My father, James E. Wright, spent his childhood in rural South Carolina. His parents (my grandparents) were hard-working, but limited by grade school educations.

They could sign their names, but neither could read. He knew that education and literacy was his pathway to something bigger.

It was through books that he gained a scholarship to the University of Michigan and became the first college graduate in our family. It was through spending time in books that he learned to practice dentistry. So much time, in fact, that my mother recounts the darker shading of the left side of his face for years because this was the side that the lamp shone on him for hours through countless nights immersed in study.

Before I could read, he purchased a set of youth encyclopedias from a door to door salesman as the foundation for our home library. Every night, without fail, my parents read to my sister and I. Besides the Dr. Seuss
classics and selections from Uncle Wiggly’s Storybook, my father would periodically purchase a different book from the Mr. Mencollection, with our goal being to collect them all.

As I got older, I lost count of the number of biographies and historical books that he required me to read. Fast forward to the present, and these are precisely the genre of books that I enjoy reading in those quiet moments after a long day.

Needless to say, books have played an integral role in my family's story, and this is because my father recognized their power long ago.

This enterprise is dedicated to his memory. Thank you, Papa, for everything you did for us