在佛羅里達建起一座中國文學藏書寶庫
張彥 2017年4月10日
佛羅里達州薩拉索塔——1971年時，艾利·O·艾德(Elling O. Eide)是一位年輕的、前途光明的中國詩歌學者，他在伊利諾伊大學一邊寫博士論文，一邊教書。這時來了一封信，為一個奇蹟，或者是一部荒唐劇拉開了序幕：在佛羅里達州墨西哥灣沿岸，在西班牙苔蘚和鱷魚出沒的池塘之間，建起了一個出色的中國文學藏書寶庫。
這個新開的圖書館證明了一個人的願景——一些人可能會說是鑽牛角尖——他要給這片擁有海灘、酒吧和住宅小區的安寧地區帶來一些學術氣息。他沒有僱用鑒賞家和代理人購買那些有識別度的收藏，大多數時候都是獨自工作，極少有鄰居知道他對這件事的熱情，直到他在五年前去世。
從某些方面來說，主角就是這處物業本身。艾德的外祖父在1935年買下了它，把女兒和女婿從芝加哥召回那裡照顧他。艾德當年正是在這裡出生，長大後，他離開這裡去哈佛讀書，到海軍陸戰隊服役，去台灣學習，謀求一個進行中國研究的職業生涯。
但他逃不開這處物業的引力。1968年，他的父母繼承了這塊92英畝（約合15公頃）的土地，但發現很難維護它，這裡有龐大、破舊的建築，還有外祖父買來的珍稀樹木。1972年的時候，輪到他們把孩子叫回薩拉索塔(Sarasota)了。艾德請了兩年的假，覺得用這段時間就可以把物業整理清楚，幫助父母修建一所退休後住的房屋，然後再回到自己的學術界。
但修建新房子的工作量比他預期的大。父母生病了。國稅局開始進行審計。家人和朋友說，慢慢地，艾德陷入了抑鬱。他的父親在1978年撒手人寰，母親在5年後過世。那時，這位曾經年輕的學者已經48歲，年齡太大，無法重新開始他的職業生涯了。
結果，他決定把漢學世界帶到薩拉索塔。他本來就已經是一名狂熱的收藏家，這時他又加倍進行投入，購買了大量學術期刊和書籍。他的研究方向是中國最著名的詩人李白。李白生活在7至10世紀的唐朝，經常被稱為中國最偉大的詩人。那個朝代成了他的焦點。他收集了7.5萬冊書籍，其中包括5萬冊中文書籍：這裡成為了世界上最大的私立中文圖書館之一，比很多知名大學的中文藏書還多。
這個項目反映了朋友和親戚所說的艾德有時很狂熱的個性。他曾經健壯有型，留著深棕色的鬍子，現在他變成了一個大腹便便的隱士。穿著舊衣服，一根接著一根地抽溫斯頓牌香煙，開著一輛破舊的大眾牌麵包車。他把精力放在買書上，常常忽視編目和保管這些書的細節。
他的寶藏就像遭遇海難的箱子，分散在這片物業的各個地方。一些書在木棚裡，一些在老舊的盒式建築裡，還有很多在他搖搖欲墜的住處。所有建築，書都從地板堆到了天花板。他讓空調持續運轉，以防它們腐爛，但這裡不適合接待任何訪客。
賓夕法尼亞大學的中國語言及文學教授維克多·H·梅爾(Victor H. Mair)是艾德認識最久的老朋友之一，他說：「這個地方打理得好的時候，有孔雀在這裡飛，周圍還有短吻鱷。但他的房子裡亂七八糟，哪兒都是書報。我們擔心會毀了這批收藏。」
部分問題在於資金。艾德夢想有一個正式的圖書館，但他的收入主要來自於收取另一塊土地的租金，由於他的慷慨大方，這筆錢也存不下來。他把錢花在學術出版物和會議上。他還為需要唐代資料的學者設立了一條熱線，還聘請了一位來自中國的助理，和他的家人一起住在這個地方。他和助理從收藏中找到學者們需要的內容，然後把它們發往全美各地。
最出名的是，他會花錢為唐代研究協會(T’ang Studies Society)的年度會議舉辦盛大的自助餐。儘管他本人很少到場，但他希望學者能吃到他最喜歡的煙熏鱘魚，享用免費酒水，體驗他認為跟唐朝有關的那種精緻優雅的生活。
「他出奇地慷慨，」在佛羅里達大學(University of Florida)研究中古中國文學的辛西婭·謝諾爾特(Cynthia Chennault)說。「他喜歡聊天，喜歡討論和幫助別人。」
艾德原打算賣掉一些地，來解決圖書館的開支。但他受到了薩拉索塔縣官員的阻撓，後者拒絕批准將這片基本保持原始狀態的松樹林用作他途。他覺得這不公平：在之前幾十年裡，許多鄰居都把自己的森林和紅樹沼澤地便成了商業街和公寓。為什麼他就得為政府在環境方面的新興趣做出犧牲？
儘管在唐代研究圈子裡十分受歡迎，但他在當地政客眼中是個怪人。他猛烈抨擊縣議會，曾以共和黨環保人士的身份競選公職，還在他家地產邊上的高速公路沿線立起廣告牌，學Burma-Shave剃鬚膏老廣告那一套，用一系列押韻的標語開言簡意賅的玩笑。他拿當地的划船比賽一語雙關地寫道：「你怎麼稱呼一隻划艇裡的六名薩拉索塔縣長官？薩拉索塔大獎。」
但拖延反倒幫了艾德。當他最終獲批改換20英畝（約合8公頃）土地的用途時，時間已經到了2005年，接近房地產泡沫的頂峰。他以每英畝100萬美元的價格將這些土地賣給了開發商，後者想建一個綜合用途的項目。艾德雇了一名當地的建築師，開始著手圖書館的事。
不過，那時候他的健康已經開始走下坡路。2011年，他數次中風。他向自己的表兄霍華德·米歇爾(Harold Mitchell)求助，後者在芝加哥當一名保險經紀，從小就十分敬佩艾德。米歇爾知道家族裡有關艾德的所有故事，他知道艾德過去是一名獨輪車手，在哈佛大學成為一名拉拉隊隊員後，曾手持一根巨大的骨頭在橄欖球比賽的場外區域騎著車，煽動觀眾的情緒。
所以米歇爾同意回去——第四名被拉入這處物產的運行軌跡的家族成員。身為一名讓人愉快的交易人，他解決了不少審批問題，搞定了建造一座大博物館和遊客中心的無數細節。
隨著視力逐漸退化，艾德可以聽到機器把地樁敲入地下的聲音，但卻看不見它們。2012年在這座建築還是個框架的時候，他去世了。米歇爾成了註冊慈善機構艾利-艾德中心(Elling Eide Center)的負責人，其理事包括梅爾和謝諾爾特教授。
