Brown's singular debut novel. Chief among them is narrator Walter, who, like the author, is nonspeaking and autistic. Describing his autism as "like ADHD times a thousand," Walter is observant and capable, transcribing his thoughts. Though he has graduated with honors from community college, he can't be left on his own. When his father dies and his mom has to return to work, he is forced to spend his days at Upward Bound. Readers meet others at the facility through Walter's eyes and the characters' own, including "gentle giant" Jorge, movie-star handsome Tom, who has cerebral palsy, saintly aide Carlos, summer lifeguard Ann, and many more. "The story of my people isn't being told, or it's being told wrong," Walter thinks, and he sets out to remedy that situation. Brown's sly sense of humor and ability to inhabit, without condescension, the experiences of those often marginalized, including the bumbling but well-intentioned caregivers, make the novel both quietly surprising and gently enlightening. Copyright 2026 Booklist

Romance on Ice: Heated Rivalry Read-A-Likes

Heated Rivalry, an HBO Max series about two professional, Olympic tier, closeted men who fall for one another after years of hookups, has brought Rachel Reid's Game Changers series to the forefront of pop culture this winter. Sports romances are nothing new: elite athletes match because they may share drives and goals, competitive streaks, compatible lifestyles and schedules, as well as a passion for their sport; their superstitions, curated diet, and lack of availability due to travel require a certain level of understanding that only someone in a similar situation can relate to. 

Whether you can't get enough of Heated Rivalry and want a steamy readalike, are a Boston Bruins fan looking for a sports romance, or love the idea of tough hockey players falling for even tougher figure skaters, read on for a list of suggestions for romance set on--and off--the ice.

Game Changers series by Rachel Reid 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

In Heated Rivalry, two rookie players who are often compared--and set against one another--have a competitive rivalry on the ice, but off the ice, have a series of hookups, over years, while dating women. Once a colleague kisses his boyfriend after winning the Stanley Cup, though, will it allow Canadian Shane Hollander and Russian Ilya Romanov to face their very real feelings for one another? Reid's romances are exceptional for the development of emotional connections between her characters. The novels also address pressure and expectations from family, fans, and even country; homophobia in professional sports; the fame game and choices to be made when one has so much money at one's disposable; mental health; balancing public and private life, and so much more. The complete Game Changers series is currently available in ebook format--no waiting!--through Hoopla.

Him series by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy: Him / Us / Epic  🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
This M/M hockey romance is the closest read-alike match to Game Changers in plot and spice level. In Him, childhood friends at hockey camp were best buds on and off the ice, until Wes realized he was attracted to Jamie and cut off their friendship. At the end of their college days, both are called back as counselors for the camp, where they reconnect on more than one level. Jamie always believed himself to be straight, but can’t fight his attraction to his teammate and roommate any longer. In Us, the guys are together, but apart due to Wes's signing to a professional hockey team, which means he's traveling` for work, and back in the closet. In Epic, Jamie is being scouted to play for another National team, and that, coupled with his mental health struggles, put a strain on his and Wes's relationship. Blistering hot, talkative, highly consensual intimate scenes between the two athletes are balanced out with the mundanities of life, ongoing pranking and superstitions, exciting hockey game play by play, and internal growth as they angst of divulging their relationship, and then struggle to maintain the relationship over time, through distance, and between professional obligations.

Always Only You by Chloe Liese  🌶️🌶️🌶️
Loosely following the themes of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, hockey player Ren is an outlier in his family of soccer players, but he’s great at what he does on the ice–and off, always up for whatever social media scheme the team’s PR prickly person, Frankie, has cooked up. Frankie is on the spectrum, and suffers from a chronic illness, while Swedish Ren is a self-proclaimed nerd who is the nicest, most modest, unruffled hockey player ever, hosting a Shakespeare Club on the side. Sweet, sensual writing with emotional depth and literary allusions.

