Helen Korngold Diary, April 7-13, 1919

Each week this year I am sharing from the 1919 diary of Helen Korngold. Helen was a student at Washington University in St. Louis. She became a teacher with a long career before marrying Fritz Herzog, a renowned mathematician. I include notes from my research into the people, places, and events Helen mentions.

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

April

Tuesday 8
School – good classes. Lil Tiger – Ev. Cohn & Ed Siff were up in the evening – rehearse for law case. Anna & husband Lustig also came up.

Wednesday 9
School – played basketball – went to Pauline Carp’s – practiced – studied. K received letter from Summer.

Thursday 10
School – home- sleep- solo & orchestra playing Thurs. Eve at Naphtali lodge – Masonic order – home- write letters to Ida & Ruth.

Friday 11
School – almost fell asleep in Well’s class – driest thing on earth. Dancing. To Temple with Harry Vogel.

Saturday 12
School – good classes. Study till 4 – walked a bit with Pauline – went to see grandma & came home. Study & work on Ed. topic in evening.

Sunday 13
Herbert Pawlinger came to St L. He’s the sweetest, handsomest, finest chap in 2 hemispheres, Karol excepted. He & pop had an accident but they came out whole. Herb had dinner with us. We went to trial at Temple in evening – it was wonderful – danced till 12 bells.

NOTES:

April 8

Lillian Rosalind Tiger was in the 1922 Senior class of Washington University. She appears on the 1920 St. Louis Census, age 19, living with her father Isodore, born in Russia, Jewish, and working as a ‘jobber’ in the clothing industry. Her mother was Bessie Cohn Tiger. Her sister Ethel and brother Louis were clothing salesmen. According to the 1913 Gould Directory, Isodore resided on Russell Rd in St. Louis.



Evelyn Cohn appears on the 1920 census as Jewish Russian born September 26, 1898. She worked as a stenographer in a shoe company. Her sister was a 'steno' with a paper company. They lived with their mother widowed Ida along with two more sisters. The 1929 St. Louis city directory shows she was a saleswoman at the Grand Leader Department Store. Evelyn died in October 1975 in West Palm Beach, FL.

Anna and Edward Lustig appear on the 1920 St Louis Census where he worked as a jobber in ladies ready to wear.

April 10

Naphtali Lodge #25 was chartered on October 14, 1839, and is the only remaining Blue Lodge that still meets at the New Masonic Temple in St. Louis, MO. http://www.blogger.com/profile/13485702033465159118
A history of Free Masonry and Judaism can be found here: http://www.masonicworld.com/education/files/mar05/freemasonry_and_judaism.htm

April 11
Article from the Jewish Voice


Several Harry Vogels can be discovered. Harry Fred Vogel was a grocer in 1900. Harry Vogel in later city directories is a restaurateur. On the 1910 Census, a Harry Fred Vogel and son Harry Fred Vogel worked at a car company. Harry Vogel born 1895 is a clerk on the 1916 city directory. WWI draft registration shows a Harry F. Vogel, Jr. born in 1890 in the U.S. Another WWI draft registration shows a Harry Vogel born in 1888 in Germany. A WWII draft registration shows Harry Fred Vogel born in St Louis and living in Indianapolis, Indiana and working for Los Angeles machinery supply.

April 13

Herbert Lincoln Pawliger (2/121894 to 11/1967) lived with his family at 1915 Broadway in New York City.

His WWI Draft Registration shows he was of medium height and build with brown hair and eyes. He was a clothing salesman for Jay Tee Frocks.

On the 1910 New York Census was 16 and living with his family Max, 48 born in 1882, and a manufacturer of furs; Nettie, 40, born in 1883; Arthur, 19 and a salesman; and Ruth E. age 14 and born in 1895.

On the 1920 New York Census, he was in commercial sales, living with his parents and Arthur, a photographer, and Ruth who was a clerk at Standard Oil.

On the 1925 New York City Census he was living with his family: father Max Pawliger, who was a fur merchant in the company of Pawliger and Staubsinger; mother Nettie; and siblings Arthur and Ruth E.

 The 1930 New York Census shows Herbert and his family the same as the 1930 information.

Hebert’s WWII Draft registration shows he worked at Jay-Tee Frocks and was married to Minna. They had a child Winifred.

In December Helen and her parents and at least one sister visited the Pawlings in New York City in December at the invitation of Ruth Pawling.