現年66歲的米歇爾花了五年時間監督這個項目完成。去年秋天，這座寬敞明亮的建築開門迎客，舉辦了唐代研究協會一年一度的會議。
但那裡有一個十分明顯的問題：在佛羅里達一個沒有專門研究中文的大學的地方，要這麼一大批中文書幹什麼？
艾德也考慮過把這些資料捐獻給一所大學。但他還是希望能把它留在這裡，理事們表示，他們覺得這行得通。
他們正在設立一項獎學金，幫助研究人員前往薩拉索塔，在那裡留下來。隨著中國在世界上的地位逐漸提高，他們期待這樣的一個中心能產生某種意義。
「我不喜歡人們說他是個怪人，」謝諾爾特說。「那是中國最重要的朝代，如果你想理解這個國家的今天，就必須理解那個時代。在未來，他可能會被看作一個有遠見的人。」
翻譯：土土、常青
Amid the Spanish Moss of Florida, a Treasure Chest of Chinese Literature
SARASOTA, Fla. — In 1971, Elling O. Eide was a promising young scholar of Chinese poetry, working on his Ph.D. thesis and teaching at the University of Illinois. Then came a letter that set in motion the creation of either a wonder or a folly: a great library of Chinese literature housed amid the Spanish moss and alligator ponds of Florida’s gulf coast.
The newly opened library is a testament to one man’s vision — tunnel vision, some might say — of bringing a sliver of the academy to this quiet area of beaches, bars and subdivisions. Instead of hiring connoisseurs and agents to buy up recognizable treasures, he worked mostly alone, pursuing a passion that few neighbors were aware of until after his death five years ago.
In some ways, the main actor is the property itself. Mr. Eide’s maternal grandfather bought it in 1935 and summoned his daughter and son-in-law from Chicago to look after him. Mr. Eide was born there that year but left to attend Harvard, serve in the Marines, study in Taiwan and pursue a career in Chinese studies.
But he could not escape the property’s pull. In 1968, his parents inherited the 92-acre tract but found it hard to maintain, with its overgrowth, decrepit buildings and rare trees that his grandfather had bought. In 1972, it was their turn to summon their child to Sarasota to help, writing him to come back home. Mr. Eide took a two-year leave from academia, thinking he could put the property in order, help his parents build a retirement house and get back to his world of scholarship.ontinue reading the main story
But the new house was more work than he expected. His parents became ill. The Internal Revenue Service began an audit. Slowly, family members and friends say, Mr. Eide slid into depression. His father died in 1978, and his mother five years later. By then, the once-young scholar was 48, too old to restart his career.
