Photo Caption: Ceremony for the George R.R. Martin Room at the Bayonne Library - The Bayonne Public Library named its Popular Fiction Room in honor of author, TV writer, and producer George R.R. Martin, a Bayonne native.  He spoke at the library and took part in a ribbon-cutting with Library Director Melody Scagnell-Townley and elected officials.  Pictured left to right: Congressman Rob Menendez, Council Member At-Large Juan Perez, First Ward Council Member Neil Carroll III, Mayor Jimmy Davis, George R.R. Martin, Melody Scagnelli-Townley, City Council President Gary LaPelusa, and Second Ward Council Member Jacqueline Weimmer. 

On October 15, the Bayonne Public Library held a ceremony to name its Popular Fiction Room in honor of author, television writer, and producer George R. R. Martin, a Bayonne native.  Library Director Melody Scagnelli-Townley organized the event and opened the program.  She welcomed Mr. Martin “back to his roots.”  Mayor Jimmy Davis spoke about the author’s education and career.  Mayor Davis also discussed Mr. Martin’s mother’s family, the Bradys, who played a prominent role in business and government in Bayonne.   The mayor presented Mr. Martin with a proclamation that declared October 15 “George R.R. Martin Day” in the City of Bayonne.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Martin said it was “very nice” to have the Popular Faction Room named after him.  He advised the audience that being a writer “is not a career for anyone who wants security.”  The author discussed the ups and downs of his career, which included years in which literary agents dropped him and people did not return his phone calls.  

An Emmy Award winner, Mr. Martin recalled that he received his first award when he was a student at Mary J. Donohoe School in Bayonne.  He said that his teacher gave him an award, because he “drew the best horse,” even though he had “an inability to draw.”  For most of his childhood, he lived in LaTourette Gardens, the public housing property at 35 East 1st Street.

The best-selling author said that he made his first sales as a writer by selling other children horror stories he had written.  He loved books, but said his family did not have much money when he was growing up.  Mr. Martin’s father worked as a longshoreman.  His mother began as a stay-at-home parent, who was employed later as a garment worker and bra inspector for Maidenform.  He found the reading textbooks at school “boring.”  By contrast, he found comic books to be “great teachers.”  When his parents gave him an allowance of a dollar per week, Mr. Martin started to buy science fiction books instead from spinner-rack stands in a store at Kelly Parkway and 1st Street.  Later, he started visiting comic book stores and discovered “fanzines,” which were publications written by comic book fans.  Mr. Martin reported that he “fell in with fanzine writers.”  He began writing amateur stories and received “positive letters” about his work.  

Speaking at the library, Mr. Martin described Bayonne as “full of ghosts” as he recounted the passing of Uncle Milty’s amusement park and the movie theaters of his childhood.  He recalled seeing many cheap horror pictures at The Plaza, a former Bayonne movie theater.  The author noted the closing of Marist High School and St. Andrew’s Church.  Mr. Martin said he is glad that Mary J. Donohoe School still exists.  

He expressed his happiness that the recently renovated library at 31st Street and Avenue C “looks very nice.”  Mr. Martin recalled having to take a bus from Bergen Point up Avenue C to visit it in his youth.  At the library, he discovered a book about how to write science fiction.  The young, future author checked that book out of the library “seventeen times.”  In a branch library in a storefront at 5th Street, Mr. Martin found adult books in the back of the building.  To his surprise, a library employee allowed young George to check out books for the grown-ups.  He said that reading classic adult books “helped make me less of a child.”  His conclusion is that “whatever we read is good for us,” and that people should be allowed to read and write what they want.  He credited Bayonne’s main library and the former 5th Street branch for having “a tremendous amount to do with my evolution as a writer.”  To this day, Mr. Martin reported that he “still wanders around the shelves” at bookstores.  

Mr. Martin concluded his remarks by expressing the hope that the library would continue to “thrive and renew itself.”

The Bayonne Historical Society and the Little Boho Book Shop made presentations to Mr. Martin.  He joined elected Director Scagnelli-Townley and elected officials for a ribbon-cutting at the front of the George R.R. Martin Popular Fiction Room.