The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey  🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
This age-gap workplace romance launches when single (grumpy) dad and hockey star Burgess hires broke, aspiring marine biologist Tallulah to be the live-in nanny for his tweenager. The lovers are in very different spots in their lives, and Tallulah is still recovering from past trauma; their off-the-charts chemistry makes it all work. The novel was a roller-coaster of drama and emotion, mostly based on the characters being stuck in their ways, and having baggage to work through, and while they do change and grow to be a better partner for each other, there was a lot of miscommunication, cringe, and stereotypical behavior. Bailey excels at hot men who like to talk in bed, and The Au Pair Affair is no exception.

Beyond the Play series by Grace Reilly: Wicked Serve / Breakaway 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
In this new adult series about secret relationships, Wicked Serve focuses on volleyball player Izzy and her brother’s hockey rival Nikolai, enjoying a no-strings-attached summer romance during Izzy’s party planning internship with Nikolai’s mother. In Breakaway, coach’s daughter Penny has had some unsatisfying relationship experiences and past trauma, and has a bucket list that her new friends-with-benefits Cooper is happy to explore at her pace, with full consent. Reilly excels at creating warm, authentic, characters; pitch perfect college-age dialogue; complex situations; and passionate intimacy.

B’Nai Mitzvah Mistake by Stacey Agdern 🌶️
Two students in an adult b’nai mitzvah class clash, so of course, they are paired together on a project. Judith, who works for a Jewish charitable organization, needs to find a Jewish athlete for her nephew to interview; Ash, a hockey player who wants to start a foundation supporting Jewish athletes, is willing to step in if she’ll help him out with his foundation. The Jewish content is rich with familiar traditions, cultural touchstones, and a careful balance of referencing but not over-explaining, with a sprinkling of Hebrew and Yiddish throughout; the author is a knowledgeable fan of the game, so the hockey parts ring true.

Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Single, hockey playing widow Mike falls for his daughter Olivia’s dance teacher Aurora in this charming sports romance. When he proposes that Rory, who has a strong connection with Olivia, provide some childcare in the form of a ride home and babysitting, Rory agrees, and pretty soon, Mike’s trying to solve Rory’s rent problem by inviting her to move into the lower level of his home...Mental health--Mike's grief, Rory's anxiety--is a strong theme throughout the novel, and love letters, Wikipedia articles, and text messages enhance the narrative and move the story along. Therapy scenes are juxtaposed against intimate ones: emotional and forthright, sometimes a little raw, insightful, asking for what they need, sharing their emotions, and communicating.

Fated Skates by Victoria Schade 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Olympic figure skater Quinn suffered a fall in her last bid for a gold, but she's recovered from her injury (and from some of her humiliation) and is ready to try again. A journalism team, inspired by her comeback, wants to do a feature on her, and her reluctance is only partly her desire for privacy; the lead interviewer is none other than the retired speed skater she had an almost thing with a four years ago.  Issues of privacy, stage moms, eating disorders, competition, controlling your narrative, depression, athleticism, pressure to succeed, and women in sports compound and amplify the vulnerabilities and desires of the protagonists. 

The Favorites by Layne Fargo 🌶️🌶️
An instant connection between two skating underdogs makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end. As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites a public obsession seeking to uncover the “real story” through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines. The writing is literary, with excellent plotting.

The Game Changer by Lana Ferguson 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
This “falling for my best friend’s brother” romance is set locally in Boston, and author Ferguson does the city, its' climate and its' sports fanaticism proud. Delilah’s homegrown cooking show isn’t generating interest, and is in danger of being canceled. Hockey star Ian Chase’s recent public breakup is bad PR for his nice guy persona. The baker and a hockey player join forces to boost ratings for her baking show and to make over his reputation. The flirty banter is fun, the pacing is quick, and the culinary details delicious. This is a solid addition to the hockey romance ouevre, with slightly older characters.

