By Christmas, Gilbert Byron's cabin beside San Domingo Creek on the Eastern Shore should have a new address: the Pickering Creek Environmental Center, eight miles north of Easton. The frame prefab that was his Talbot County home (with extensions) from 1946 to his death in 1991 at age 87, has been in storage in St. Michaels; it will be trucked inland for a new role as part museum, part meeting center.
Gilbert Byron, who was born on Thoreau's birthday, wrote poetry that pictured many a bay-scape ("Chesapeake Cove") and prose ("The Lord's Oysters," "Done Crabbin': Noah Leaves the River") that put into print the essences of Shore living. His solitude was relieved by a dog and a cat.
To preserve and adapt the structure, the Gilbert Byron Society, headed by Jacques T. Baker of Chinquapin Point, and the Chesapeake Audubon Society, which operates Pickering Creek center (a 400-acre working farm and nature conservancy), have set out to raise $75,000.
Byron's literary papers, meanwhile, are in the keeping of Chesapeake College, at Wye Mills, and there are plans to republish some of his out-of-print books.
Ron Zaczek of Baltimore enlisted in the Marines at 17; by age 19, he was in Vietnam, becoming a helicopter gunship and medevac crew chief. Twenty medals and 393 missions later, he was also beginning six years of therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.
In "Farewell, Darkness" (U.S. Naval Institute, $26.95), Mr. Zaczek, now resident in Elkton, relives the horrors but also the way back, in his recovery from combat trauma. This is a memorable book.
31st Street Bookstore is holding a Memorabilia Auction and Closing Celebration today, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. The site of "Baltimore's unofficial women's community center" then moves
from 425 E. 31st St. to 1001 Cathedral St., where Lammas Books & More has opened, with bulletin board and meeting space and a large inventory.
The policy at Robert Garrett & Co., wholesaler and retailer of groceries and provisions, was to save its commercial paper. A box of it -- executed orders, receipted bills, canceled checks or notes, handwritten on scraps of rag paper, mostly in the 1830s -- goes on sale Dec. 19 at a periodic auction of Baltimore Book Co., at Timonium Holiday Inn, starting at 6.30 p.m.
Garrett & Co., at 32 N. Howard St., dealt in feathers, flour, madeira, lard, country soap, ale, silver sand, shot, quills (pens), paper, rye whiskey and more. Garrett also bought clothes, paid ground rents and had his son (a future president of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad) tutored in French. There may be 1,000 items in the box.
Several original members were present last month as the Baltimore Bibliophiles, meeting at Evergreen House, observed their 40th anniversary. Selby Kiffer, of Sotheby's in New York, spoke on early printings of the Declaration of Independence.
Geoffrey W. Fielding was re-elected president; Binnie Syril Braunstein, corresponding secretary; Henry B. Wilson, recording secretary; Joseph E. Jensen, treasurer.
Historyk Press, at 7 Dendron Court, Baltimore 21234, publishes the names and biographical records of Marylanders of Polish descent, particularly as compiled by Thomas L. Hollowak and Jeanne S. Davis-White.
In its sixth year, Historyk Press has now issued "Polish Arrivals at the Port of Baltimore, 1880-1884" (paper, 168 pages, $10).
James Lester of Annapolis, retired psychologist, describes himself now as free-lance musician, writer, researcher and photographer. These skills coalesce to advantage in his new book, "Too Marvelous for Words: The Life and Genius of Art Tatum" (Oxford University Press, $25). Rated the most influential jazz pianist of his time -- he died in 1956, aged 46 -- Tatum was often recorded. His rhythms linger in the ear, and will do so now in the mind as well.