Laura Steffens Suggett
A young white woman's portrait in profile
Laura Steffens Suggett, an undated portrait, from a 2009 publication
Born
Laura Steffens

June 18, 1874
Sacramento, California
DiedFebruary 6, 1946 (aged 71)
California
OccupationLibrarian
RelativesLincoln Steffens (brother)

Laura Steffens Suggett (June 18, 1874 – February 6, 1946) was an American librarian. She was inducted into the California Library Hall of Fame in 2020.

Early life and education

Laura Steffens was born in Sacramento, California, the daughter of Joseph Steffens and Elizabeth Louisa Symes Steffens. Her father was a prominent banker, born in Canada; her mother was born in England.[1] Her brother was writer Lincoln Steffens.[2] The Steffens home in Sacramento, where she lived as a teenager, became the California governor's mansion in 1903. She graduated from Stanford University in 1896.[3][4] with further studies in Leipzig.[5]

Career

The California State Library appointed Steffens as chief of the state library's extension service in 1903, and she was tasked with creating a traveling library for rural Californians. She founded and edited the journal News Notes of California Libraries. She moved to San Francisco in 1917 to run the Sutro Library there.[6][7] She chaired the Conditions of Librarians Committee of the California Library Association.[8] She proposed a "morgue for dead manuscripts", offering to house two copies of authors' works: the manuscript they produced, and the published edition, as an "invaluable historical record".[9] She left the Sutro in 1923.[6]

Suggett published The Beginning and the End of the Best Library Service in the World (1924), a "melodramatic account"[10] of her work with the State Library Extension Service,[11][12] and The California Library Service (1925).[13][14] Upton Sinclair promoted her 1924 book in his newspaper column, saying "Mrs. Suggett's book gives the details of this plan, and you see what a beautiful and loving and generous and civilized thing it was."[15]

Personal life

In 1909, Steffens made news when she injured her eye in a "novel" pencil-sharpening accident at the library.[16] In 1918,[17] Laura Steffens married dentist and college professor Allen Holman Suggett, her sister's widower.[3][18] She "suffered a mental breakdown" in the early 1930s, and saw Carl Jung in Zürich for treatment.[19] She died in 1946, aged 71. In 2020, she was inducted into the California Library Hall of Fame.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Mother of Author Called by Death". San Francisco Call. August 16, 1910. p. 1. Retrieved March 24, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  2. ↑ "Steffens Will Divides $150,000 Among Family". San Francisco Call. February 8, 1912. p. 5. Retrieved March 24, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  3. 1 2 Karman, James (2011-10-12). The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, with Selected Letters of Una Jeffers: Volume Two, 1931–1939. Stanford University Press. pp. note 4. ISBN 978-0-8047-8172-5.
  4. ↑ "Sacramento Students". Sacramento Daily Union. May 26, 1896. p. 4. Retrieved March 24, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  5. ↑ "Personal mention". Sacramento Daily Union. p. 4. Retrieved March 24, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  6. 1 2 "About Adolph Sutro" California State Library.
  7. ↑ "Girl Library Head". San Francisco Call. December 28, 1916. p. 1. Retrieved March 24, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  8. 1 2 "Laura Steffens Suggett" California Library Hall of Fame.
  9. ↑ "A Morgue for Dead Manuscripts". The Unpopular Review. 11: 433–434. January–June 1919.
  10. ↑ Buckland, Michael K. (2020-11-13). Ideology and Libraries: California, Diplomacy, and Occupied Japan, 1945–1952. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-5381-4315-5.
  11. ↑ Suggett, Laura Steffens (1924). The Beginning and the End of the Best Library Service in the World. Francisco publishing Company.
  12. ↑ Hudson, Irene (1933-11-10). "Cooperative Library Service". The St. Helena Star. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-03-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ Suggett, Laura Steffens (1925). The California Library Plan. Francisco Publishing Company.
  14. ↑ "Wanted! More Free Libraries". Arizona Republic. 1925-03-22. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-03-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ Sinclair, Upton (1924-04-06). "To Help People, Especially Children, Read Worth-while Books, is One of Most Important Services that can be Performed". Fort Worth Record-Telegram. p. 43. Retrieved 2022-03-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Novel Accident May Disfigure for Life". San Francisco Call. March 31, 1909. p. 9. Retrieved March 24, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  17. ↑ "Staff News Items". News Notes of California Libraries. 13: 407. July 1918.
  18. ↑ "Marriage announcement (untitled item)". The Sacramento Bee. 1918-05-08. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-03-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ Wheelwright, Betty Coon (2009-01-01). "The Road to Zürich". Jung Journal. 3 (1): 10–38. doi:10.1525/jung.2009.3.1.10. ISSN 1934-2039. S2CID 152315774.
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