what we read: The Empty Chair

There is a hole in our book club now.

Our friend, mentor, and book club arguer Gail See died last week and now each of us is struggling with accepting that fact.

As a long-term force in the world of literature and the book, Gail could boast a CV miles long. That is, if she ever boasted.

She was a former president of the American Bookseller’s Association and a board member for the National Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. She was a much-sought-after leader of literary arts organizations in Minneapolis, including The Loft Literary Center, Graywolf Press, and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She was instrumental in creating Open Book, the home for literature in Minneapolis. She was the long-term owner of The Bookcase, a prominent independent bookstore in Wayzata, Minnesota, that set the tone for others to follow.

She was all of these things. But to us, she was just Gail.

When we convened the first meeting of our fledgling book club – made up of former board members and executive directors of the Loft Literary Center – Gail was there, brightening the room with her shock of white hair and incandescent personality. For the next 14 years, she read voraciously, shared what she’d read, made recommendations, offered insights, argued with us, and enriched every meeting.

Margy Ligon, Chris Mahai, and Gail See

Sometimes, she came with a stack of books. Sometimes she came with a dog. Then later, she came with a cane. And finally, she came virtually with an email filled with regret that she could not join us in person. But a chair for Gail was always there.

Now that chair is empty, and our hearts are broken. But what we are, more than anything, is grateful.

Her generosity of spirit, her intelligence and wit were a continual source of inspiration to us.

Along the way, she suggested we read Oliver Sack’s Gratitude and, in particular, she loved this quote from the book:

“My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved, I have been given much and I have given something in return, I have read and traveled. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”