April 13, 1919 ads from St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Stix, Bauer & Fuller ad

Classic to Contemporary String Quilts

Classic to Contemporary String Quilts by Mary M. Hogan offers 14 quilt projects perfect for scrap quilting, using pieces of all sizes. What quilter doesn't need patterns like these?

And it's amazingly simpler than I ever thought.

I have never really understood paper piecing. I even bought a book about how to paper piece but still felt confused. So when I saw Mary's pages on how to paper piece blocks for her book I was amazed--I understood the process! Each step is photographed, fronts and backs of the work in progress, with descriptions of what to do. 

Included are squares with center seams, half square triangles, and quarter square triangles, directional quarter square triangles. Blocks in which the background foundation fabric become part of the finished block include half square triangles, half covered background squares, star points, and one and four corner covered blocks. 

There's more--Crooked strings and disappearing strings and adding selvages to strings! Mary shows how to make tree panels for her branching tree blocks and Dresden plate sections. Various foundations are shown, including paper, fabric, and tulle.

Next comes the patterns for quilt projects. String pieced blocks in traditional patterns include flying geese, large block Carpenter Square, Church Dash, Shoo Fly, Card Trick, and Bow Tie.

Her star quilt pattern is original and modern in design. She offers a large Dresden Plate block pattern in a plethora of bright prints to create a floral-like block, and a Dresden Plate table runner.

String pieced sets are sliced thin to be scattered across a single background color for a simple, modern feel. A monotone palette for the strings also has a modern vibe set with white.

Her trees are very cool and make up to 16 1/2" x 18" size. She shows them as a set representing seasons but could also be set together into a bed sized quilt.

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

Classic to Contemporary String Quilts
by Mary M. Hogan
Fox Chapel Publishing
Landauer Publishing
Pub Date 08 Apr 2019
ISBN 9781947163041
PRICE $24.95 (USD)

Morality and the Environmental Crisis by Roger S. Gottlieb

Deeply thoughtful and reasoned, Morality and the Environmental Crisis by Roger S. Gottlieb is a profound work that draws from all areas of human thought and experience.

Gottlieb proposes an argument then offers the counterarguments in a complex ladder of understanding that is nevertheless so well presented that the reader can follow the progression of thought.

Some years ago I participated in a small group study on energy use and climate change. The participants were all of a like mind and voiced frustration with 'those people' who remained unresponsive to arguments to change their lifestyle. The antagonism and anger weighed heavy in the air.

We cannot change the world or even change all the people around us.

We can only do what we can do. I have used tote bags for shopping for years. I have decided to make bags for produce instead of using the plastic ones at the stores. I have recycled glass and cans and paper for forty-seven years. I rarely buy red meat. When we turned in our leased car we had clocked only 10,000 miles over three years. We insulated our house and bought all LED bulbs. We compost and avoid pesticides.

It isn't enough.

We support candidates that work to save the Great Lakes and who are concerned with climate change.

It isn't enough.

As Gottlieb writes, we are still complicit--I am still complicit.

I buy yards of cotton fabric to make quilts as a creative outlet--cotton that requires fertilizers and pesticides and factories to make it into fabric and chemicals to treat it and trucks to get it to the quilt shop. Just so I can cut it up and sew it into something new, tossing the bitty scraps into the trash that goes into a landfill.

I am part of the problem. We all are. Our entire society, economy, and culture make us so. As a society, we are more interested in technology than nature. Jobs instead of preservation. Maintaining our lifestyle than worrying about oil spills somewhere else.

We need widespread collective and political action to change society. Maybe it can happen--we got a man on the moon and people sacrificed to support the war effort during WWII. Nothing less can alter the course we are headed on.

I continue to do what I can because it feels like a moral imperative, like not leaving untended fires in the forest or tossing trash along the roadside, a habit based in reason and science and tradition and personal values.

Do we love nature enough--know nature personally enough to care to preserve it? Not just the puppy mill dogs and the lab rabbits, but also the forests and the marshlands?

How can we save the natural world from our collective brutality if we do not love it? If we do not know it, how can we love it? and if everything else--work, ease, moral limits, the dominant institutions of our society--removes us from it? from Morality and the Environmental Crisis

Gottlieb ends the book by employing the ageless use of story to show the choice we each must make: we can embrace despair or gratitude. Gratitude does not negate despair, it makes life worth living in the face of awful realities.

