. . . Fall 1996
he University Library is the main reason we live in this region," says Joseph Gies '39, who with his wife, Frances '37, '38 MA, forms perhaps the most successful husband-wife historical writing team ever, with seven books still in print.
The Gieses are taking advantage of the University Library's new reduced-rate borrowing privileges for U-M degree-holders. A full-privileges borrowing card will cost $125 annually (no limit to the number of books charged) or $65 annually for a limited-privileges card (no more than five items charged at any one time). The annual borrowing fee for non-alumni remains $250.
"It's like a scholarship," Frances Gies said of the new program. "We've written about 10 books on the Middle Ages. Our most recent is Cathedral, and now we're working on a book on the Paston family of England. We'll write what amounts to a nonfiction novel." Another recent work, Forge and Water-Wheel, Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages, was a main selection of the Book of the Month Club.
The Gieses moved to the Ann Arbor area from Washington, DC, 14 years ago. "We sort of fell into the Middle Ages," Frances recalls. "Joe had written several books on technology, and I was writing at home. We proposed a book on modern cities to Harper and Row, but they said they needed a book on medieval cities to replace their very popular Life in a Medieval Barony. So the Gieses researched and wrote Life in a Medieval City (1969) and followed that success with Life in a Medieval Castle.
This semester, the Gieses will also lecture in the Food in Global History theme semester (see related story on p. 5) at 4 p.m. on Nov. 19. The lecture, "International Cuisine in the High Middle Ages," will be in the Rackham East Conference Room. "We'll talk about peasant food in contrast with rich people's food," Joseph Gies says, "and also show how the spice trade-which included pharmaceuticals and other easily transported items like gold leaf-influenced the age of exploration."
Another alumnus who is taking advantage of the new Library program is Roy Wetzel '59. Like the Gieses, Wetzel also returned to his collegiate environment after retirement.
"I'm building a German history database from 1870 to the present," Wetzel says. "It's a 10-year project begun after my retirement from NBC News [where he was general manager of the unit that covered politics for several years]. But you could say it began when I started collecting German stamps when I was 10 years old. I was born in a German neighborhood in Detroit, and collecting the stamps sparked my interest in German history."
The computerized database lets Wetzel "quickly put my finger on a particular piece of information-what was the inflation rate, what were prices, what was the unemployment rate at the time of Hitler's Beer Hall putsch? The project is a reference for me to support my stamp collection. Stamps reflect history. They mirror, for example, the terrible inflation of 1923 because new stamps and stamp rates appeared every week."
Wetzel says he is grateful for the U-M Library's new program not only because it has reduced the cost for alumni and simplified borrowing procedures. "I know the Library is primarily for students and faculty and that the public supports it with that understanding," he says, "but by having an official connection, I feel I'm more legitimate when I work there. Plus, my wife and I support the Library through the Friends of the Library, so I don't feel I'm ripping off the public."
Alumni may apply to the program through either the Friends of the Library, (8076 Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1205, phone: (313) 763-7368), or from any of the library circulation desks in the University Library system.
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