The many sides of library pioneer Hedwig Anuar and other authors

Those who know the National Library's former director Hedwig Anuar, 95, as a pioneer of Singapore's library system or women's rights activism will glimpse a different side of her in her newly published early writings.

- Shawn Hoo

The launch of Vestiges: Essays 1945-1946 (2024), a slim volume of post-war writings from when Mrs Anuar - then Hedwig Aroozoo - was only 17, took place on a rainy Nov 9 morning at the National Library Building as part of the opening weekend of the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF).

Her daughter Shirin Aroozoo, who found Mrs Anuar's handwritten notebooks while decluttering her home a few years ago, said on the panel that she wanted to edit and compile the book in order to "show a different side of my mother".

Ms Aroozoo, together with Mrs Anuar's goddaughter - journalism lecturer Hedwig Alfred - shared their favourite essays by Mrs Anuar, who has late-stage Alzheimer's disease and was not present.

Their sharings revealed the many faces of young Mrs Anuar - as a cloud-gazer, flaneuse, book lover, poster appreciator and clear-eyed witness of the Japanese Occupation's horrors.