The University of Arkansas Libraries and University of Arkansas Press presented a discussion on Thursday, March 4, on Zoom featuring author Elizabeth Findley Shores’ about her recent book, Shared Secrets: The Queer World of Newbery Medalist Charles J. Finger. It was followed by a virtual tour of related Special Collections holdings.
Born in England, Charles J. Finger enjoyed “an early life of travel and adventure” before eventually putting down roots in Fayetteville, where a local park is named in his honor. The Finger home, Gayeta, remains in Fayetteville to this day. Finger was a varied and accomplished writer, publishing everything from short stories to books and magazines.
Shared Secrets, published by the U of A Press, examines the ways in which Finger used veiled language, such as double entendres and innuendos, to communicate within the gay subculture of the time.
“Finger was more than a queer bibliophile, however,” writes Shores in the Introduction. “He was a highly enterprising, prolific writer who studied the publishing opportunities of the day and used every publication means available to him to express his twin loves, literature and men.”
The Libraries’ Special Collections division holds several copies of Tales from Silver Lands, the book for which Finger won the Newbery Medal in 1925, including a signed copy that had been a gift from the author to local suffragist Lessie Stringfellow Read. The Charles J. Finger Papers (MC 639) include Finger’s correspondence, diaries, photographs and more.
“Special Collections is proud to be the home of Charles J. Finger’s papers, along with archives from correspondents, colleagues, and members of his family,” said Joshua Youngblood, rare books librarian. “Shores’ careful reexamination of Finger’s life and work connects resources available in the University Libraries to archives and literature beyond the hills of Fayetteville where he lived, helping us better understand the complexity of both his identity and his writing.”