my granddad was a very literate person, and cared deeply about education.
i have already written about how he founded a school, before the War, in Bandung.
in 1973, he published a book: Tour Europe on a Eurail Pass. It described and illustrated his adventures with my grandmother, as the two of them took in the fantastic vistas of Europe, with Malaysia-Singapore Airlines.
but that was not the first book he wrote.
several decades earlier, as Headmaster and Founder of the Bandoeng English School, he took it upon himself to write the school’s own literacy texts, and Java: a Primary Reader was the result.
exactly a year ago, i acquired a copy from a rare books seller in the Netherlands, and donated it to the National Library of Singapore.
i am very happy to share that it is now part of the Library’s Rare Materials Collection on Level 13 of the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library.
to quote the Library:
"All titles in the Rare Materials Collection are microfilmed and these surrogate copies are viewable at Level 11 of the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. The original materials are preserved under controlled temperature, humidity and light settings at Level 13.”
i am very happy that the legacy of my granddad - Lim Chong Hum - will live on in this way.
:-)
