Faherty to replace Pyle as head of Mercantile Library
After 22 years as executive director of the 180-year-old Mercantile Library, Albert Pyle is retiring and will be replaced by The Enquirer's John Faherty.
Library president Paul De Marco said he is immensely grateful for the great shape in which Pyle is leaving the library.
De Marco said Pyle helped the library to become the active place it is today and said he believes this activity will continue under Faherty's leadership, and that Faherty will be able to continue to engage the community and raise the library's national profile.
In three years at The Enquirer, Faherty has worked his way into the fabric of the Cincinnati community, De Marco said, and this community engagement is one of the strengths he will bring to his new position.
As The Enquirer's Storyteller, Faherty was recently honored as the Best Feature Writer in 2014 by the Ohio Associated Press.
He was also awarded the best Narrative Writing/Voice in the Gannett chain of newspapers. Gannett owns The Enquirer.
In 2015, Faherty organized and hosted two StoryTellers events at The Phoenix for The Enquirer.
"We're confident he has all the qualities and gifts needed to lead our great institution and make it even better," De Marco said. "We're anxious for him to bring the same quality to leading the library."
The private, subscription library was founded in 1835 as the Young Men's Mercantile Library Association. De Marco said it was a way for young men of commerce to come together, listen to lectures and share books.
"It's a great, quiet space in the midst of downtown Cincinnati," De Marco said. The library is on the 11th floor of an eponymous building at 414 Walnut St. The library has a 10,000-year lease on the space for $1 a year.
Speakers at the library have included Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Tom Wolfe, Joyce Carol Oates, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Robert Caro.
De Marco said the library has a robust schedule of events throughout the year, such as lectures and speakers.
"I am so excited to join this remarkable library," Faherty said. "The Mercantile is a special place in this city. A place of incredible beauty, of course, but more importantly a place of words and thought. A place to bring people together. I hope to be able to help form a community in this city and region that celebrates the exchange of ideas. I am excited, and a little nervous, to begin."
But, Faherty said he will miss the friends he has made at The Enquirer.
"While I am thrilled to join the Mercantile Library, I am saddened to leave The Enquirer," Faherty said. "The paper has afforded me so many opportunities and allowed me to meet a wide array of people. I can never fully express my appreciation. I will miss my colleagues. I look forward to an ongoing relationship with The Enquirer."