Shelf Esteem is a weekly measure of the books on the shelves of writers, editors, and other word lovers, as told to Emily M. Keeler. This week’s shelf belongs to Jessica Duffin Wolfe, the editor-in-chief of the Toronto Review of Books. Jessica is also an academician of print culture in the 19th century, and recently built a digital encyclopedia of readerships with some of her students at the University of Toronto. She also founded an interdisciplinary learning initiative called WIDEN. Jessica’s bookshelves are in her downtown loft, which she shares with her fiance, Daniel Goldbloom.
I moved in in 2005. I came with a lot of books—I used to work in bookstores, [and] ever since I was a kid I’ve picked up books. I have almost the same number of books at my parents' house. Maybe not quite as many. When I moved in here I couldn’t fill these shelves, [but] I felt that since I had the shelf space, I might as well have bought some more.
But now, I find I buy books still, just not as actively as I used to—now I like finding books. There’s a haphazardness to how these all are arranged. That shelf is kind of well-organized. Sort of. There’s like, British Poetry together, and plays, and ancient literature.
This is the most unique book in this place. This is one of the newest editions. We’re getting married in June. I just got this book a couple weeks ago. My mum gave it to me—she made this book. And the cover photograph is my mother’s mother’s mother, in 1910. This is kind of amazing. This woman had five sisters, five bridesmaids, and none of them got married except for her. This was a surprise. My mom put it together over several months; she got in touch with everyone in my family, and everyone in Dan’s family, and all of our family friends, and got everyone to send in their wedding photos. I love this—there are the parents of my sister-in-law, and her grandmother. Her name’s Bernadette, she had to take a bus to Kamloops to get married. And there are Dan’s parents. It’s very cool.
