Madras Literary Society to open children’s corner

CHENNAI: The 200-year-old Madras Literary Society has finally found a spot for the young in one of its corners. The children’s corner of the library — one of the oldest in the country — will open to the public on Saturday, with more than 500 titles in English and Tamil primarily and a few in Hindi and French. All the books have been sourced from sponsors and volunteers.

“We started a Tamil section six months ago and the children’s corner was next on the agenda for the year. The idea was mooted by our former secretary Mohan Raman,” said Thirupurasundari Sevvel, an urban designer and honorary general secretary of the society. “One of our members Prabhu Vishwanathan got sponsors for the books and furniture,” she said.


The children’s corner was set up by MLS volunteers, while children in the Homeschoolers Guild helped catalogue the books. “Three of the children enrolled in the library are fourth generation members of MLS, so that’s an encouraging trend,” said Sundari. Incidentally, past members of the society include theosophist Annie Besant, nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose, and former President Dr S Radhakrishnan. The library has preserved a letter written by Annie Besant regarding the lapse of her membership status.

Membership is Rs 1100 for the year and that includes a monthly workshop or event for children. The launch this Saturday will be followed by a story-reading session by actor and storyteller Janaki Sabesh.

The Madras Literary Society was founded in 1817 by Sir John Henry Newbolt and Benjamin Guy Babington, the chief justice of Madras. It currently holds more than 57,000 books, with a great number of them being restored by volunteers.

MLS was first housed in the College of Fort St George before being moved to the Connemara Library and to the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI) campus in 1906. The story goes that British officers would row up to the library to relax and read books.