Twenty years ago, I inherited from my father the McClennen Family Bible published in 1816 in London. My great-great-great grandfather, William McClennen, had apparently bought it at that time and used it to carefully record the growth of the family, including his wife Sarah and their twelve children. He may have read it also, but of this I have no idea. (Many home Bibles are left in the bookcase!) An immigrant from Scotland, William and his sons rigged sailing ships in Boston Harbor for fifty years. In 2007, I tried to read this Bible and failed: it was just not possible. In 2020, with the Covid pandemic stopping all normal life, I tried again. It was now possible to actually read it and enjoy it. I read the Bible every morning and completed the Old Testament and the New Testament in about 14 months. I enjoyed reading the Bible. It is a good book.

In my first reading, I missed a lot, so now I am reading it again. I realized how important this book is to the growth and development of our society as we know it and indeed to the whole world. So many people in our world read this book or know many of its guiding messages. Libraries house many great books. I thought it would be nice to highlight one of the most important books in the world. I turned to good friends and neighbors, the Holliston Historical Society and our Public Library to see what type of collection I might be able to put together for the display case in the library. I found 13 samples, new and old, easy to read and hard to read, colorful and simple black and white printed pages.
I offered this to the townspeople – with a brief description of each of the Bibles – so that others may have some renewed appreciation for this one masterful attempt to tell us of the human condition and how mankind can help one another when we meet up with deep challenges.

Note. Walter McClennen is a 50-year resident of Holliston whose recent book, Looking East – Short Histories and More, 2004-2023, was published last summer by Damianos Publishing in Framingham, MA. (Available on Amazon).”