Mother of the Brontes: When Maria Met Patrick by Sharon Wright

If you knew what were my feelings whilst writing this you would pity me. I wish to write the truth and give you satisfaction, yet fear to go too far, and exceed the bounds of propriety. Maria Branwell to The Rev. Patrick Bronte, August 26, 1812

When I consider my previously perceived character portrait of the Rev. Patrick Bronte, the man who drove his daughter Charlotte's suitor away, it is a revelation to see the young Patrick through the eyes of Maria Branwell, who became his wife and over nine years birthed six children with him. Theirs was a love story based on mutual ideals and values, a shared love of books, and, yes, physical attraction.

Unless my love for you were very great how could I so contentedly give up my home and all my friends--a home I loved so much that I have often thought nothing could bribe me to renounce it for any great length of time together, and friends with whom I have been so long accustomed to share all the vicissitudes of joy and sorrow? Yet these have lost their weight..." Maria Branwell to the Rev. Patrick Bronte, October 21, 1812

"My Brontes are not the famous ones, Sharon Wright begins, "Mine are the 'before they were famous' ones, Miss Branwell and Pat Prunty...the Bronte backstory, I suppose. The prequel."

And what a prequel story it is! In Mother of the Brontes we learn about Maria's Cornwall roots in Penzance with its busy port, thriving trade, and restless sea. The Branwells (or Brambles, Bremells, Brembels, Bremhalls, Brymmells, Brembles, Bromewells or Brummoles) clan had deep Penzance roots with masons and export/importers. On her mother's side, the Carnes also had deep Cornwall roots, with masons, craftsmen, and merchants.

Maria grew up in comfort and society. The Branwells were Methodys, and when Maria was six she meet John Wesley when he visited her mother's cousin, known as the father of Cornish Methodism. Her Aunt Jane Branwell married the Methodist preacher John Kingston. Later, they founded the first school for itinerant Methodist preacher's children.

And yet, Maria's merchant father was involved with the Penzance underground of smugglers! He refused revenue men entry and did business with "two of the town's busiest tax dodgers" and smugglers.

Maria was under 5 feet tall, as was her daughter Charlotte, always dressed in simple good taste. She was an avid reader enjoying poetry, Christian books, and The Lady's Magazine with its racy women's fiction. Maria enjoyed the Gothic romances so popular in her day. Her father was a violinist and Maria inherited her musical talent (later passed on to her daughters, particularly Emily).

When Maria was ten, France declared war on Britain and Cornwall sprang into defensive mode. Her brother joined the Home Guard. But it was domestic trouble they had to address when starving miners marched into town. Later, the French Wars became the Napoleonic Wars.

The supernatural also flourished in Cornwall. It was an exciting blend of "ghosts and smugglers, legends and liturgy, tea parties and revivals," Wright remarks.

After the deaths of their parents, Maria and her sisters lived together with a decent shared income.  She joined the Ladies Book Club whose selections included Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

When Aunt Jane and her husband's school for Methodist itinerant preacher's sons had grown to 60 boys, Maria was called upon to come and help keep the children clothed; Jane couldn't keep up with the mending.

And leaving her beloved home, Maria met the Rev. Patrick Bronte, the Irishman who won scholarships that took him from his family farm. He reinvented himself from Pat Prunty to Patrick Bronte. He knew Lord Palmerston from school and William Wilberforce helped him gain a scholarship for his ecclesiastical training.

The couple shared a love of books and an Evangelical bent. Their marriage was happy and they quickly had nine children, including the famous daughters.

Maria Branwell Bronte died at age 38. Her sister Elizabeth unwillingly left her home to take her sister's place in the household and ended up staying for the rest of her life.

Before Patrick's death, he had tragically lost every one of his children and was cared for by the son-in-law who he had once rejected as Charlotte's suitor.

This short biography shows Maria's legacy in her remarkable family, her literary aspirations, Evangelistic faith, and deep love for Patrick Bronte and their children.

Reading Mother of the Brontes brought images of Cornwall gleaned from Poldark and Daphne Du Maurier. Maria and Patrick made me think of John and Abigail Adams, a marriage of equals based on both shared intellectual ideals and physical attraction. The surviving letters and an essay by Rev. Bronte are included.

I enjoyed this engaging portrait of the Mother of the Brontes and it added to my understanding of this remarkable family.

I received an egalley from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Mother of the Brontës: When Maria Met Patrick
by Sharon Wright
Pen & Sword History
Pub Date 31 Jul 2019
EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781526738486
PRICE £19.99 (GBP)

As I was reading Mother of the Brontes I was also finishing my Bronte Sisters quilt! I have been making small quilts to celebrate favorite writers. It is based on the portrait by Branwell Bronte. I wanted to show the rich inner life of these women and the Jane Sassaman fabric used in the background was perfect, showing the lush richness of natural beauty, the hidden spiders and spider webs a nod to the life's dangers.

The Bronte Sisters by Nancy A. Bekofske

Helen Korngold Diary April 1-6, 1919

A hundred years ago Helen Korngold kept a diary that recorded her senior year at Washington Univerity, experience as a student teacher, and her social life in St. Louis. Every Saturday I am sharing a week's entries along with notes on my research into the people, places, and events Helen mentions.

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

April
Tuesday 1
April fool. Scandal Sheet came out. It wasn’t especially good. Karol drilled Boy Scouts.

Wednesday 2

Taught Wellston school all day II grade – kids were o.k. They were crazy about me. Oh, how I love myself! I’ve been thinking about Summer. Karol reminded me of him. I’m just naturally crazy! Well, must get busy & study.

Thursday 3
School. History is getting dreadfully hard. Nothing exciting. Home. Letter from Summer! I was so happy to get it – told me lots about his trip & first impressions of Little Rock.

Friday 4
School.  Danced 2 hours in gymie  – Mixer at night – pretty nice.