Isn't It Bromantic? by Lyssa Kay Adams 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Russian hockey player Vlad--known for his moves on the ice, his odor, and his wise insights--sets out to move the barometer of his marriage of with the childhood friend he’s in love with from “brink of divorce” to “the real deal” in this sweet and suspenseful second chance romance. When he gets injured, his wife steps in to assist him and it’s the opportunity they needed to reconnect and (finally!) consummate their marriage of convenience. Subplots involve the Russian mob and an underground cheese ring. Part of the Bromance Book Club series featuring professional athletes and business moguls in Chicago, this is a lighthearted, funny read with an emotional punch.

Maple Hills series: Icebreaker / Wildfire / Daydream by Hannah Grace🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
In Icebreaker, when a prank goes wrong and puts one rink out of commission, the hockey team and figure skaters at Maple Hills College in LA need to share the remaining rink, and skater Stas gets into a complicated relationship with her frenemy, hockey captain Nate. In Wildfire, a couple has a one-night stand and then turn up as co-counselors at the same summer camp, and come up against a "no-dating" rule. They agree to be friends, and love blossoms slowly and beautifully. In Daydream, bookworm and aspiring writer Hallie meets neurospicy Henry when he crashes her book group, and they become fast friends. The writing is fast and emotional, the banter is fun and flirty, and the sexy scenes are athletic and spicy. Grace excels at observational details that set a scene, dual points of view, and the slow burn.

Not In Love (Not In Love #1) by Ali Hazelwood 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Sports is not at all the focus of this academic/STEM themed spicy romance between a food engineer and the science entrepreneur who is intent on taking down the company she works for, and her mentor along with it. Rue and Eli have an instant connection, and only later learn they may have crossed paths when she was a skater and he played hockey. Minute industry details, from behind-the-scenes at the labs, from methodology to meetings to schedules, to real estate law, patent law, and business negotiations, add another level of authenticity. Hazelwood's shame-free racy writing showcases characters who are kinky, inventive, and chatty--who care deeply about each other's consent, pleasure, and comfort.

Check out our Romance on Ice booklist for even more featured reads!

In the Beginning: The Early Years of the Worcester Free Public Library

February is National Library Lover's Month and since we know how much you love your library, we figured we'd share the early history of what was originally known as the Worcester Free Public Library under the tenure of the first head librarian, Zephaniah Baker. Get cozy with a nice warm beverage (or iced coffee if that's your jam), and get ready to read!

Illustration of the Worcester Free Public Library, Worcester Illustrated, 1876

Establishing the Library

As we've discussed in previous blog posts, a donation of a 7,500 volume book collection by Dr. John Green III and the 4,500 volume library of the Worcester Lyceum and Library Association enabled the creation of the Worcester Free Public Library. The Worcester Daily Transcript reported on the proposed donation on December 6, 1859 by publishing the communications by Alexander H. Bullock, then mayor of Worcester; Dr. Green; and S. Foster Haven, Jr. of the Worcester Lyceum and Library Association. 

Worcester Daily Transcript, December 6, 1859

Undated Portrait of Dr. John Green by E. Billings

On December 23, 1859, the City of Worcester passed an ordinance that officially established the Worcester Free Public Library. The ordinance also declared Dr. Green an honorary lifetime member of the Library Board of Directors and laid out the terms of the twelve people who would serve as directors the library board. Now, you may be wondering, what made the library a "free public library?" Unlike the previous private or subscription-based libraries in Worcester, the city would use taxpayer money to fund the new library. The Massachusetts state legislature had passed a bill in 1851 to "authorize, encourage, and ensure the formation" and maintenance of public libraries by its cities and towns.

