In 1903, Emma Woods Evans of Wichita, Kansas, completed her Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle reading list. In 1911, she traveled to Chautauqua Institution to walk through the Golden Gates, receive her diploma and graduate from the CLSC.
Over 100 years later, her great-granddaughter, Elinor Bernice Hagerman Castle passed through the Golden Gates as the oldest graduate of the CLSC Class of 2025, at the age 97.
“People do ask me, ‘What were you doing all this time? You must be a very slow reader,’ ” said Elinor Castle.
Elinor graduated alongside her son, Rick Castle, and her granddaughter, Molly Castle, on Wednesday. For the Castles, with 20 CLSC graduates across six generations of family members, the CLSC is more than a book club.
“The CLSC is the reason that we are here,” said Sharon Castle, Elinor’s oldest daughter.
The Castles live in the same cottage on Bliss that the second generation of graduates — Bernice Evans Denise and her husband Larimore C. Denise — bought in 1910. Since planting roots in Chautauqua soil, the Castle family tree has blossomed with readers. Bernice’s daughter, Dorothy Denise Hagerman and her children Meredith and Elinor followed in her footsteps.
While Elinor’s sister, Meredith, graduated in 1978, Elinor chose to spend her summers in Chautauqua differently.
“When I came to Chautauqua, I didn’t join anything. I was so glad to get away from all the pressures,” Elinor said. “I was cooking and taking care of all the kids.”
Elinor recalled how her mother and sister used to circulate books by mail to keep up with their reading goals. It was not until years later that a gentle nudge from a family member convinced her to join the CLSC Class of 2025.
“I suppose people kept saying, ‘Why don’t you join?’ But when my granddaughter says, ‘Can you graduate with me?’ You can’t resist that,” said Elinor.
As she shares in the reading experience with her granddaughter, she continues a lineage of Castle women passing down a love for the written word.
“Granddaughters have a special influence. I don’t know what his excuse is,” Elinor said, gesturing at Rick Castle, Molly’s father.
“(Molly) put pressure on me, too,” Rick said.
Looping her father and grandmother into the tradition, Molly had initially been inspired to graduate after watching her older sister, Emily, graduate in 2023. Molly had scanned the CLSC historic booklist until a title popped off the page.
“I saw the Pelé book on the list and realized there’s a lot of books on the list … after that I just found myself adding more and more books that I would want to read in the future,” Molly said. A soccer player and fan, Why Soccer Matters by Pelé and Brian Winter from the 2014-2015 list remains her favorite CLSC selection.
For Molly’s older sister, Emily, the question of graduation was less a matter of “if” but “when.” Emily said she did not consider herself a “strong reading person,” but years of family tradition — and the help of audiobooks — motivated her to complete the reading challenge.
“I think (Elinor and Sharon) have been the greatest motivators. Hearing them talk about the history for so many years in such an articulate way made me feel inclined to do it,” Emily said.
“Inclined to keep the tradition going,” added Sharon Castle. Sharon and her sister, Gretchen, make up the fifth generation of Castle graduates. On Recognition Day this week, Sharon was recognized for achieving the Olympian graduate level of the Guild of Seven Seals, signifying 75 books read on the historic book list. Of that collection, she considers Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead a favorite.
“I was always a reader,” Sharon said. “But for people who aren’t readers, (the CLSC) motivates them.”
As Elinor watched her children and grandchildren select and read book after book in preparation for graduation, she was thrilled — if not a bit surprised.
“I hadn’t thought of them as readers,” she said, “and all of a sudden, they were reading all the time. We’d go to an opera, and before it started, they’d be reading. I felt so pleased.”
At least five CLSC alumni of the Castle family attended Recognition Day on Wednesday in support of the three generations joining their storied community. The Castle family has purchased bricks in recognition of each of the 20 graduates, placed in the pathway leading up to the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall.
With the CLSC legacy of the Castles quite literally set in stone and Chautauqua engrained in the family’s heritage, Elinor said that she uses an informal “Chautauqua Test” for her family members’ spouses.
“If you come to Chautauqua and you don’t like it, you’re toast,” Elinor said with a smile.
Luckily for Elinor’s children and grandchildren, their spouses have embraced Chautauqua in stride. Looking to the future of her family in Chautauqua, Elinor beams with pride.
“I have many friends who have had cottages and had to give them up because their children didn’t want to keep it up, “Elinor said. “So to have all these generations taking responsibility and keeping it going is really quite remarkable and blessed.”
For her and her family, the magic of the CLSC and Chautauqua goes beyond books.
“The whole atmosphere of culture and beauty and nature and freedom — it’s more than reading,” she said, “but that’s a really important part of it.”