Saturday 5
School – Wells told me to cultivate my scientific imagination! Junior Council – elected me treasurer. Home with Roslyn Eberson, Corrine Wolf & Audrey Young. All of them raved about Summer’s photo – so did I!

Monday 7
School – Orchestra- Wrote notes for J. Council


NOTES:

April 1
The Washington University Scandal Sheet was shared by the university "forgotten history" at http://www.studlife.com/scene/2018/11/08/how-well-do-you-know-your-niche-wu-history/

Tuesday, April 1, 1919
Scandal Sheet: Profs Evade Dry Law Attempt to Avoid 18th Amendment
The 18th amendment was ratified in 1919 and prohibited the sale of intoxicating liquors. Miss Macaulay, “dean of the women,” walked down into the basement of the women’s dormitory, MacMillan Hall, in late March of 1919 and tripped over a “large cork.” She ended up finding three bottle tops and a corkscrew at the foot of the stairs. She then called in two other people to help her with her search. The article claims she said, “Friends, I smell a rat.” When the “friends” came back with bottles, they apparently said, “Miss Macaulay, you were wrong about smelling a rat; it was a bird. We have located 15 bottles of Old Crow.” My god. Apparently there was a whole horde of “wet goods” in the basement, and three professors were implicated in the findings of the booze because of three books that were found alongside the paraphernalia. One book was connected to a professor simply based on the initials written on the “flypiece.” A truly thrilling scandal.

April 4

St Louis Post Dispatch notice Friday, April 4 1919

Gymmie- a campus nickname for the gymnasium. The 1915 Hatchet mentions the McMillian Vaudeville being held at the “gymmie” instead of the Thyrsus “cubbie.”

April 5

Rosyln Eberson (born Jan 1900) on the 1910 census was living with parents Alex and Henrietta and her mother’s father Philip Augatstein. Alex was a clothing salesman. Rosyln graduated from Frank Louis Soldan HS in St. Louis in 1916. In 1929 she lived at Rosebury St. in St Louis. In 1920 Rosyln and her parents lived with her paternal grandparents Elias and Yetta Eberson. Elias worked for “Paint Co” and was born in Krakow. Rosalind was a stenographer at an insurance company on the 1920 and 1930 census. In May, 1939 she married Joseph Lederer.

Spring Dress ads from St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sunday, April 6, 1919:

The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Young Columbus and the Search for a Universal Library

In the tradition of Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve and Dava Sobel’s Galileo’s Daughter, a vividly rendered account of the forgotten quest by Christopher Columbus’s son to create the greatest library in the world—“a perfectly pitched poetic drama” (Financial Times) and an amazing tour through 16th century Europe.

I was intrigued--Columbus had a son who created the world's greatest library? Why hadn't we heard about him? What happened to all the books? How did he even embark on such a quest? I had to read this book.

Hernando may have been an illegitimate son but in 1502 his father Christopher Columbus took the thirteen-year-old along on his fourth voyage to the New World. Hernando started his life familiar with lands and cultures that most of the world didn't even know existed.

The book recounts Columbus's discoveries and his struggle to maintain his status and share of New World wealth for his heirs.

The Admiral of the Ocean reigned as the greatest explorer for only a short time before he was dethroned.  He became old news as successive explorers stole attention and acclaim. Spain sought to discredit Columbus as the first to discover the New World, desirous of keeping all the New World wealth. Hernando determined to return and solidify his father's status by writing a book about his father's life--essentially the first biography.

The other part of the book is Hernando's thirst for knowledge, his obsession with collecting books of every kind, in every language--even if he couldn't read them. He collected prints and maps and art and ephemera gleaned from small booksellers.

He kept lists of his books and when he lost over a thousand books in a shipwreck he knew which ones he needed to replace. He developed methods to catalog and organize the books and to retrieve the information in the books.

Hernando was called upon to create a definitive map of the New World so that Spain and Portugal could finalize their territorial rights. He began an exhaustive dictionary but abandoned it knowing he could never finish it.

As he traveled across Europe, Hernando came into contact with all the great thinkers whose ideas were rocking the world: Erasmus, Luther, Rabelais, Thomas More. During Hernando's lifetime, Henry was looking to divorce Catherine, Suleiman was conquering the Eastern reaches of Europe, and the Holy Roman Emperor was crowned as the head of church and state. Luther's teaching had fueled the Peasant's Revolt and the anti-authoritarian Anabaptist movement arose.

In his later life, Hernando settled down and built his house and perfected his library. His garden was an arboretum containing plants and trees from across the world.

Hernando's achievement was remarkable. His goal to order all human knowledge for accessible retrieval was monumental. But after his death, most of his work and library were lost to neglect and time.

Through the life of one man, The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books gave me a panoramic view of the 16th c., an overview of the life and achievements of Christopher Columbus, and a biography of his son Hernando.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World's Greatest Library
By Edward Wilson-Lee
Publication March 12, 2019
LIST PRICE $30.00
ISBN 9781982111397

What Have the Americans Ever Done for the World?

Hello, Americans! We have been having a bit of an image problem of late and truthfully we aren't looking quite as good as we used to, especially in comparison to some other countries which I shall not name.

Leave it to a Brit to remind us of our amazing legacy in Atom Bomb to Santa Claus! Basically a book of trivia on American inventions and inventors and artists in all categories of life, readers will be amazed at just what America can be thanked (or blamed) for.

Like air conditioning, first installed in 1924 at Detroit's J. L. Hudson Department store.

Author Trevor Homer briefly traces the history of shaving, including the Perrett "safety" razor that had a blade set in a wooden guard. But it took Americans King Camp Gillette, William Painter and William Nickerson to create the safety razor with disposable blades (thereby creating an eternal after-market).

Today across the world people of every class wear jeans, with zippers, both American born.

Bubblegum! Sliced bread! Coco-Cola! Liquid Paper! Kentucky Fried Chicken! Post-it Notes!Bubble Wrap! Where would we be without bubble wrap to pop? The hamburger and the hot dog and pizza as we know it--all American cuisine--as is the chocolate chip cookie and potato chips.