Learn more about the book and author and see the table of contents at
https://www.kriso.ee/cambridge-studies-religion-philosophy-society-morality-db-9781316506127.html

I was given access to a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Morality and the Environmental Crisis
by Roger S. Gottlieb
Cambridge University Press
Pub Date 02 Apr 2019 
ISBN 9781316506127
PRICE $29.99 (USD)

The Story of Charlotte's Web by Michael Sims

I was a few months old when E. B. White's classic children's book Charlotte's Web was published. My First Grade teacher read the book aloud to my class. As a girl, I read it many times, and when our son was born I read it to him as well. And the older I become the more I realize the impact the story had on my life.

Knowing my esteem for the book, my son gifted me Michael's Sims book Charlotte's Web: E. B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic for Christmas. It was a lovely read, entertaining and enlightening.

White had a love of nature and animals. As a child, his family spent their summers in Maine, and in spite of his allergies, it was the highlight of the year. As an adult, he and his wife Katherine purchased a farm in Maine--with a view of Mount Cadalliac on Mt. Desert Isle across the water. My husband and I spent many summers camping at Acadia National Park! It is a beautiful area.

White admired the popular columnist Don Marquis who created the characters Archy--a cockroach--and Mehitible--a cat. White liked how Marquis kept his animal characters true to their nature while using them for social satire. Archy inspired the character of Charlotte.

Archy

I was a teen when I discovered Marquis on a friend's parent's bookshelf. I borrowed the book and later bought my own copy.

White's first children's book was the best-selling Stuart Little, illustrated by Garth Williams who was just beginning his career. Williams was established by the time he contributed his art to Charlotte's Web.  He created beloved illustrations for Little Golden Books and authors like Margaret Wise Brown and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I enjoyed the details about White's writing process. He worked on the novel over a long period, carefully considering every aspect, even setting it aside for a year. He researched spiders in detail. He sketched his farm as a model. He thought carefully about what words Charlotte would spin into her web. White hated rats, and kept Templeton's nature intact without a personality change. Fern was a later addition.

Sims reproduces the text from the manuscripts with White's editing. I am always fascinated by seeing an author's edits and the development of a story.

White's name was also well known to me as it appears on The Elements of Style, which started as a pamphlet written by White's professor Strunk!

White's wife Katherine wrote a column on gardening, Onward and Upward in the Garden, which was published in a book form after her death--and which I had read upon its publication!

See Garth Williams original drawings here.

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 Sun is a Compass by Caroline Van Hemert

I love a good adventure story and if it involves ice I'm in. Caroline Van Hemert's memoir The Sun is a Compass is a beautiful and thoughtful exposition on her love of the Alaskan wilderness and the 4,000-mile journey she and her spouse shared over six months. The memoir transcends the typical story of man (or woman) vs nature, for Van Hemert also documents her struggle to find her life path--will she be content in a research career, what about children, how long will their bodies allow them to follow their hearts?

Working in the field as a student, Alaskan native Van Hemert became interested in ornithology, and in particular why so many chickadees beaks were misformed. Lab work was soul-deadening. She and her husband Peter, who at eighteen trekked into Alaska and built his own cabin by hand, had long discussed a dream journey from the Pacific Northwest rain forest to the Arctic Circle. Before Van Hemert decided on her career path they committed to making their dream a reality.

Their journey took them across every challenging terrain and through every extreme weather imaginable, bringing them face-to-face with predator bear and migrating caribou, driven near crazy by mosquitoes swarms and nearly starving waiting for food drop-offs. But they also met hospitality in far distant corners and saw up close a quickly vanishing ecosystem.

It is a story of a marriage, as well; how Peter and Caroline depended on each other while carrying their own weight--literally, with seventy-pound supply packs.

I enjoyed reading this memoir on so many levels. Van Hemert has written a profound memoir on our vanishing wilderness and the hard decisions women scientists must make.

Learn more about the book, see a trailer, and read an excerpt at
 https://www.littlebrownspark.com/titles/caroline-van-hemert/the-sun-is-a-compass/9780316414425/

I thank the publisher who allowed me access to an egalley through NetGalley.

