Saturday, July 04, 2020

Fourth of July: Mr. Howard

A few days ago the Kherson library system posted an American history quiz in honour of the Fourth of July. The prize was a book in English. (About an Englishman, but that's close to American history, right?) He's actually someone I've been wanting to read about, so I took the quiz. It was hard!


But, I got the answers right. I'll admit that I had to guess on a few, and then I checked them with Google, but I was honest and left my first guesses. One other person got all the answers right, and he won the book.

But then I wrote back and forth with the library about it. The book not available here, and it's expensive even in America ($50!). They offered me the electronic files of a working translation into Russian, though, and that looks good. Also, the American library I have access to has a copy, but it's in their hard-to-access format. (About library ebooks: Overdrive=good, Hoopla=mediocre, ProQuest=bad.)

I had been wanting to read about John Howard because of two connections: one, he died and was buried in Kherson. We have streets and squares named after him and a monument. And, two, Charlotte Mason mentions him a few times in her writing. So, I'll read in Russian and/or fight with ProQuest....

1 comment:

Mom said...

Good for you! I will be interested to learn more about Mr. Howard as well. Love you!