Okay, let's get serious now. The computer mouse, the Internet, email, Facebook, GPS, search engines, and video games--all American inventions. And credit cards and ATMs. Then there is rocket science and Frisbees that look like flying saucers. Don't forget Robber Barons and the megastores Amazon and Wal-Mart. Even criminals and hate groups and judicial punishments get their due! (Not as inspiring a chapter. Nor is the Weapons of War, from the revolver to the Atom Bomb.)

Howard covers music, too. Jazz and Rock and Roll and Punk and all the dance crazes and the machines we played records on, the Gramophone and the Jukebox (patented in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1905). And writers and architects and sports heroes and fashion designers.

I love the chapter on Unlikely Inventors. Where else would I learn that George Washington created the wine coaster to protect his linen tablecloths? Or that the swivel chair I sit on while typing this was an invention by Thomas Jefferson? Actor Steve McQueen invented the bucket seat for his racing cars and Zeppo Marx of the Marx Brothers invented the clamp which held the atomic bomb safe within the Enola Gay.

Then there are the movers and shakers of the world of invention, the Masters of Change, visionary inventors, moral leaders, and Thomas Nast, artist of political cartoons whose portrayal of Santa Claus set the standard which was later embellished by Coca-Cola's iconic Santa Claus ads.

Medical advancements and inventions include the polio vaccine (thanks to Henrietta Lack's immortal cells) and heart surgery to Botox and Viagra.

Howard ends his collection with a reminder of the basic Freedoms that are enjoyed in America, noting that while we may be far from a Utopia, we are still an example of what can be achieved in a free country.

Thank you, Mr. Howard, for reminding us.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Atom Bomb to Santa Claus: What Have the Americans Ever Done for Us?
by Trevor Homer
Thistle Publishing
Pub Date 29 Nov 2018
ISBN: 9781786080820
PRICE: £9.99 (GBP)

Wanamaker's Temple: The Business of Religion in an Iconic Department Store

We moved to Philadelphia from the Midwest. Exploring the city was exciting and most weekends found us walking and exploring the historical sites, museums, and department stores.

Entering John Wanamaker's atrium court stunned us. We were used to one or two story malls. Our families did not shop at Detroit's flagship Hudson's store. Entering Wanamaker's one looked up to floors of open side galleries to the massive organ, and looking about noted the marble floors and the bronze eagle that seemed to guard the space. We heard about the legendary Crystal Tea Room and lunched there.

We learned about 'meet me at the eagle' and the noontime organ concerts, the holiday displays, and that they had the best women's room in the city with couches and chairs in a lounge and some stalls that locked and had their own sink. I soon discovered where the sale racks were and frequented them for bargains.

Ad in Bicentennial Booklet; from my personal collection

During our years in Philly we watched Lit Brothers and Gimbel's close. I loved to shop at Strawbridge & Clothier and Wanamaker's and am glad they closed after we left to return to the Midwest. Shortly after our return, Detroit's iconic department store Hudson's closed and became Macy's.

I never forgot those downtown stores.

My husband had heard a little about John Wanamaker's involvement with the Sunday School movement. I knew the eagle statue and organ were from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase World's Fair. Otherwise, I knew little about the man behind the store.

Wanamaker's Temple by Nicole C. Kirk was a revelation. I was fascinated to learn how the store I loved came to be built. President Taft personally attended the grand opening. It was a mecca of art and music and culture. Maestro Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra and John Philip Sousa had performed in the Grand Court. Art installations appeared throughout the store.

The book is about far more than one man and a retail store. Wanamaker was a relentless force in a movement that drove American religious institutions and birthed numerous organizations.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, civic and faith leaders, primarily white Protestants, were concerned about the growing urban immigrant population, who often lived in poverty and in neighborhoods afflicted by gang violence. These men wanted to shape a moral Christian society. The movement grew and expanded from addressing educational concerns and temperance to creating the Salvation Army and YMCA. They believed that architecture and the arts were elevating civic forces and that good taste was a part of the Christian armor of God. They believed that by addressing the practical needs of the poor and the immigrant, along with their spiritual and civic growth, they could form better citizens. The movement was a blend, being both progressive and evangelical.

The amoral greed of business and the consumerism of ready-made goods at this time meant business and Christianity seemed to be at war with each other. I graduated from Temple University and knew it's founder Russell Conwell preached "Acres of Diamonds" but I did not understand his message connected Godliness with the pursuit and accumulation of wealth--The Prosperity Gospel is still around today. Wanamaker was pressed by the revivalist Dwight L.Moody to leave business to save his soul, but Wanamaker was determined he could blend his faith and his business.

John Wanamaker, born on the wrong side of the tracks and educated at a mission Sunday School, had worked his way from the bottom to become a successful Philadelphia clothier. While building his retail business, Wanamaker was also building a Sunday School in his hometown of Gray's Ferry, using advertising tactics learned in business. It expanded to over 6,000 students requiring him to build a huge Gothic church that accommodated 1500. He started a bank to encourage savings and life skills coaching to teach "middle-class values." He also was active in the establishment of the YMCA.

Wanamaker had a vision of a store that would inspire awe. He embraced his store 'family' and created educational and recreational programs, even summer camps along the Jersey Shore.

John Wanamaker Sr. was an abolitionist who employed freemen in his brickyard. His son employed African Americans in his store, but as elevator operators and other behind the scene jobs, never as sales clerks. He organized separate social groups, as well, and they were excluded from his summer camp at the Jersey shore and store 'family' publicity photographs.

Kirk kept my interest throughout the book, her multilayered approach bringing an understanding of one man and his philosophy in the context of his times. It knitted together many aspects of American culture and provided me with a better understanding of society 100 years ago.

I thoroughly enjoyed Wanamaker's Temple as biography and history.

