Declan’s Epic: A Boy and a Book

When my wife and I waited to learn the sex of the child months ago, I recall the weight I felt on my shoulders as the doctor told us: it’s a boy. A boy? Immediately, I began rehearsing scenarios in my imagination. The kinds of conversations all men have had but don’t necessarily remember: how to aim at the toilet bowl, how to play football, how to treat friends and lovers. And of course The Talk! Our train ride from the hospital that morning might as well have been a rehearsal studio for The Talk, starring Declan and his bumbling daddy.

Still, during this time I decided–out of the blue–that I would give Declan one of the greatest gifts I had gotten: the gift of Milton’s Paradise Lost.

I searched for weeks for a copy of Paradise Lost that I could gift to Declan after our reading. Most of what I found were paperback editions busting at the bindings with critical notes. Not quite what I had in mind. Then, I found a copy on my book shelf that I received from a student years ago. I don’t remember which student (though I’ve narrowed it down to a few). The book is an 1888 edition of Milton’s poetical works. It’s stunning. I don’t know how I forgot about it.

The first 20 pages or so are falling out, but in a clump.

My hope is that a New York based book binder can help restore it so Declan and I can get reading.

It’s something to be looking at a book that is so very old. The way the book smells, for instance… like a some strange mixture of smoke and musk and wood. To think: that book was published over a century ago. Jack the Ripper was marauding around the very same London Milton inhabited over two hundred years earlier. Appropriately, the book is called a “family edition” because of the pictures that decorate the pages throughout.

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