In Twin Peaks episode 2.018 (#25 from the second season), Audrey Horne visits the Twin Peaks City Library to research civil disobedience. While there, she meets Windom Earle who is disguised as a poetry professor named Edward Perkins. While reviewing this short exchange, I identified several books found on the “Political Science” shelf in the town’s library, including which book Audrey selects.
AUDREY HORNE RESEARCHING AT THE TWIN PEAKS CITY LIBRARY
Episode 2.018 was written by Bob Engles and Harley Peyton. The on-screen action in this scene with Audrey Horne and Windom Early in disguise closely mirrors their script. Earlier in the episode, Audrey Horne tells John Justice Wheeler that she “has to go to the library and have a meeting with her father.” The name of the library, however, is never specifically mentioned outside of the scripted action below.
INT. TWIN PEAKS CITY LIBRARY – DAY
Audrey walks between dark library stacks, thinking about Wheeler, energized. She mounts a short ladder, inspects a row of dusty books. She removes one, leafs through it, eyes seeking pertinent information. Audrey begins to read, when … SUDDENLY a footfall, Audrey looks up. A man stands close by in the shadows. Startled, Audrey nearly tips the ladder. But the quick-handed stranger grabs and steadies it.
As Audrey runs her fingers along a bookshelf, we catch a glimpse of several titles. Some of the books were completely covered with tape making it impossible to identify. But the first book title we can see is actually upside down.
She is looking at books in the 320 Political Science section, which would be a correct designation per the Dewey Decimal system used to organize books in libraries.
The blue-colored book cover is book 16 from Encyclopaedia Britannica’s “The Annals of America: 1940-1949 – The Second World War And After.” The crew turned the book upside down to obscure the exact title. The book in the episode has a sticker with the Dewey Decimal system number of “320.413 | B-134-1.”
Long before the internet existed, Encyclopaedia Britannica published a 21 volume set containing the history of the United States of America between 1968 to 1987. A final volume was published in 2003 documenting the years 1987-2001. The 16th book featured in the episode was published in 1976.
Audrey continues reviewing book titles. Next to “The Annals Of America” is a book about Germany published in 1989.
George McGhee wrote “At the Creation of a New Germany: from Adenauer to Brandt, an Ambassadors Account” which detailed his experience as a United States Ambassador to West Germany between 1963 to 1968. The crew removed the dust jacket for the prop seen in the episode, but the lettering appears to match in the image above. The Dewey Decimal system sticker reads “320.385 | B105-2.”
AUDREY HORNE SELECTS A BOOK
We finally get to the book that Audrey selects. The on-screen book spine reads “On Politics” by “John” with a Dewey Decimal sticker containing “320.437 | B183-4.” A quick internet search revealed the actual title.
Part of The Classics Club, the book Audrey chooses is “On Politics and Education” by John Locke (1632-1704). One of the most famous philosophers of the 17th Century, his published works “Some Thoughts Concerning Education” (1693) and “Two Treatises of Government” (1689) are two of his most well-known works that explore his views on education and politics.
He believed in child-centered education with the goal of instilling the “ability to act on reason instead of passion.” He also felt moral education was more important than other types of education and that some minds have a greater intellectual potential than others.
For his views on government, Locke contributed to social contract theory, which holds that government is justified when it operates according to the consent of the people. His ideas helped establish the notion of a sovereign people as the basis of legitimate rule.
The book was part of The Classics Club, a mail order book service first introduced by Walter J. Black, Inc. around 1947. I found a newspaper advertisement from 1964 which contained an image of Locke’s book among other classics by Plato, Marcus Aurelius and Aristotle.
As Audrey removes the book from the shelf, we catch a glimpse of the cover.
The oval symbol contains two “Cs” which stands for “Classics Club.” In the episode, the crew only covered the words “and Eduction” and “Locke.” You can, however, briefly see “Classics Club” in one frame.
OTHER BOOKS AT THE TWIN PEAKS CITY LIBRARY
There are two more books which I could identify located next to John Locke’s book. With a Dewey Decimal System sticker of “320.438 | B164-1,” the first red and black-colored book is titled “In the Days of McKinley” by Margaret Leech.” The biographical book about President William McKinley was published in 1959 by Harper & Brothers from New York. In 1960, Leech won a Pulitzer Prize for History her work.
The last identifiable book by Mark Naidis who wrote “India: A Short Introductory History” in 1966. Similar to McGhee’s book about Germany, the dust cover was removed for the episode. The lettering on the image above, however, seems similar to what is seen on screen. This book published by The Macmillan Company details a brief history of the country which he divides into the Hindu-Muslim and the British-Independence period.
WINDOM EARLE’S BOOK AT THE TWIN PEAKS CITY LIBRARY
I attempted to identify the book Windom Earle is holding as Professor Perkins. Sadly, the image quality for this two-shot scene in every home video release is grainy. It appears the original negatives were never located so we don’t get the same level of clear details found in this episode.
If I had to guess based on the cover, he is holding a text book that could have a title “The Fundamentals / Basics of Music.” There appears to be five distinct words above drawings of musical notes. I searched in various spots for a match but there may not be a book available for sale on auction sites or the internet at this moment. Perhaps I’ll revisit this at another time and it will turn up (that always seems to happen).
So was Audrey’s book about civil disobedience? Locke’s work is an interesting choice about the role of government but it’s difficult to say she would have learned to protest by chaining herself to the Twin Peaks Saving and Loan from it.