Instead, he decided to bring the world of Sinology to Sarasota. Already a voracious collector, he doubled down on his passion, buying entire collections of academic journals and books. His research specialty had been China’s most famous poet, Li Po, who lived during the Tang dynasty of the seventh to 10th centuries, often called China’s greatest. That dynasty became his focus. He amassed 75,000 volumes, including 50,000 in Chinese: one of the largest private Chinese-language libraries in the world, and larger than many well-known universities’ Chinese collections.
The project reflected what friends and relatives call Mr. Eide’s sometimes-manic personality. A onetime fitness buff with a dark brown beard, he became a paunchy recluse. He wore old clothes, chain-smoked Winstons and drove a beat-up Volkswagen bus. He poured his efforts into acquisitions but often neglected the details of cataloging and housing the books.
Instead, his treasures sprawled across the property like shipwrecked chests. Some landed in wooden sheds, others in old shotgun shacks, and many in his ramshackle house. All the buildings were stacked floor to ceiling. He kept air-conditioners running to prevent rot, but the space was unusable for any visitor.
“When it was in good shape, it was an estate with peacocks flying and alligators lying around,” said Victor H. Mair, a professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania and one of Mr. Eide’s oldest friends. “But his house was a big mess: books and papers everywhere. We worried that the collection would be ruined.”
Part of the problem was financial. Mr. Eide dreamed of a proper library, but his income was mostly limited to rent from another tract of land, and further diluted by his generosity. He underwrote scholarly publications and conferences. He set up a hotline for scholars who needed material on the Tang dynasty, hiring an assistant from China who lived with his family on the property. He and the assistant would scour his collection and send the needed works around the country.
Most famously, he paid for a grand buffet reception at the annual meeting of the T’ang Studies Society. Though rarely present himself, he wanted the scholars to eat his favorite smoked sturgeon, enjoy an open bar and generally experience the sort of refined and elegant life that he associated with the Tang dynasty.
“He was incredibly generous,” said Cynthia Chennault, a specialist in medieval Chinese literature at the University of Florida. “He loved to talk, discuss and help people out.”
Mr. Eide’s goal was to pay for the library by selling some of his land. But he was stymied by Sarasota County officials, who balked at rezoning the largely pristine pine forest. He felt this was unfair: In previous decades, many neighbors had turned their forests and mangrove swamps into strip malls and condos. Why should he be victimized by the state’s newfound interest in the environment?
As popular as he was in Tang dynasty circles, he was seen in local politics as a crank. He railed against the county council, ran once for office as a Republican environmentalist and put up billboards along the highway that borders his property, copying the old Burma-Shave advertising campaigns that told punchy jokes in a series of rhyming signs. Punning off a local boat race, he wrote: “What do you call six / Sarasota County Commissioners in a rowboat? / The Sarasota Grand Prix.”
But the delays ended up helping him. When he finally won approval to rezone 20 acres, it was 2005 and near the peak of the real estate bubble. He got $1 million an acre from developers who wanted to build a mixed-use project. He hired a local architect and began work on his library.
By then, though, his health was failing. In 2011, he had a series of strokes. He asked for help from his cousin Harold Mitchell, an insurance agent in Chicago who had been in awe of Mr. Eide since his childhood. Mr. Mitchell knew all the family stories about how Mr. Eide was an expert unicyclist who became a cheerleader at Harvard, pedaling along the sidelines at football games with a giant bone in his hand to stir up the crowd.
So Mr. Mitchell agreed to move down — the fourth in his family to be drawn into the property’s orbit. A genial dealmaker, he settled permitting issues and ironed out the countless details of building a large library and visitor center.
His eyesight deteriorating, Mr. Eide could hear the machines pounding the pilings into the earth but couldn’t see them. In 2012, with the building still a skeleton, he died. Mr. Mitchell became president of the Elling Eide Center, a registered charity whose trustees include Professors Mair and Chennault.
Now 66, Mr. Mitchell has spent the past five years seeing the project to completion. The bright, airy building opened last autumn for the annual conference of the T’ang Studies Society.
But there is one obvious problem: What to do with a giant collection of Chinese-language books in a part of Florida with no university specializing in that field?
Mr. Eide once thought of donating the material to a university. But he wanted it to stay here, and the trustees say they think it can work.
They are setting up a fellowship to help researchers travel to Sarasota and stay on the grounds. And with China’s rising place in the world, they hope that the center will begin to make sense.
“I don’t like the way people say he was an eccentric,” Professor Chennault said. “That was China’s most important dynasty, and if you want to understand that country today, you have to understand that era. In the future, he might be seen as a visionary.”
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