Wanamaker's Temple: The Business of Religion in an Iconic Department Store
by Nicole C. Kirk
NYU Press
Pub Date 23 Oct 2018
Hardcover $35.00 (USD)
ISBN 9781479835935

****

In the 1960s textile designer Tammis Keefe created a series of souvenir handkerchiefs,. The Philadelphia themed handkerchief designs included Meet Me At The Eagle for John Wanamaker's department store. Here are some color versions from my personal collection.

Below is a nylon scarf with the same design.

Other designs in the series include the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Declaration of Independence, the Betsey Ross House, and Rittenhouse Square. I have all but the Ross house in my collection.

WWI Sheet Music: The Dead of No Man's Land

No Man's Land. You know it from countless films. The land between the armies that was cordoned off by barbed wire and filled with land mines, a blasted landscape that looked more like Hell than France. In WWI men were ordered 'over the top' of the foxholes to charge across the open land as enemy guns were shooting at them.

Most of the WWI songs like The Laddies Who Fought and Won by Harry Lauder were rousing, pro-war propaganda. Listen to a recording of Lauder singing it here.

There's a dear old lady,
Mother Britain is her name,
And she's all the world to me.
She's a dear old soul, always the same,
With a heart a big as three.
And when troubles and trials are knocking at her door, 
And the day seems dark and long,
Her sons on the land and her sons on the sea
They all march to this song,

[Chorus] 
When the fighting is over, and the war is won,
And the flags are waving free,
When the bells are ringing ,
And the boys are singing songs in ev'ry key,
When we all gather' round the old fireside,
And the old mother kisses her son,
A' the lassies will be loving all the laddies,
The laddies who fought and won.

[Verse 2]
We can all look back to the his'try of the past
That has made us what we are.
We have pledged our word we all shall hold fast,
Be the day away so far.
And till that time comes, let us fight and fight
Let us fight till vic'try's won.
We will never give in, we are out to win
To the very last man and gun.

Other songs that told a different story. Stories about the men who never came home to be kissed by the ladies. Stories of those at home who felt the loss of fathers and sons and husbands. It is believed that 20 million soldiers died in WWI, 2 in 3 from combat. In 1921 the Census of England and Wales had revealed that there were 1.72 million more women than men.

A real heartbreaker, Hello Central! Give Me No Man's Land by Samm. Lewis, Joe Young and Jean Schwartz, 1918, with a cover by Barbelle, was sung by Al. Jolson with all the wavering voice emotion he is famous for. The song is the story of a child who is secretly trying to call her daddy at the war. It can be considered an anti-war song. Listen to Jolson sing it here.

When the gray shadows creep
And the world is asleep,
In the still of the night
Baby creeps down a flight.
First she looks all around
Without making a sound;
The baby toddles up to the telephone
And whispers in a baby tone:

"Hello, Central! Give me No Man's Land,
My daddy's there, my mamma told me;
She tip-toed off to bed
After my prayers were said;
Don't ring when you get the number,
Or you'll disturb mamma's slumber.
I'm afraid to stand here at the 'phone
'Cause I'm alone.
So won't you hurry;
I want to know why mamma starts to weep
When I say, 'Now I lay me down to sleep';
Hello, Central! Give me No Man's Land."
[Repeat]

Through the curtains of the night
Comes a beautiful light
And the sunshine that beams
Finds a baby in dreams.
Mamma look in to see
Where her darling can be
She finds her baby still in her slumber deep
A whispering while she's fast asleep:

"Hello, Central! Give me No Man's Land,
My daddy's there, my mamma told me;
She tip-toed off to bed
After my prayers were said;
Don't ring when you get the number,
Or you'll disturb mamma's slumber.
I'm afraid to stand here at the 'phone
'Cause I'm alone.
So won't you hurry;
I want to know why mamma starts to weep
When I say, 'Now I lay me down to sleep';
Hello, Central! Give me No Man's Land."

****

Throughout my sharing from my WWI vintage sheet music collection, I have shared both pro-war and antiwar songs. I want to share a more modern song about the war which my husband and I first heard sung by Priscilla Herdman in concert.

In 1976 Eric Bogle wrote No Man's Land, also known as The Green Fields of France and as Willie McBride. Listen to Bogle sing it here. Listen to Herdman's version here.

Well how do you do, Private William McBride
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side?
A rest for awhile in the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done
And I see by your gravestone that you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or, William McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the pipes lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers o' the Forest'?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in 1916
To that loyal heart are you always 19
Or are you just a stranger without even a name
Forever enclosed behind some glass-pane
In an old photograph torn and tattered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?
(Chorus)

Well the sun it shines down on these green fields of France
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
The trenches are vanished now under the plough
No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it is still No Man's Land
And the countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation that was butchered and downed
(Chorus)

And I can't help but wonder now Willie McBride
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause?
Did you really believe them that this war would end war?
But the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame -
The killing, the dying - it was all done in vain
For Willie McBride, it's all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again
(Chorus)

Read about WWI songs as propaganda at Parlour Songs Academy here and Over There: Sheet Music and Propaganda During WWI from the NY Historical Society here.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

I remember when I first heard there was a place where one could borrow all the books one wanted to read.

My elementary school, Philip Sheridan, was brand new and filled with recently published children's books. There was a small library in my second-grade classroom and after the teacher read a book out loud to the class I would borrow it and read the book myself. Then I started to pick up other books, like the biography of Robert Louis Stevenson which I read over and over. I knew his book of children's poetry A Child's Garden of Verses--now I knew there was a man behind the words.

When the teacher said there was a whole building of books called a library I went home and asked my mother if she would take me to the library.

She said I was too young and a year passed before we walked down the road to the Sheridan Parkside Library and I got my first library card. It was so hard to choose my three books! I borrowed Follow My Leader, which our teacher had read to the class, a history of Australia because I had an Australian pen pal, and D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths.

