Case Study No. 2076: Staff of the Lebanon Public Library

Library Open Hours
0:49
A play by Susan Welty
Tags: librarians broadway library open hours
Added: 6 months ago
From: ToonLib
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A community ravaged by the Great Depression.
A librarian suffering from both disease and the loss of his wife.
A mysterious intruder in the library basement.
What other maladies can infect the Lebanon Public Library?

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From uiowa.edu:

Welty, Susan Fulton. Library Open Hours. A one-act play. Published in 100 Non-royalty One-act Plays, comp. by William Kozlenko, 1940

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From google.com:

One cold winter afternoon during the Great Depression, Mr. Charles (elderly head of the Lebanon Public Library) comes in to work in spite of his recent influenza. Mr. Charles is a kind man and good-humored, although his wife's death is often near the front of his thoughts. Times are hard in Lebanon: Mr. Charles receives only a dollar a day for his work.

This brief play's crisis concerns the apparent discovery by the assistant librarian (the shrill Mrs. Jay) that someone has been sleeping overnight in the library basement. It's an effective Depression vignette.