PREFACE
        
              The following articles appeared in the Forest Press in my
        column entitled, Life, Liberty, and Library.  Alex Badenoch, who
        originated the column many years ago, died in 1993.  Before Alex
        died, he and I corresponded frequently.  Alex told me that he was
        retiring from the newspaper business and wanted me to take over
        the column.  I told him that he could not retire yet.  He said he
        was about to do so.  What he and I both knew by that time was he
        was not going to live much longer.  Alex had Lou Gehrig's
        Disease.  He suffered quietly, and when he died, many people
        missed his cheer, Scottish wit, and homespun knowledge.  
              Though Alex never went to college, he was an exceptionally
        well-read man.  His column was not just a misnomer, or some
        cutesy title.  He read voraciously and encouraged others to do
        so.  By trade, Alex was a lumber grader.  He traveled all over
        the forests and worked for many people, but always with trees. 
        Each and every week for nearly six years, he wrote his weekly
        column.  As his illness destroyed his energy, he withdrew from
        life, and refused to write anymore.  I chastised him in one
        letter saying that many of his loyal readers were upset that he
        was not contributing any articles to the paper.  He wrote back to
        me and said that he was not well.  However, he did write one more
        story before he died.  I guess my words did affect him. I wrote
        and thanked him for his effort.  
              I began my column with a tribute to Alex.  It is the only
        reference to him, and yet, his work is still inside of me.  Many
        times when I sit down to write, I sense his presence near me.  I
        am not Alex.  I don't possess his wit.  Nor am I Scottish. 
        However, I am who I am, and when he told me to take over for him,
        I believe he was trusting me to do my very best.  With that in
        mind, I proceeded.
              What I want you all to know is that these stories are just
        like Alex's - straight from the heart.  Some are humorous; some
        serious.  Each is an attempt to tie together the themes of life,
        liberty, and library.  Sometimes I succeeded in accomplishing
        this.  Other times I guess I fell short.  
              Over the past nine months, many ideas for stories flowed
        through me.  I was never sure when I sat down at the keyboard
        what might appear.  Perhaps, that is what makes this type of
        writing so much fun.  Some were spontaneous inspirations which
        flowed from mind to keyboard without much editing.  Others were
        mulled over for many days, weeks, often months, before I was
        prepared to write them.  I can recall one trip to Pittsburgh
        during which I wrote, in my head, five or six of them before I
        got there.  Frankly, there was no rhyme nor reason to the
        process.
              Nothing pleases me more than the opportunity to create
        something which did not exist before.  In the writing is the
        creation of a new point of view, a new perspective, a new notion
        how things just might be.
              I hope that as you read them, you are encouraged to live a
        little more fully.  I hope that you cherish your own measure of
        liberty.  Most of all, I hope that references to the many works
        cited in the stories prompt you to make a trip to the library and
        read them.  
              As this Christmas, 1993, arrives, accept this book as a gift
        from me to you.  I imagine by the time you finish it, I'll be
        well on my way to finishing Volume II.
              Peace and love,
        
              Bert