Joan K. Sansbury
Librarian/Curator, Library of the Supreme Council, 33°
1733 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20009-3103

Pike's books, now housed in the new Albert Pike Museum in the House of the Temple, reveal the heroic scope of this great Freemason.

Let me set the scene. Sitting by the fire, a gray shawl over his shoulders, was Albert Pike, age 57. Sitting across from him, on one side of the laden tea table, was his daughter, Lilian. On the other side of the tea table was a strikingly beautiful young woman, age 19.

Both women were slightly flushed with laughter. General Pike had entertained them throughout tea with a series of stories and anecdotes, and both had laughed more loudly and helplessly than was considered proper for a Victorian lady.

When a little calm had returned, the younger woman said, "But now, please General, let me hear what you have written." And Albert Pike turned to a table near his chair, took up a large leather-bound notebook, adjusted his glasses, and, with a twinkle in his eyes, announced the title: "Of My Books and Studies."

The young lady was Vinnie Ream (pictured below), one of the most remarkable women of a remarkable era. In 1866, she had already started to attract attention as a sculptress, and, in fact, in only a few months, she would be awarded the commission to sculpt the memorial statue of the recently assassinated President, Abraham Lincoln, which Congress had ordered. Vinnie thus became the very first woman and still the youngest person ever to have received a Congressional commission for a work or art. She would also achieve fame as a poet, a composer of music, and a painter. She had become close friends with Lilian Pike when Lilian had boarded at the home of Vinnie's parents. Vinnie had been anxious to meet General Pike, who was something of a celebrity among both the social and intellectual elite of Washington, D.C.

The two had recognized kindred spirits at once, in spite of the nearly four decades separating them. Vinnie was doing a bust of Pike. In return, she had asked that he write a series of essays for her, and that he would read them aloud to her when she came for her weekly visit with Lilian and her father. And so it had been, to the great delight of all three.

"Of My Books and Studies" is one of the most interesting of the essays. I have thought about it often in preparing the new Albert Pike Museum in the House of the Temple. Having read many of Pike's other works, from political newspaper columns to essays on philosophy and poetry, I, as a librarian and curator, most admire this particular essay since Pike's love of books and of study itself comes clearly through. Happily, we have been able to locate most of the books Pike willed to the Supreme Council after his death. Many of the over 3,000 books had been dispersed, despite his wishes, among other books in the Library. Pike had hoped they would remain as one collection. Now they are. Each has been carefully identified, cataloged, restored if necessary, and placed with Pike's other books in the new Albert Pike Museum to be dedicated during the Biennial Session. Be sure to visit.

It was well known by Pike's friends that he seldom slept more than three or four hours a night. He spent the rest of his leisure time in reading and study. His books were his oldest friends and his dearest companions. He started seriously building a collection when he was given the task of reworking the Degrees of the Rite and found that he needed many resources in mythology, philosophy, and history.

The story of Pike's books is an epic journey in its own right. When Pike left his home to fight in the Civil War, he took many of his most prized books with him, but the great majority had to be left in his home in Little Rock, Arkansas. When the Union forces entered the city, Pike's home and library were saved from looting only by a Masonic Brother and Grand Master of Iowa, a Colonel in the Union forces, who ordered his soldiers to surround and protect the house. After the Battle of Pea Ridge, Pike resigned his position in the Confederate Army, but he was forced to flee from roving bands of Union soldiers. He took the books he had with him to a cabin on Little Piney Creek in Arkansas, there to work on Morals and Dogma. The soldiers heard rumors of his location and came raiding, believing that he had a store of gold. Pike was able to pack only a few books into a wagon and leave before they arrived. The soldiers tore the cabin to pieces, searching for the gold, and threw the books into the creek. Stories were told in Arkansas of men and women taking books from the river for several days as they floated past.

Finally, of course, the hostilities ended. Pike moved to Washington, D.C., to pursue his legal practice and rebuild his library. It is that collection, containing some of the books which had been with him in Little Rock and in the cabin on Little Piney Creek, which Pike gave to the House of the Temple and which are now collected and preserved in the Pike Museum here.

I look forward to welcoming you to the Library in the House of the Temple and to the Pike Museum whenever you are in Washington, D.C. It is interesting to look upon the books and think about their history and the history of the great and fascinating man, to whom they were as precious as life itself.

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Joan K. Sansbury is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and has her Master's Degree in Library Science from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the American Library Association, the District of Columbia Library Asso- ciation, the Masonic Library and Museum Association, and the Rare Book Group of Washington, D.C.