Wherever we moved, I continued to frequent libraries. And when our son was born, I would put him in the stroller and walk to the local library. As a preschooler, he would borrow 15 books a week. As a high schooler, he volunteered at the library resale bookstore. I joined book clubs at the local library wherever we moved. I made friends with librarians at the smaller libraries and the staff would know us. But I had never given much thought about everything that goes on to make a library run.

I had enjoyed Susan Orlean's book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend and that motivated me to want to read The Library Book. As I read it I found myself thinking about the many libraries in my life, appreciating them more and more.

Orlean begins with stories of libraries in her life growing up and how she wanted her son to have the same experience. Going to the Los Angeles Central Library, one of the most beautiful buildings she had ever seen, she learned about the April 29, 1986 fire that destroyed a million books.

Why don't we remember this event? Chernobyl took over the news that week.

Orlean's book is a history of the Los Angeles Central Library, the investigation into the fire, the extraordinary work to save the books, and an exploration into the role of libraries in society today.

When investigators can't determine the cause of a fire it is considered arson, and then comes the search for the person who started the fire. The case centered on Harry Peak, a fabulist with a deep need for attention.

We meet the memorable people who make the library run and see how the library functions in today's society as a democratic, open, public space. The LA library has developed outreach programs to the homeless and unemployed and offers a safe place for teenagers.

Libraries everywhere are changing to meet the needs of its community. Digital books audiobooks are available to download to electronic devices. In our small suburban city full of young families the library has intergenerational coloring days, reading to pets, speakers and concerts, Lego days, movies, card making, scrapbooking, magic shows, and of course book clubs and summer reading programs.

I enjoyed the book as history and for its insights into an institution sometimes considered outdated, but which the Millennial generation has embraced. Most of all, I am grateful that Orlean has made me better appreciate librarians and library staff for their contributions.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Library Book
by Susan Orlean
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date 16 Oct 2018 
ISBN 9781476740188
PRICE $28.00 (USD)

Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy in the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell About It

In Adrift, Brian Murphy recounts the journey of the packet ship John Rutledge from its navigation down the Mersey River to the ice fields that sank four ships in 1856. Nearly 1,000 souls died in three months, with commercial losses in the millions of dollars. The Irish immigrants and crew on board the Rutledge were all lost, save one man. This is his story.

I love a good adventure story, and if there are ships and ice involved, I'm all in. I was also interested in reading Brian Murphy's Adrift because it is about Irish immigrants, who in 1856 had scrimped and saved for their passage, hopeful they would find a better life in America. My own Irish ancestors left their homeland for England, a much shorter sea journey. But the reasons for leaving their homeland would have been the same, as well as their poverty.

The book is based on the story of Thomas Nye, a New Bedford maritime sailor who was twenty-two when he shipped on the packet ship John Rutledge out of Liverpool. The ship carried over 100 Irish passengers, bound for New York. 

In 1903, just two years before his death, a journalist interviewed Nye who told the story of the sinking of the Rutledge, his nine days asea watching the other survivors succumb to the elements and dehydration, and his providential rescue.

Murphy takes us on Nye's journey, recreating the events, drawing from Nye's writings, ships logs, and newspaper accounts. We are there when the ship strikes a berg and during the launching of the lifeboats. We experience Nye watching as his fellow passengers in an open board are driven to desperate measures and die until only he is left.

It is a tale of harrowing adventure, but also a study of human nature in desperate circumstances when conventional morality and social norms are washed away. There is no cannibalism involved, thankfully, for as Murphy shares, sometimes that did happen.

Reforms to improve maritime safety did not advance until the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. (Some things never change: the lives of impoverished immigrant families did not spur safety advances, but the deaths of some of the richest men in the world did.)

As climate change accelerates the calving of Greenland's ice sheet, more icebergs will clog shipping lanes. Today we have communication between ships and ship and shore, and knowledge of where the ice fields are.

Murphy is a journalist with the Washington Post and the author of three books.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It
by Brian Murphy
Da Capo Press
Pub Date 04 Sep 2018
ISBN: 9780306902000
Hardcover $27.00 (USD)

Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World

Joshua B. Freeman's Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World was more than an intellectual experience, for I was reading about the forces behind my personal family history.

My Greenwood ancestors were cotton mill workers in Lancashire, England, at least going back to my great-great-great grandfather.

My grandfather worked at Standard Steel in Burnham, PA as a teenager to money for college. During WWII, Gramps and his family lived in a 'temporary' housing project when he worked at  Chevrolet Aviation Engine Division of GMC testing airplane struts. He later relocated to Detroit to work for GM.

My dad's mother worked at Remington Rand in Tonawanda, NY, as did my mom. My brother is a Ford engineer.

While in college, my husband worked summers as a welder at Buick. His father worked for Fisher Body in Flint. And his widowed grandmother worked at GM, the only female on the factory floor. When she was wanted, the men called out for "Girl" and that became her family nickname. She brought food to strikers during the famous GM sit-down strike and was a proud union member.

When Dad was hired by Chrysler in 1963, about 24% of American workers were employed in manufacturing, but only 8% today. How did we evolve to now, with overseas mega-factories paying abysmal wages and the struggle for young adults to retain their parents' middle-class status?

What happened? Once factories were associated with progress, modernity, and social betterment. Today we think of empty ruins in the Rust Belt, or overseas cheap labor turning out Apple iPhones and expensive running shoes with logos.
Like the empty Quaker Lace and Stetson Hat and other factories in Kensington, Philadelphia where we lived in 1980.

The book left me overwhelmed, in a good way. Each chapter sent my head spinning with information and insights. Some things I knew about, like the Lancashire mills where my Greenwood ancestors worked, or the New England Mills that many quilt historians write about. And of course, Detroit's auto factories and war effort manufacturing, and the Detroit Institute of Arts famous mural by Diego Rivera of Detroit Industry.

