The following column, about the recent death of Reva Previant Schwartz of Harry W. Schwartz bookstore, appeared in the August 1, 2004, edition of The Milwaukee Journal.
She was the best of readers.
As late as last weekend, on her deathbed, almost blind at age 91, she settled back to listen to the nearly impenetrable introduction of Dostoyevski's The Idiot.
She had read the novel before. But this was a new translation recently available on Books On Tape.