- By Dan Veaner
- Around Town
Print 
Marty Christopher cuts the ribbonIf you search for Matt Christopher on Time Warner Books' Web site you will get 221 pages of results. Try it on Amazon.com's book section and you will get 692 hits. He is still a best selling author of more than 130 sports books for young readers, even though he passed away in 1997. In fact, his publisher, Little Brown, still releases new books in the series under his name. Last Saturday his oldest son Marty donated a complete set of his books to the Lansing Community Library Center in a ribbon cutting ceremony and reception in the Town Hall. Many members of the Christopher family were on hand as well as friends and supporters of the library.
 Matt Christopher's Children Dale, Pamela and Marty (Duane not shown) |
He explained what led him to donate the books and recounted the beginning of his father's writing career. "In 1954 my favorite books were the Chip Hilton series, written by Claire Bee. Then the first book came out of Dad's, 'The Lucky Baseball Bat' came out in 1954. To this day I remember a statement Dad made. He looked at my Chip Hilton books and said, 'Well, Son, maybe some day you'll have a few more of mine.' It didn't take long."
The books are inscribed to Marty and to his family. "He used the family and the kids that we went to school with as a source for a lot of his books." Mr. Christopher says he recognized people that he grew up with in some of the stories.
Friends, library officials and family
"When you have this many books and you start thinking about the legacy, I decided why do I need to be selfish with this? Why not give them to some place here in the community?" He decided that the library was the perfect home for the collection. He cut the ribbon to applause, officially donating the books to the library.
 Dale Christopher brings memorabilia of his Dad when he presents his program |
Next he introduced his brother, Dale, who has written a biography of their father and performs programs about him in schools all over the United States, including the Lansing schools last week. Dale is an 8th Grade math teacher in Saratoga Springs. He was dressed in a period Babe Ruth uniform, because that was the era in which his father played semi-pro baseball. In the program he talks about his Dad, his writing experience and process.
"It's good for kids to hear what it takes to go through to become an author, and what kind of an effort that Dad went through," he told the crowd. He talked about what he covers in his program in the schools, involving children and encouraging them to write.
Marty and Margaret, grandson Evan and son Michael
Matt Christopher was born in Bath, PA, the oldest child in his family. They moved to Portland Point so that his father could get a job in the salt mines. He sold magazines as a young boy, read them and dreamed of visiting and writing about places beyond Lansing. He graduated from Ludlowville High School in 1935, where he played baseball, football and soccer. He played minor league baseball, worked at General Electric, and ended up working at National Cash Register.
He began writing evenings until his first book was published. After several more followed he decided to write full time. He also wrote a series of mysteries under a pseudonym, Frederic Martin. He loved researching and writing the stories, and hearing from kids who told him that his books sparked their interest in reading.
The books were on display in a lockable book case that was donated by Randy and Linda Randall. When the next phase of the library expansion is completed the book case will be given a place of honor in the library. The books will not be available for general circulation, but interested people will be able to look at them in the library.
If nothing else, it was clear that the Christophers have a lot of love and respect for their father. Both sons spoke of how he followed his dream and he had clearly imbued them with values that were important to him. This, along with a valuable collection the town library can be proud to possess, is what they shared with Lansing last Saturday.
----
v1i19