In January 1933, the same month in which the Ford Motor Company laid off 100,000 workers and a record 242 American banks went bankrupt, Virginia Kirkus founded a business, the Virginia Kirkus Library Service, which 24 of the 25 people she consulted advised her to classify as a "lost dream." One of her friends replied, “If I had to sell the service to regular bookstores by mail, I would shut up and pray for a few days (because I think it's too hard a job).” He added: “Oh Virginia, sell gold bullion acrossMail is much easier.”
All her life, Virginia Kirkus had been telling everyone that the idea for the Virginia Kirkus Library came to her in the middle of the night. There is no reason to doubt her story, but this inspiration has been with her for a long time. She said the idea came to fruition on a ship returning to New York from Germany, where she spent eight weeks in the summer of 1932 visiting her parents; Her father was an Episcopal priest serving in the American Church in Munich. Just before sailing for Germany, Kirkus was informed by her superiorsAt Harper & Brothers (now HarperCollins), within six months, not only would her job as head of Boys & Girls' Books be eliminated, but the entire division would be suspended, she said, at least temporarily. “The Depression was taking its toll on our sales,” she later commented. “People used to think that new books for children were unnecessary, while old books could be useful.”However, Kirkus has not changed its travel plans (except for downgrading to economy class). On her second night of her return trip to America, she had a dream “so vivid that it looked like a diagram written on a blackboard.” I wrote down an outline of what the service would accomplish and how. Then she went back to sleep. She later wrote in Vassar's alumnae magazine: “In the morning the idea still seemed good, so I used the remainder of the trip to draw up a plan of action, write letters to canvass the opinions of the principal figures, and agree on athe details".