It was satisfying to know more details about these aspects of the history of the factory. But what really caught me by surprise was how interesting the later chapters were on issues such as how America helped the Soviets build factories after WWI and how mass merchandizing's demand for cheap products led to the growth of factories in countries with cheap labor sources.

The book brought together information in a narrative that helped me to better understand the Modern world.

I thought this would be a fascinating book when I requested it from the publisher through NetGalley. It kept my interest to the end.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Behemoth:

A HISTORY OF THE FACTORY AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD
Joshua B. Freeman
Publication Date: February 2018
ISBN 978-0-393-24631-5

$27.95

My Family and Factories

I live in my childhood home, a modest suburban ranch home, made possible because my Dad worked in the auto industry.

In 1963 he sold the gas and service station his father built in the 1940s to move to Detroit. He found work at the Chrysler road test garage and later he worked at the Highland Park plant as an experimental mechanic in the Windshield Wiper and small motor labs. Overtime pay, health benefits, and a good retirement offered my family a comfortable working-class life.

Dad at work at Chrysler

Dad's mother Emma Becker was working in the North Tonawanda, NY Remington Rand factory when she met my grandfather Al Gochenour. After graduating from high school my mother worked a comptograph at Rand.

Mom's father worked at Standard Steel in Burnham, PA before he went to college in 1923. He wrote about how as a child, nearby textile mills dumped dyes into the local creek, which ran different colors on different days. Burnham was a town built around the steel mill to house workers.

During WWII Gramps tested airplanes at the Chevrolet Aviation Engine Division of GMC in Tonawanda-Kenmore, N.Y. After the war, he was a stress engineer of frames, suspensions, brakes, etc. on Chevy trucks in Warren, Mich. His son worked on the line for GM, as did one of my cousins.

My grandfather at the Chevrolet Aviation Engine Division of GMC in Tonawanda, NY in 1952.

In fact, three generations of my family have worked for the Detroit auto companies, for my brother is a Ford engineer.

But my family roots as factory workers go back even further. At least three generations of my Greenwood ancestors worked in the cotton mills in Lancashire, England.

The 1891 Census for Newchurch, Lancashire shows my great-grandfather Cropper, age nine. (A Cropper in the textile industry was a highly skilled worker who used hand shears to cut and even the surface on woven wool.) His father William, age 48, was a warper; that meant he set up the long parallel warp yarns on the looms. The eldest son, David H. (Hartley) at age 15 was a weaver; he later ran a garden. When older, the girls had jobs as machinists in factories.

William Cropper and family

Cropper's grandfather Hartley Greenwood (b. 1803) also worked in the mills. In 1851 he was a cotton warp sizer; the census shows at age 74 he was a cotton twister living up in the Union Workhouse. The 1861 census shows his son John was also a cotton warp sizer, daughter Sarah was a cotton power loom weaver, and sons Hartley, age 12, and Cropper, age 10, were cotton mill operatives and scholars. Cropper's great-grandfather John Greenwood (b. 1762) was a cotton weaver.

My father-in-law had a white-collar, non-union job with Fisher Body in Flint; after his retirement, the factory closed and then was torn down. His widowed mother worked for GM. The family called her Girl, a nickname she picked up when she was the only female on the factory floor. The men would call "Girl" and give her orders. She was involved with the famous sit-down strike, delivering food to the strikers. She was a proud Union member.

Even my husband worked as a welder at the GM factory summers while in college. The men encouraged him in his studies. 

The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt

I found great enjoyment in reading The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt.  He examines the stories humans have created of our first parents, from prehistory's myths to the challenge of scientific evidence shaking a literal reading of the Bible.

Adam and Eve is one of the great stories in Western literature, a tale that has morphed from folklore to Christian canon to inspiration for artistic and literary masterworks and finally become relegated again to myth--a story with meaning--it's historic veracity disproved by science.

In the beginning we humans created stories to explain the world and our place in it. Stories from societies immemorial have come down to us via clay tablets, the Enuma Elish and the epic Gilgamesh. These known four-thousand-year-old tales are but 'later' contributions in human history.

In the Western world, the biblical story of Adam and Eve had its roots in the earlier myths but soon displaced them with the spread of Christianity. Early theologian St. Augustine insisted on a literal reading of the story. Renaissance art focused on Biblical stories, bringing Adam and Eve come to life as real people. John Milton, a radical in many ways, wrote his masterpiece Paradise Lost, which consolidated Christian's vision of the 'real' Adam and Eve.

Greenblatt contends that this very elevation of the story of Adam and Eve from a story with meaning to 'historic truth' was in fact its downfall. There are too many questions that arise. I recall, back in the early 1980s, when a man asked, "Where did Cain get a wife? " He told me he figured that Cain took an ape as wife and that is where people of color come from. This is the awful kind of problem that literalism leads to!

Darwin's observations during his time on the HMS Beagle led to his life's work proving and testing the theory of evolution. Theologians scrambled to reconcile science and the literal reading of the Bible.

I was taught (auditing a seminary class) that a myth is a story with meaning, humanity's endeavor to put into words the unknowable. It is not diminished because it is not literally true. Science holds the Theory of Evolution as a theory, the best understanding that scientific evidence and observation and testing can offer us at this time. Oddly, DNA evidence offers us an "Eve"-- a common first human ancestor.

I enjoyed how Greenblatt brought everything together into a rich narrative.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve
Stephen Greenblatt
W.W. Norton
Hardcover $27.95
ISBN: 978-0-393-24080-1

The Great Nadar: The Man Behind the Camera.

The Great Nadar.

Who?

The Man Behind the Camera.

I had no clue who Nadar was. But, reading the promo blurb and learning that this Nadar knew every important Parisian artist and writer, my interest was piqued.

Adam Begley's book The Great Nadar introduced me to this 19th c Parisian luminary who loved the 'new' and was on the cutting edge of every development.

