Susan Orlean, longtime staff writer at The New Yorker and best-selling author of The Orchid Thief, returned to narrative nonfiction with The Library Book (2018). Through the story of the Los Angeles Central Library, Orlean provides a history of libraries, examining what we stand to lose as the world’s base of knowledge transitions into the digital realm. Orlean received a Goodreads Choice Awards nomination for Best Nonfiction and a place on Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club for The Library Book.

Plot Summary

Like The Orchid Thief, The Library Book tells the story of an eccentric character, Harry Peak, who became the chief suspect in setting the fire that consumed the Los Angeles Central Public Library in downtown Los Angeles on April 29, 1986. Peak was a ne’er-do-well from Santa Fe Springs, who hailed from a family whose primary legacy was a tendency to attract misfortune. Peak aspired to grandiosity and claimed that he was an actor, though he never appeared in any film or television show. Peak was eventually exonerated for the crime of arson, due to a lack of physical evidence. He countersued the city for slander, due to the high-profile nature of the case. He settled out of court for $35,000. Unfortunately, the money from Peak’s settlement was quickly consumed by the medications that he needed to stay alive. Peak contracted HIV and died in 1993 from complications due to AIDS, two years after his settlement.

It remains unclear who or what started the Central Library fire. What is clear is that, at the time, Central Library contained nearly 2 million books, irreplaceable manuscripts, and musical scores valued around $69 million. Some of the irreplaceable items included a Shakespeare folio, car manuals for every make and model dating back to the Model T, and the largest collections of restaurant menus and cookbooks in the nation.

Initially, there was hardly any sign of smoke when the fire broke out. Then, within an hour, flames erupted. Book covers combusted, and the heat within the building became so intense that the fire took on the color of transparent glass. The blaze raged for seven hours and 38 minutes. Additional items that burned beyond repair included an 1860 edition of Don Quixote, accounts of American and British theater history, and many materials from the Science Department, including unbound manuscripts.

Those books that didn’t burn had severe water damage and had to be frozen within 48 hours to prevent the growth of mold spores. The city sent out a call for volunteers. Citizens of Los Angeles didn’t disappoint—hundreds of people showed up, prepared to help transport damaged books out of the library and into freezers at local fisheries. A “Save the Books” campaign was also organized, which included a telethon. All proceeds went toward purchasing replaceable volumes.

The burning of libraries is an unfortunate historical trend. The most famous library burning was that of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt. Many library fires have been the results of arson and have led to the permanent losses of books that may have been key to understanding some civilizations. The Spanish burned texts from Aztec and Mayan civilizations, for example. During the Second World War, the Nazis destroyed books throughout Europe. Repressive regimes around the world have attacked libraries, out of fear that the public might be exposed to ideas that contradict those of the supreme authority. Shortly after the end of World War II, Los Angeles-based fantasy and science fiction writer Ray Bradbury began writing what would become Fahrenheit 451—the story of a dystopian society that burned books, not unlike the Nazis’ book-burning commandos.

Most library fires, however, have been the results of casual vandalism or electrical problems. Central Library, which was constructed in the 1920s by New York-based architect Bertram Goodhue, had long been a dilapidated building with multiple fire hazards. Furthermore, it housed far more books than it could contain. As tragic as the library fire was, it created an incentive for the library to build a larger, newer building and a much-needed additional wing. The funds that were raised during the “Save the Books” campaign helped recover some lost texts, but it didn’t cover the costs of creating additional space. City officials, therefore, sold the library’s air rights and some underground space to local developers, which helped the library reap the funds to build its new Tom Bradley wing, named after the city’s first and only African American mayor.

When Los Angeles Public Library started in the mid-1800s, it was an institution that catered mainly to wealthy white men. It has since evolved to reflect both regional growth and the nation’s social changes. Its services pay particular attention to the needs of Los Angeles’s sizable homeless community, its growing immigrant population, and its expanding collection of materials.