Dozens of events and book groups on a Fahrenheit 451 theme are planned at locations from Shelburne Falls to Greenfield to Amherst to Northampton, funded by a grant from The Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. The Big Read was created to work toward reversing the decline of reading in America. “Banned and Burned in Boston” is one of nearly 200 community reads nationwide in The Big Read 2007.

“Book banning and burning has been big in Massachusetts, that is why we chose Fahrenheit 451 for our Big Read book,” explained Tim Neumann, Executive Director of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (Memorial Hall Museum, Memorial Libraries, Deerfield Children’s Museum, Deerfield Teachers’ Center, and the emerging Museum of American Democracy).

“The very first book in North America to be banned and burned was written right here in the Pioneer Valley,” according to Neumann. “William Pynchon, founder of Springfield, Mass. and original ‘developer’ of many of the English settlements up the Connecticut River Valley, wrote a book on theology 350 years ago. His book was declared heresy by the General Court in Boston and was banned and burned on the Boston Common in 1650. Mr. Pynchon fled to England. From that point on ‘banned in Boston’ became a very successful book marketing tool elsewhere around the world—if a book was banned in Boston everyone wanted to read it…” The Connecticut Valley Historical Museum in Springfield will help the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association celebrate The Big Read with a special display of their rare copy of this book.

The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association is the lead organization for The Big Read in the Pioneer Valley. Partnering with the Association are the Deerfield Fire Department, Frontier Regional High School, and public television station WGBY. Other partners such as libraries, book stores, newspapers, radio stations, and businesses are being recruited as event plans are finalized. Many of the “Banned and Burned in Boston” events will also be part of the Museums’10 BOOKMARKS region-wide tourism promotion.

Firemen will play a big role in this Big Read. “It is a role reversal from the Bradbury story—our firemen will not be burning books as in Fahrenheit 451 but will be encouraging people to read,” said Neumann. “What could make reading more cool than seeing a fireman reading a book? In addition to being our ‘Local Hero poster fireman’, Chet Yazwinski, Jr., Chief of the Deerfield Fire Department, will be recruiting area fire department participation in the project. Also, Chet is helping us plan a Big Read Fireman’s Muster in Old Deerfield sometime in the fall and the Deerfield Fire Department is making their antique 1924 fire engine available for many of our Big Read events and for promotional appearances at fall events and festivals such as the Old Deerfield Craft Fair in September.”

Frontier High School has decided to make “a really big deal” of  The Big Read this September. “Martha
Barrett, Principal of Frontier Regional School, is declaring a school-wide Fahrenheit 451 read,” reports
Neumann. “Funded by an additional grant from a local foundation, our project will provide all 800 students and faculty with free Fahrenheit 451 books and readers’ materials. The Heritage Corp (a Massachusetts Department of Education funded project partnering Frontier High School students and the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association to promote community service) will be enlisted to spur interest and participation. Marti will also ‘throw down the Big Read gauntlet’ and challenge other area high schools to a Valley wide Memory Bee with teams of memorizers from each school competing in a public event later in the fall. (Characters in Fahrenheit 451 who are trying to save literature from total destruction do so by memorizing a book to literally keep it alive.)”

Other educators can be involved in the project. The Deerfield Teachers’ Center will be offering a day-long professional development training on teaching history and literature with Fahrenheit 451 (with 6 PDP’s awarded) on Friday, October 5. For more information on the Teachers’ Center The Big Read professional development day call Dr. Darlene Marshall at (413) 774-7476, Extension 32.

Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art will co-host Newbury Award winning author, Lois Lowry on Friday, November 2 and The Big Read for Little Readers on Saturday—with help from local fire fighters! Sunderland, Buckland and South Deerfield’s Tilton Library will also host local fire fighters for story times as part of The Big Read. Sara Woodbury, Director of Tilton Library, and Ann Smith, owner of World Eye Bookshop, are advising the project and helping recruit area libraries and bookstores. The Tilton, Sunderland, Lilly and Forbes Library have already planned events. Boswell’s Books in Shelburne Falls and World Eye will both feature window displays and an essay contest.

Vintage book dealers from around the Pioneer Valley will gather in Old Deerfield at the Deerfield Teachers’ Center Blue and White Society Hall for a Big Read Book Sale and Silent Auction on Saturday, October 6.
“Rather than burning old books, vintage book dealers are committed to preserving them, finding them new loving homes,” said Neumann. Proceeds from the Book Sale will benefit the Fahrenheit 451 project and the PVMA’s Memorial Libraries.

For sci-fi aficionados, WGBY will show the classic 1966 film version of Fahrenheit 451 in a double feature with War of the Worlds at Northampton’s Academy of Music on October 26, and Pothole Pictures in Shelburne Falls will provide The Big Read grand finale with a film showing the weekend of November 30.

“There will be a lot of fun associated with our Big Read, but Fahrenheit 451 raises many serious issues relevant to us here today, 50 years after it was written,” cautions Neumann. “Ray Bradbury has said that he wrote the book in response to the Nazi book burnings preceding World War II; his story reflects a similar government suppression of learning with an indifferent and media-satiated citizenry plugged into their T.V. sets and tuned out to all literature, just sitting by and letting book burnings happen. How are we as Americans doing today? What is the state of our Constitutional rights of free speech and press?”

According to Neumann the project time line reflects some of the sobering aspects of book burning, such as freedom of the press and religion. “Banned and Burned in Boston” spans Constitution Day, September 17th , National Library Banned Books Week, and the November 9 and 10th anniversary 1938 Kristallnacht (when Nazi’s burned thousands of Torahs and many synagogues).

“Book burnings have crossed many faith traditions” observed Neumann. “The First Church of Deerfield will be using Fahrenheit 451 for a church-wide read in observance of Reformation Sunday the end of October. During the Reformation, Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible was burned and William Tyndale himself was burned at the stake for his English translation.”

More details of The Big Read events are posted at http://www.old-deerfield.org/bigread1.htm, the Memorial Hall website. For information on becoming a participating organization or business email Sheila Damkoehler
(sdamkoehler@deerfield.history.museum), Big Read Project Coordinator or call (413) 774-7476 x 10 to
leave a message.