Nadar (1820-1910) was born Gaspard-Felix Tournachon. His nickname, Nadar, came from his friends when a young man, and it became his "trademark and most valuable property."

He was a master in self-promoting. He was a risk taker who gave 100% to every new venture. He was a failed medical student. He "threw himself" into "startup newspapers and little magazines." He was the ultimate Bohemian living in poverty. He reinvented himself as a successful caricaturist and then as a pioneering photographer. He was a balloonist who envisioned helicopters and was the first to take an aerial photograph. During the Siege of Paris, his balloonists got news out to the world. He then helped get news into Paris through microfilm inserted into quills that were carried by homing pigeons.

A tall, thin man with orange hair, Nadar was beloved by his friends for his brilliant conversation and high spirits. He had impeccable taste in furnishing his photography studio and an impressive art collection. Nadar hobnobbed with the great stars of his time and they all sat for him to photograph.

His photography was familiar to me. He had the ability to capture his subject's nature and character. After reading Elizabeth Berg's novel on George Sand, The Dream Lover, I went online to learn more about Sand. It was Nadar's photographs that I found.

George Sand photographed by Nadar

I had known his work long before I knew Nadar himself.

I enjoyed this biography. Nadar was forever fascinating. The many presentations of Nadar's work was wonderful.

I received a free ebook through First to Read in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Great Nadar
by Adam Begley
Crown/Duggan
$30 (256p)
ISBN 978-1-101-90260-8

Ice Ghosts: 200 Years Searching for the Lost Franklin Expedition

In 1847 Sir John Franklin left England and his adoring wife Lady Jane to seek the fabled Northwest Passage. He was 59 years old and it was his fourth journey to the Arctic. He had survived starvation on his second journey. This expedition was prepared with three years of food, included new-fangled canned foods. He had powerful, heated ships. The explorer Ross promised to rescue Franklin if he did not come home.

Nothing went as planned. Extreme ice stranded the ships. Their canned food was tainted. Their maritime boots and clothing were inadequate. Franklin died and his men left the boats encased in ice, journeyed on foot, and died of exposure and starvation.

Lady Jane pressed for a search and rescue mission and spent her fortune in the quest to find her husband. For over a hundred years, enthralled by the mysterious disappearance, men went on the hazardous journey to the Arctic, hoping to solve the mystery of the lost Franklin Expedition.

My interest in polar exploration dates to junior high when I read The Great White South about the lost Scott Expedition. Over the years I've read books including Frances Spufford's I Shall Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination and Knud Rasmussen's biography White Eskimo by Stephen Bown. I loved the historical fiction book based on Franklin Voyage of the Narwhal  by Andrea Barrett and Dan Simmons' supernatural take in The Terror.

The first part of Ice Ghosts recounts the history of the expedition and the early rescue attempts, presenting the historical facts. The second part of the book is a wonderful examination of the the modern search for Franklin, including Inuit culture and history and their contribution of new information about Franklin.

Watson vividly describes the experience of the Arctic--the initial thrill followed by the freezing that can take mere minutes. The months of darkness and isolation. This environment demands cooperation to survive. I loved learning about the Inuit culture and people and their contribution to the knowledge of Franklin through their oral histories.

Louie Kamookak is the great-grandson of an Inuk storyteller and respected shaman who assisted the the Inuit anthropologist Knud Rasmussen. Rasmussen recorded the Inuit way of life as it was before being disrupted by Europeans, including enforced separation of children into mission schools where they faced abuse, resulting in 4,100 deaths.

Kamookak also had a grandfather who was an Irish trader, Gibson, who had found a marker left by an 1859 search party, and who found skeletons in another location. Kamookak's grandmother had told him that as a girl she had seen Franklin artifacts; she had taken a blunt metal knife and refashioned it into an ice chisel.

A history of tragedy and bad luck shared by Franklin searchers did not prevent Kamookak from an obsession to learn more.  He recorded oral histories from his elders to understand what had happened to the expedition. The native people knew where Franklin's men had died and where the ships settled.

The search for the Terror, Erebus, and Franklin's grave has become an international battleground. Artifacts left in situ can be disturbed by a storm and lost. But if they are collected they will soon decay. As climate change melts the ice it turns the land into swamps. Oil companies hope to drill in the Arctic, which would endanger the environment; they have funded researchers whose knowledge and new equipment are helpful to their goal.

The ships have now been found and some artifacts collected. But the grave of Franklin is yet to be discovered. The 'epic hunt' remains, as does our fascination. Watson's book is an important contribution and is sure to help another generation fall under the thrall of the tragic story of the Franklin Expedition.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

See recovered artifacts at
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/20/magazine/franklin-expedition.html?_r=0
See a video of the Terror at
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2016/sep/13/sir-john-franklins-ship-found-in-arctic-168-years-after-sinking-video
Hear Stan Rogers singing Northwest Passage at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVY8LoM47xI&list=RDTVY8LoM47xI#t=0

Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition
Paul Watson
W. W. W. Norton & Company
$27.95 hard cover
Publication Date: March 21, 2017
ISBN: 9780393249385

The Remarkable Journey of the First Female President of Liberia

Madame President, Helene Cooper's biography of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female president of Liberia, was not an easy book to read. The history of Liberia is so horrendous, the violence so overwhelming, the suffering of her people unimaginable that I had to often step away; Cooper does not tidy things up for easy reading.

The story of Liberian female empowerment is remarkable, a courageous story from a country where an estimated 75% of the women have encountered rape and sexual abuse. Ellen herself rose from abused wife to a Harvard education, from mother to leadership in the international banking industry, from working for a dictator to her democratic election as President.

Ellen made mistakes and learned from them. She made contacts and used them. She switched from 'bush' to Western as needed. But always she believed in a better Liberia, a fiscally sound and prosperous future, a land of peace.