House Bill No. 124, 1851

Notice No. 168, passed Dec 23, 1859

Hon. William W. Rice announced in his 1860 inaugural mayoral address that the city council had selected the directors for the library board and the city had purchased a plot of land on Elm Street from Hon. Emory Washburn to be used as the site of the future library building. Other library directors in the first full year of the library's life would include prominent Worcester men such as Alexander H. Bullock (a 1-term mayor in 1859 and the board president for the first year of the library's existence), William W. Rice (yes, the 1-term mayor was also a library board member who would become library board president in 1861), Isaac Davis (3-time mayor in 1856, 1858, and 1861), and Stephen Salisbury (the third board president).

In the meantime, the newly created Worcester Free Public Library would temporarily operate out of the third floor of the Bank Block Building on Foster Street, with the rent for the first year being $205 according to the First Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library ("The First Annual Report "). The Worcester Lyceum and Library Association had previously used the space and it would be easier to keep the materials in one place and only move the collection when the new building was constructed.

Worcester Bank Block, Home to the Temporary Location of the Worcester Free Public Library

On February 17, 1860, the library board elected a former bookseller, Reverend Zephaniah Baker, as the head librarian (more about him in a future blog post). The library board decreed that Zephaniah Baker would be paid an annual salary of $500 that first year and Miss Callina Barnes would be paid $250 in her position as assistant for that same year. The annual salary would increase to $800 and $300 respectively for Mr. Baker and Miss Barnes at the beginning of 1861.

Zephaniah Baker (Photograph by 1890s photographer Herman Schervee of an earlier image of unknown origin), from the American Antiquarian Society

Opening the Library

The library initially opened for the delivery of books from its circulating department on March 27, 1860. Worcester residents of any gender over the age of 14 were eligible to use the library (the minimum age would be raised to 15 by 1861). The library was made up of two departments: the Green department (also known as the Green Library), a non-circulating reference collection comprising of the gift from Dr. Green; and the circulating department.

Worcester Daily Spy, March 27, 1860

The library was instantly popular, even with the catalogues costing 10 cents (almost $4 in today's currency). According to the Worcester Daily Spy the following day, 200 people opened accounts at the library and 36 of them purchased catalogues. Over 700 people opened accounts by the end of the first week. Zephaniah Baker even had to publish a notice in the Worcester Daily Spy asking the eager library patrons to select their list of books prior to their library visit to avoid inconveniencing others (see notice below).

Worcester Daily Spy, April 5, 1860

The library officially opened to the public on April 30, 1860. The First Annual Report indicated part of the delay resulted from needing to rebind and cover some of the books in the collection.

Worcester Daily Spy, April 30, 1860

On July 4, 1860, the city of Worcester celebrated the 84th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with a grand and glorious celebration that began with the laying of the cornerstone of the future library building on Elm Street (and then continued with a festive procession, a balloon ascension on the Worcester Common, and horse races at the Agricultural Fairgrounds). The contents of the box placed in the cornerstone included copies of city documents, copies of the various city newspapers, the sixth annual report of the Worcester Lyceum and Library Association, and a silver plate engraved with the date of the establishment of the library as well as other information about its founding.

By August, builders had completed work on the basement of the new library building and started to work on the first floor. Alvan T. Burgess was the mason and the carpentry work was done by H. and A. Palmer, using plans by Boston architect Charles K. Kirby. The brick building was to be 60' x 70' and two stories high.

During its first year of operation, the library purchased approximately two thousand books and received a number of donations, including public documents and a set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The First Annual Report noted that it would not be in the library's best interest to extensively acquire any other books until they moved into the new building. 

Hon. Isaac Davis, the new mayor of Worcester in 1861, referenced the library in his inaugural address stating, "In the short period of little more than a year, the city is possessed a large and valuable library, open to all, high or low, rich or poor, native or foreign, under the rules and regulations of the Directors" (Worcester Daily Spy, January 8, 1861). However, he was not pleased with the plans for the new library building because it seemed that some of the rooms were scheduled to be allocated to other purposes such as space for the assessors, the medical society, the agricultural society, and the society of natural history. Davis felt that the new library as planned would not be able to accommodate much growth of the library's collection and it would be "difficult and expensive" if the library needed to expand. The Worcester Palladium felt that Davis should have made his opinions about the proposed construction known earlier, seeing as he was one of the trustees of the library board when the plans were first announced. A "member of the late city government" wrote a scathing piece in the Worcester Daily Spy that took offense at the new mayor's remarks and rebutted the attacks against the plan for the library's layout. Political drama!

