JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

I really do love these bits of unusual Americana, something from the early ages of iconic Americans that give a quick glimpse into an average day of a famous-someone way before they became who they became. 

[Image from the American Heritage Auction Gallery, where the item is being auctioned, here.]

[Elsewhere in this blog I wrote about what I learned from Johnny Cash’s report card (here) from just a year later, in 1949.]

Getting back to Elvis: this is a back-of-the-book-in-a-paper-pocket borrower’s card from a library book borrowed by Elvis Presley in 1948. The book–written by Bessie Rowland James (b. 1895)– was Courageous Heart, a Life of Andrew Jackson for Young Readers, and was published in 1934.  I guess it was appropriate reading,as the Presley family had just (September 12) moved from Tupelo into their new small apartment at 578 Poplar Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee–Jackson being a more-or-less Native Son (though other states claim him as well). 

To accompany the J.R. Cash report card is Elvis’ third grade card:

[Source]

As near as I can determine, this is 578 Poplar Street today:

[Source: Google Maps]

Elvis was enrolled at Christine School (formerly known as the Market Street School, and also as the Smith School)  on Third Street in Memphis to complete 8th grade the next day, September 13, 1948.  The school was demolished in 1948. The book evidently survived.