The Sun Is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds
by Caroline Van Hemert
Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date 19 Mar 2019 
ISBN: 9780316414425
PRICE: $27.00 (USD)

Native American's Lost Children

The removal of children from their native families is heinous. Heartbreakingly, it is also a well-established method for destroying communities. Today refugees at our borders are cruelly separated; for over a hundred years First People's children were forcibly removed to residential schools where they were reeducated as a way of breaking native culture.

Colonization broke native groups with deadly results: high suicide rates, addictions, and psychological disorders.

Recently I have read several books that reflect on this history. Suzanne Methot's book is a sociological, psychological, and personal history on the issue; Linda LeGarde Grover's novelization offers readers an accessible understanding and emotional connection through her fictional characters.

 *****

She sways, and then she is dancing in the style of the Objibwe traditional women, hands on hips and feet kneading the fire escape floor, its board softened with age and weather, pivoting half-circles left to right, right to left, lifting the invisible eagle feather fan in her left hand to return the song of prayer that is the Creator given gift of Waawaateg. from In the Night of Memory by Linda LeGarde Grover

Azure Sky was the storyteller who kept the visual memory alive for her elder sister Rainfall Dawn. Their mother Loretta had roused them from their bed on the couch, and wrapping them in a blanket, took them outside to see the northern lights flashing in the night sky. Loretta folded her blanket and drew it across her shoulders, chanting and dancing in the old way. The next morning Loretta left the girls at the county, unable to care for them, hoping that rehab would change her life and reunite her family.

Azure and Rainy never saw their mother again.

They were two halves of the same sister, stronger together than apart. But the county did part them. Azure survived; Rainy was broken. When they were teens their extended Ojibwa family tracked them down and through the Indian Child Welfare act returned them to their people.

In the Night of Memory by Linda LeGarde Grover is hauntingly beautiful and achingly heartbreaking. Different voices tell the story of Loretta, Azure, and Rainy, which is the story of a community broken by colonialism and the removal of native children. And how, having lost Loretta, they determine not to lose Loretta's children but bring them back home.

It was a long, hard, road to the Indian Child Act, and though it's not perfect, it's what we got. from In the Night of Memory by  Linda LeGarde Grover

I received a book from the University of Minnesota Press through Bookish First in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. Find a book discussion guide by clicking here.

I read Legacy: Story, Trauma, and Indigenous Healing by Suzanne Methot which addresses Chronic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by the destruction of First People communities when their children were taken from them and sent to residential schools.

Legacy: Trauma, Story and Indigenous Healing by Suzanne Methot
The book combines Methot's personal story with history and psychology to create an understanding of the consequences of colonization. She demonstrates how abuse and CPTSD creates a cycle that impacts generations. On the personal level, she documents her own legacy of abuse and dysfunction and how a return to traditional ways brought healing. On the universal, she explains the psychological damage of trauma through story, with summary charts at chapter ends.

Methot's book is perhaps more suited for the indigenous population or educators and those in the helping professions who work with indigenous people. But I found her insights applicable in many ways. I found myself thinking about women I have known who demonstrated the characteristics she describes. And I even found myself applying her insights to characters in novels I have read!

I thank ECW Press for a free ebook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

*****

Other books on Native Americans I have  reviewed:

Clyde Bellencourt's memoir The Thunder Before the Storm 

https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/10/clyde-bellecourt-tells-his-story-as.html

The Quiet Before the Thaw, a novel by Alexandra Fuller
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/quiet-until-thaw-by-alexandra-fuller.html
The Right to Be Cold by Sheila Watt-Cloutier is the activist's memoir
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-right-to-be-cold-one-womans-fight.html
There There, a novel by Tommy Orange
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/08/there-there-by-tommy-orange.html
Massacre at Sand Creek by Gary L. Roberts, commissioned by the United Methodist Church as part of their repentance
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-methodist-episcopal-church-and-sand.html
And the horrifying history Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

The Editor by Steven Rowley

To write an autobiographical novel entails a great deal of risk. Because people know you are writing about your own life--fictionalized--inevitably bringing emotional turmoil into the lives of those people. And perhaps that is why James Smale can't bring his novel to a satisfying end--he is reluctant to go the distance because of the high costs.

Smale's editor believes in him, in his novel, and in the story he has yet to tell. He can't tell it yet, because he hasn't lived it. And his editor presses him to do the work.

Oh, Smale's editor at Doubleday is Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis. It makes things very complicated. Does he call her Mrs. Onassis? Jackie? Are they friends or coworkers or is she his boss or does she work for him? Everyone wants a part of her, all his friends are more interested in the minutia of her life than they are in his book.