On June 4, 1861, the library demanded the return of any books that were borrowed and halted any new borrowing of library books until the library could move to the new location on Elm Street.

Worcester Daily Spy, June 4, 1861

In July 1861, the city passed an ordinance further clarifying the role of the library board of directors in regards to spending appropriations and for the care and custody of the library building and its collection.

Worcester Daily Spy, July 24, 1861

The Elm Street Library Building

By the end of August 1861, the library had moved into the new Elm Street building and was preparing to open to the public. The Worcester Daily Spy reported that the library now had 15,000 books in its collection, including an additional 1,600 books added by Dr. Green (Dr. Green would continue to add books to the collection until his death). The circulating department of the library opened on September 4, 1861 with a new 186 page catalogue created by Miss C. P. Hawes. The circulating library opened to the public during the evenings on November 25, 1861 after the gas fixtures were installed (lighting helps!).

Undated Photo of the Original Elm Street Library Building

Catalogue of the Circulating Department, 1861

Worcester Daily Spy, September 3, 1861

Free Public Library of the City of Worcester: Rules, Regulations, and Documents, 1862

In order to keep track of the books, the library would close for a certain period of time almost every year for an "annual examination." Mr. Baker would request that all books be returned in advance of the examinations and then the library staff would inventory the collection and see if any books were missing.

Worcester Daily Spy, July 9, 1863

The Green Library

It would take longer to organize the Green Library and to open that department to the public. In November 1861, the library unveiled a statue of Dr. Green modelled by Mr. B. H. Kinney that would be housed in the new Green Library.* The Green Library would open daily in the first quarter of 1862, with the same hours as the circulating collection. The wife of Mr. Baker, Mrs. Z. Baker (born Frances Maria Shedd), served as the second assistant in the library and in March 1862, would start organizing a detailed catalogue for the Green Library collection, in addition to other responsibilities. 

Undated Photograph of Statue of Dr. Green

Free Public Library of the City of Worcester: Rules, Regulations, and Documents, 1862

The January 27, 1863 issue of the Worcester Daily Spy reported that the library had received materials donations to the library by private donors in the previous year and new year, including government documents and additional donations by Dr. Green. Furthermore, Mrs. Z. Baker was making considerable progress on developing a card catalogue for the Green Library collection.

Bookplate Indicating Gift of Dr. John Green to the Library, March 27, 1862

A problem emerged in March 1863: the glass roof of the Elm Street building needed to be replaced because it leaked on the books. By November of that year, the glass roof was replaced with a more waterproof wood roof covered with tin and a glass window in the middle to better illuminate the Green Library below. 

The Fourth Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library in January 1864 noted that the non-circulating collection of the library, consisting of the Green Library and the Medical Society's library, totaled 13,951 volumes. The Green Library's catalogue would be completed aside from the public documents by the beginning of the following year. Mrs. Z. Baker would complete the card catalogue and a catalogue in two bound volumes by January 1866.

Inside Front Page of the Index to the Catalog of the Books in the "Green Library" Department
September 1, 1865

Handwritten Entries in the Green Department Catalogue, 1865

Other Occupants of the Library Building

During the 1860s, the Elm Street library building would rent some of their unused rooms to other organizations. By the end of 1861, the Worcester District Medical Society and the Natural History Society had moved into the new library building. According to the municipal proceedings of November 1861, the public would also be able to use the Medical Society's medical library, although it would not be a circulating library. The library would also be able to ask the societies to vacate with six months notice if the library ever needed to use the rooms for library purposes. According to the Second Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library in January 1862, the Natural History Society exhibited specimens in cabinets in the basement of the library and the farmers of Worcester (known as the Farmer's Club) had started to regularly meet at the library. The Natural History Society's cabinet room in the library opened to the public on February 26, 1862. The Office of the City's Assessors would also occupy a basement room in the library for several years. 

