My Library

On this second trip, I began submitting call slips, and the first books duly arrived at my seat. But shortly, a young man dressed in a very chic suit came up asking if I was "Mr. Swann." I first thought I was going to get thrown out. "If you’d like, I can provide you with a pass to go into the stacks. There’s a desk back there you can work at." I was completely dumbfounded, for it was my understanding that only members of Congress (or their aides) could gain admittance to the STACKS. So I said something like: "Gosh! To what do I owe this honor." He smiled, saying that it would save everyone a lot of time -- then adding that "someone has spoken on your behalf." "Who?" "I have no idea. I’m only an overseer here. Just come with me." I went with him. As I remember it, the Library had only two double stacks of psychic books, and I was able to look along each shelf to find books I wasn’t familiar with or didn’t even know existed. I noted the titles of some, thinking I’d somehow obtain copies of them. THEN I came across one book I’d never heard of, by two authors I’d never heard of, entitled THOUGHTS THROUGH SPACE (1942). Well, I HAD heard of one of the authors -- Sir Hubert Wilkins, the noted explorer of the Arctic. But I had not known that the famous explorer had been involved in a dramatic psychic experiment. I was dumbfounded when I read through the book’s contents -- and saw that the book contained the "Authenticated documentary record of the Wilkins-Sherman experiments in