Gretchen Knief Schenk
Gretchen Knief, reading a book
BornOctober 1, 1901
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedMay 16, 1989(1989-05-16) (aged 87)
Foley, Alabama, U.S.
Occupation(s)librarian, library systems consultant
Known forKern County Librarian (1930s); Washington State Librarian (1942-1945); president of the Alabama Library Association (1949-1950); California Library Hall of Fame (2013)

Gretchen Knief Schenk (October 1, 1901 – May 16, 1989) was an American librarian, who served as Washington State Librarian from 1942 to 1945, and as president of the Alabama Library Association from 1949 to 1950. She was inducted into the California Library Hall of Fame in 2013.

Early life

Gretchen D. Knief was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the daughter of Frederick Constantine Knief and Dora Mueller Knief.[1] Her father was a Lutheran minister, who moved the family to southern California in 1923.[2] She attended Milwaukee State Normal School, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Illinois Library School.[3]

Career

Knief's early library jobs included work at the Milwaukee Public Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Santa Monica Public Library, and the Siskiyou County Free Library in Yreka, California.[3]

In 1939, Knief was the county librarian of Kern County, California,[4] when the county Board of Supervisors ordered that the libraries remove all copies of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.[5][6] She announced that, once removed, the books would not be discarded, but instead offered to other county libraries in California. The book was restored to Kern County library shelves in January 1941. "Banning books is so utterly hopeless and futile," she wrote in a letter to the Board. "Ideas don't die because a book is forbidden reading. If Steinbeck has written the truth, that truth will survive."[7] In 1941 she announced the availability of another controversial title, Jan Valtin's Out of the Night, a bestselling autobiography said to contain "lurid tales of violence and horror" by an ex-spy.[8]

Schenk moved to Washington soon after the Steinbeck controversy, and was Washington State Librarian from 1942 to 1945.[9][10] After World War II, she became a library consultant based in Summerdale, Alabama, conducting studies of county and statewide public library systems, and making recommendations for improvement.[1][11][12] She was president of the Alabama Library Association from 1949 to 1950, and led the association's first, contentious discussions about admitting black librarians into its membership.[13] The American Library Association published Schenk's County and Regional Library Development in 1954.[14][15]

Schenk was presented with the second Beta Phi Mu Award in 1955, for "distinguished service to librarianship". She was posthumously inducted into the California Library Hall of Fame in 2013.[9]

Personal life

Gretchen Knief married German-born dairy farmer Franz Schenk in 1942.[16][17] She died in Foley, Alabama, in 1989, aged 87 years,[9] the same year as the fiftieth anniversary of The Grapes of Wrath's publication, and of her efforts to keep the book on California library shelves.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 "SCHENK, GRETCHEN KNIEF, 1901-". Alabama Authors. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
  2. ↑ "Death Takes F. C. Knief, 79, Retired Pastor". The Los Angeles Times. November 16, 1951. p. 43. Retrieved June 22, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 Schenk, Gretchen Knief (May 1948). "Afraid of our Shadow?". Wisconsin Library Bulletin. 44: 89–92.
  4. ↑ "Gretchen Knief Will be Named Kern Librarian". The Bakersfield Californian. July 20, 1937. p. 11. Retrieved June 22, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Wartzman, Rick (2009). Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Public Affairs. pp. 224. ISBN 978-1586483319.
  6. ↑ "Book, 'Grapes of Wrath', Draws California's Ire". The Journal Times. August 30, 1939. p. 5. Retrieved June 22, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. 1 2 Reed, Christopher (November 16, 1989). "Sour Grapes in Salinas". The Guardian. p. 22. Retrieved June 22, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Out of Night". The Bakersfield Republican. March 26, 1941. p. 9. Retrieved June 22, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. 1 2 3 "California Library Hall of Fame: Gretchen Knief Schenk". California Library Association. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
  10. ↑ "Librarian Here". Deer Park Union. October 14, 1943. p. 1. Retrieved June 22, 2019 – via Google News Archive.
  11. ↑ Walker, Earle (July 22, 1955). "Administrator, Advisory Board Urged for Library". Abilene Reporter-News. p. 17. Retrieved June 22, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Area Librarians to Hear Expert on Expansion". Idaho State Journal. April 24, 1955. p. 9. Retrieved June 22, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ Barrett, Kayla; Bishop, Barbara A. (Spring 1998). "Integration and the Alabama Library Association: Not So Black and White". Libraries and Culture. 33: 141–162 – via ProQuest.
  14. ↑ "County and Regional Library Development. Gretchen Knief Schenk". The Library Quarterly. 25 (2): 178–179. 1955-04-01. doi:10.1086/618179. ISSN 0024-2519.
  15. ↑ Schenk, Gretchen Knief (1959). "STEPS TOWARD COOPERATION: "I'll Meet You on the Corner"". ALA Bulletin. 53 (1): 38–42. ISSN 0364-4006. JSTOR 25695461.
  16. ↑ "Former Librarian Pays Visit Here". The Bakersfield Californian. October 1, 1945. p. 6. Retrieved June 22, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Franz Schenk is Shown Standing in a Fine Growth of Fescue in an Area Once Covered by Water". The Onlooker. June 5, 1952. p. 19. Retrieved June 22, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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