By the beginning of 1864, mayor-elect Waldo Lincoln reported in his inaugural address that a room in the basement of the library would be temporarily used as a grammar school for girls, and in 1865, the next mayor would report that the school could accommodate 56 students. An evening school for girls and women began at the library in 1866. City officials such as the Superintendent of Schools and the Collector of Internal Revenue would also briefly occupy space in the library building starting in 1866, during construction at City Hall and the new soon-to-be built government building on Pearl Street began.

The Library's First Reading Room

We take for granted that a library would have space available for library patrons to sit and enjoy reading the daily newspaper or favorite magazines but this was a new concept for Worcester in the 1860s. On May 31, 1864, the library board voted to establish a reading room at the library. By April 1865, the library had raised $10,600 in subscriptions for the endowment of the reading room and they sought suggestions for newspapers and magazines to be available in that space. Stephen Salisbury would be one of the largest subscribers to the reading room fund with a contribution of $4,000. The reading room opened to both men and women in May 1865 and contained local, national, and international publications such as the Worcester Spy, London Illustrated, Harpers' Monthly, and Art Journal. The library would also add several agricultural publications to the collection by November 1865.

Worcester Daily Transcript, August 12, 1865

Death of Dr. John Green

The library's esteemed founder, Dr. Green, died on October 17, 1865 at the age of almost 82 years. The library board held a special meeting upon the death of Dr. Green, wherein library board president Stephen Salisbury paid tribute to the man and the board voted to close the library and its reading room until October 23 "out of respect for the memory of Dr. Green" (Worcester Daily Spy, October 19, 1865). The Worcester City Council adopted a unanimous resolution in remembrance of Dr. Green and announced they would attend his funeral. Furthermore, the Worcester County Natural History Society and the Worcester District Medical Society mourned the loss of their friend and benefactor. Dr. Green would be buried in Worcester's Rural Cemetery. As another tribute, the city council later voted to commission a portrait of Dr. Green, which was then hung in the library in late 1866.

Death of Dr. Green, Worcester Daily Spy, October 18, 1865

A couple of days later, Dr. Green's will was filed for Probate. The bequest of a permanent "Green Library Fund" ensured that his legacy regarding the Green Library and the public library as a whole would continue for years to come. The library still benefits from Dr. Green's generous legacy.

More Changes and the End of an Era

Miss Barnes resigned from her position as first Assistant Librarian on April 1, 1866 after being in that role since the library's early days. She would be replaced by Miss Emma S. Eddy (later referred to as Mrs. Phillips after her 1871 marriage), who would work in the capacity until the beginning of 1872.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, various people and institutions in the city attempted to determine the best way to memorialize the men of Massachusetts who died for the union. One idea promoted by the Worcester Spy and Mr. Baker was the building of a memorial building that would house the public library. However, this idea never came to fruition.

Early 1867 brought a new and somewhat controversial proposal by the library board: to open a reading room to the public on Sundays, "at hours not appropriated for divine service," in an effort to give young people a warm place to go, where they would not be tempted by "idleness and vice" (Massachusetts Weekly Spy, February 1, 1867). Alas, Sunday hours for any part of the Worcester Free Public Library would not begin under Baker's tenure and in fact, it would take until late 1872 for the library board to approve this change with the opening of the reading room (P.S. we were ahead of the Boston Public Library on Sunday hours because religious officials in Boston vehemently opposed it there!).