Liberia was established by United States leadership as a way of dealing with the 'problem' of free African Americans. The idea was to buy land and establish a country where we could export slaves and free blacks back to Africa. John Quincy Adams was against this plan on the grounds that the free blacks were Americans and had a right to remain in their country of birth. But many slave owning presidents liked the plan, including Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe--for whom the Liberian capital Monrovia was named.

This book covers the series of brutal "presidential" dictators who siphoned public money for personal use, kept leadership in the family, and raised child armies to murder civilians--including their mothers--and rape their way across the country. The country's infrastructure was destroyed. The only way women fed their families was by going into the country to buy produce which they sold on the streets--the 'market women' who later organized, and by getting women out to vote, elected Ellen president.

Ellen's background in banking helped her secure loan relief, restoring solvency and the infrastructure--then Ebola arrived. Madame President called on President Obama to send aid. His quick response helped Liberia contain the outbreak, to the benefit of the country, the continent, and the world.

Reading about African history is a grim reminder of how tenuous maintaining a republic can be. It is also a reminder of how one person can make a difference, even a flawed person.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Read about the Liberian born, Pulitzer winning author Helene Cooper at
http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Helene-Cooper/18871279


Madame President: the Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
by Helene Cooper
Simon & Schuster
Publication Date March 7, 2017
$27 hard cover
ISBN: 9781451697353

High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic

You know the film. Sheriff Kane has married a Quaker beauty and is hanging up his gun and turning in his badge to run a shop. Then Kane learns that a gang is out to get even--Kane's life to pay for his arrest of their leader, now out of jail.

Get out of town, everyone advises. This two-bit town wasn't worth dying for.

Kane knows you can't escape the past. He had to face the danger and end it once and for all. As he tries to form a posse Kane discovers he is alone; everyone else in town justifies retreating into their protective shells.

Clocks tick off the minutes until noon when the train carrying his nemesis arrives. Kane is left alone on the empty street of a town without moral conviction, friendless; even his pacifist wife is leaving town without him. It is Kane alone against four armed men bent on murder.

The simple song with the hoofbeat rhythm tells the story, and its melody morphs and evolves, becoming menacing and persistent, until it is High Noon.

Stanley Kramer owed United Artists one more film to fulfill his contract, then he could get on making movies under his own studio. Screenwriter Carl Foreman had been working on an idea for several years, High Noon. They secured the over-the-hill but still box worthy actor Gary Cooper to play the lead, and newbie Grace Kelly to be his wife.

No one thought the film would amount to much. Cooper's acting lacked oopmh, Kelly was too young, and, used to emoting to the back row in the theater, over-acted. The early film version was deemed awful and needed cutting and remaking.

I was thrilled to read Glenn Frankel's book High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic. High Noon is a favorite film in my household. I know it scene by scene. Frankel's account of how the film was made was fascinating and exciting. Frankel portrays Gary Cooper as a handsome Lothario, also described as one of the nicest, greatest guys; Carl adores Coop.  Frank Cooper was the son of a Montana lawyer who wanted to be an artist but could not afford art school. He went to Hollywood after learning they needed stunt artists. He was a quick study. His handsome good looks caught the eye of Clara Bow for her famous movie It. Gary Cooper was born.

What really makes this book relevant and important is learning how the Cold War fostered an era of fear that allowed wholesale persecution.

Before High Noon was complete Carl Foreman's name was given to the House Un-American Committee as a member of the Communist Party. Carl had been a member, drawn to its Anti-Fascism and promotion of the rights of minorities, Jews, immigrants, and unions. Carl had signed an oath in 1950 saying he was not (then) a member of the Communist Party.

The Communist Party of the early 20th c attracted progressive liberals and intellectuals who supported such 'un-American' ideals as unionizing and workers rights; their agenda did not include the overthrow of the United States. The Communist Party was seen as a social club, a place for making connections. When Russia became an ally against Hitler, Hollywood was called upon to portray positive images in films like Song of Russia and Mission to Moscow.

The House Un-American Committee 'quizzed' accused Communists, rewarding those who cooperated with reprieve, but not always forgiveness. Milton Berkeley gave the Committee 150 names and was their darling; yet when his son graduated from Yale he was denied acceptance into the Navy's Officer Training Program, blacklisted because his father had once been a Communist!

Carl could have played their game, admit his sins and name several Communist party members they already knew about. He'd be off the hook, perhaps with his career damaged, but not over. Carl would not bend his convictions; he'd rather go to jail. Alone and afraid he faced the tribunal. They were not pleased.

Carl was a liability. Kramer fired Carl; no studio could afford to be associated with Communism. Cooper, a Republican anti-Communist, believed in and supported Carl and wanted to help him start his own company; the deal fell through. Even Cooper couldn't defeat the HUAC and stand up to the threat of blacklisting. Foreman went to England and went on to write The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Guns of Navarone, The Mouse that Roared, Born Free, and Young Winston.

The HUAC's abuse of power was finally addressed by the Supreme Court in an a1957 ruling, stating that "There is no general authority to expose the private affairs of individuals without justification in terms of the functions of Congress. Nor is the Congress a law enforcement or trial agency." Senator Joseph McCarthy's fall also damaged the HAUC's credibility.

Carl Foreman had lost his job; his name was expunged in the credits of High Noon and The Bridge on the River Kwai; his passport had been revoked; and his marriage damaged. And yet years later, back in America, he ran into John Wayne, an ardent anti-communist. They embraced as old friends. When Carl asked how he could accept an old enemy so nicely he replied that Wayne was a patriot and had only been doing what he thought was right.

In times of national stress fear manifests in attacks against perceived threats, which in hindsight are seen as ill-advised, unconstitutional, and morally suspect. The red-baiting witch hunts of the 1950s were such a time. Frankel's book reminds us of the cost of allowing our fear to negate the rights guaranteed by our laws and warns against the misuse of power.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

High Noon
Glenn Frankel
Bloomsbury
Publication February 21, 2017
$28 hard cover
ISBN: 9781620409480