Searching for an unsung hero in your family's history of thriving after the Holocaust
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Wells's main claim to fame, Visontay continues, was that he bought a Gutenberg Bible in 1920 and then broke it up into sections, which he packaged and sold as 'Noble Fragments.' The proceeds contributed to Olga's inheritance and Visontay's family's escape from Eastern Europe just as the Soviet Union was beginning its reign of oppression there.
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In the world of rare books, cutting out leaves for individual sale is considered practically a sin, Visontay points out, but Wells's act 'gave my family a new lease on life.'
The book pushed Visontay into deeper historical research and more personal territory than he had ever attempted before. It was rewarding. 'I've found that if you just dig a little bit beneath the surface, you'll always be shocked by what sort of richness lies below. And if you just keep digging, you can join some dots,' he says, and adds that the project taught him another lesson: 'Life can turn on very small moments, and you can choose to recognize them, or you can choose to ignore them.'
Michael Visontay will read at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 7, at the
.
And now for some recommendations . . .
In '
'
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Jon Hickey's debut novel '
Murray Kempton was a man of the 20th century, and his dispatches provide an excellent guide to American concerns of the time (many of them are even bigger concerns now). As '
Kate Tuttle edits the Globe's Books section.
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