By fall 1867, the Natural History Society had outgrown their space in the library's basement and moved to the Worcester Bank Block where they united with their parent organization, the Worcester Lyceum, and were able to better display their specimen cabinets. This move made room for a new newspaper reading room in the library's basement that would be open 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Patrons could access the lower reading room space from the street via an entrance on the east side of the building or by an inside staircase from the Green Library. The Worcester Evening Gazette hoped that the reading room would help young out-of-work men pass the time, instead of visit the billiard halls and saloons, where they could potentially engage in criminal activity.

Zephaniah Baker took an 8-week trip abroad in the summer of 1869, where he visited other libraries in Great Britain and France and acquired several new books for the library's collection. Mrs. Z. Baker resigned as Assistant Librarian and opened a school for young people in September of that year.

In October 1870, the library made some improvements to the entrance of the library and added steam heating. Some of the funds for these repairs came from the fees collected by the city for dog licenses.

Location of Worcester Free Public Library in 1870, Atlas of the City of Worcester, 1870

In the beginning of 1871, the library announced that Zephaniah Baker would not seek another year of being the head library of the library. The Eleventh Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Free Public Library for the year ending January 1, 1871 stated that Baker, "first accepted the office with the intention of holding it for no longer time than would be sufficient to organize the Library and get it in working order." By this time, Baker had three assistants working under him: Miss Eddy, Miss Sarah F. Earle, and Miss Jessie E. Tyler. 

Shortly thereafter, the library appointed Samuel Swett Green, library board member and Dr. Green's nephew, as the new head librarian. Samuel Swett Green would become notable in the library world, including for changes he made to the Worcester Free Public Library, among other things, but that's another story for another day (you can read some more about him here: https://mywpl.org/Samuel-swett-green).

There you have it: a history of the Worcester Free Public Library from its early days through the end of the tenure of Zephaniah Baker. We hope you've learned a couple of new things today and that you'll think of this post when you visit any of our library branches!

*At some point in the library's history, the statue of Dr. Green fell into ruin (see below) and therefore did not make the move to the new library building at Salem Square in 1964.

"Library's Walls Will Crumble, But Not Its Heart," Worcester Telegram, May 11, 1964

Acknowledgement

A special thank you to the American Antiquarian Society for the use of their image of Zephaniah Baker from their collection.

Sources:

"Action of the Directors of the Public Library on the Death of Dr. Green." (1865, October 18). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 2.

"The Catalog of the Free Public Library." (1861, September 9). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 2.

"The City Council on the Death of Dr. Green." (1865, October 23). Worcester Daily Transcript, p. 2.

"City and County." (1865, August 12). Worcester Daily Transcript, p. 2.

"City and County." (1862, February 26). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 2.

"City and County." (1861, August 29). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 2.

"City of Worcester." (1861, July 24). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 2.

"Free Public Library." (1861, June 4). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 2.

"Free Public Library. (1860, April 5). Worcester Daily Spy, p. 2.

Free Public Library. (1861).  The First Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

Free Public Library. (1862).  The Second Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

Free Public Library. (1863).  The Third Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

Free Public Library. (1864).  The Fourth Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

Free Public Library. (1865).  The Fifth Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

Free Public Library. (1866).  The Sixth Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

Free Public Library. (1867).  The Seventh Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

Free Public Library. (1868).  The Eighth Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

Free Public Library. (1869).  The Ninth Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

Free Public Library. (1870).  The Tenth Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

Free Public Library. (1871).  The Eleventh Annual Report of the Directors of the Free Public Library. 

"Free Public Library - Annual Report." (1865, February 2). Massachusetts Weekly Spy, 96 (5), p. 2.

"Free Public Reading Room." (1865, November 22). Worcester Daily Transcript, p. 2.

"Free Reading for All." (1868, January 31). Worcester Evening Gazette, p. 2.

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Tubert, J. (1964, May 11). "Library's Walls Will Crumble, But Not Its Heart." Worcester Telegram, p. 9.

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