As Smale agonizes over his manuscript and his relationship with his mother and the father who left her "because of" him, his relationship with his beloved Daniel comes under strain. Do they have a love for all time?

Everything Smale believed he knew comes crashing down at a family Thanksgiving gathering when his mother shares a secret.

The beginning of The Editor revolves around Smale's coming to grips with his discovery and the shock of being discovered by one of the most famous women in the world. As a mother, she is deeply interested in his book. As an editor, she pushes him into uncomfortable territory. And the novel takes a turn from the comic into the universal theme of a child trying to process their childhood and relationships with parents. The search for the mother, in Smale's case, becomes a discovery of the father.

Rowley's novel has already been signed to be a movie!

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

“Rowley deliberately mines the sentiment of the mother/son bond, but skillfully saves it from sentimentality; this is a winning dissection of family, forgiveness, and fame.”— PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)

The Editor
by Steven Rowley
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Pub Date 02 Apr 2019 
ISBN: 9780525537960
PRICE: $27.00 (USD)

Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart

The Wednesday Afternoon Book Club at our local library read Amy Stewart's historical fiction novel Girls Waits With Gun this month. We won a "Kopp in a Box" book club kit with swag and a copy of the novel--and a Skype visit from Amy Stewart!

I had seen the rave reviews and was glad to finally read Girl Waits With Gun. Our group enjoyed the novel--one member even read the second book in the soon-to-be five-volume series! She especially recommends the audiobook.

The Kopp sisters are unforgettable characters. Their story begins in 1914 when an automobile hits their wagon on their way into town. The debilitated driver won't admit fault and reimburse them for the damage to their wagon. Constance pursues Mr. Kaufmann with a bill for $50. He responds by harassment and threats, including threatening the kidnapping of Fleurette for sale into White Slavery.

Constance visits the Kauffman Silk Mills and observes his treatment of the workers, learning of his sexual predation that results in pregnancies. When Constance discovers that one of his discarded lover's baby has disappeared she is moved to help find the child.

Constance is a spinster who towers over men and at 180 pounds can stand up to them as well.

Her sister Norma is sturdy and no-nonsense, a hard worker who enjoys raising pigeons.

The third "sister" Fleurette is a pampered and sheltered teenager who has a flair for dramatic fashions. Passed as a late in life child, she is unaware of the secret of her birth.

Stewart happened upon a newspaper story that caught her interest and she researched everything she could about the incident and the people involved, even interviewing living members of the Kopp family. The titles of the Kopp books are taken from actual newspaper article headlines.

Newspaper headline

Stewart was lively and well-spoken in the Skype visit and our group very much enjoyed talking with her. I highly recommend making use of her author visit.

Appearing in the novel is The Black Hand, an Italian criminal group that sends a paper with a black hand on it as a warning. One of our members told the story of her grandfather's ignoring The Black Hand warning and he later ended up dead.

We talked about the historically accurate aspects of the novel--anti-Semitism, the misogynistic treatment of women, how the Kopp sisters were bucking the norm by insisting on being self-supporting and living alone on a farm.

I have the next two books in the series waiting to be read...

Published in 2018 was Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit and Kopp Sisters on the March is coming out this year.

I look forward to reading more of the Kopp stories.

Helen Korngold Diary: March 24-30, 1919

This year I am sharing the 1919 diary of Helen Korngold of St. Louis, MO.

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

March
Monday 24
Taught Wellston all day. Good.

Tuesday 25
School. Dr McCourt lectured in the evening. Summer brought a nice kid up with him, a graduate of Boston U.

Wednesday 26
School. Sophia Stampfer’s house with Dan in the afternoon. All had a nice time.

Thursday 27
School. Unexciting. Downtown – rode with Mildred Cohn – oh, such gossip. J. Koloditsky sent me a large photo of himself – he’s nice looking.

Friday 28
School – dancing- Jo Marks loaned me Mrs. Schweig’s masque costume. It’s stunning, “Cleopatra,” lavender & yellow, beaded with black & white & wicked!

Saturday 29
School – Went downtown & bought some slippers. Went to Union Mask with Summer. Oh, such fun. Hixon Kinsella and all the other high steppers were simply infatuated with me & my costume. After removing masks they were just as nice. This is the best time I’ve had so far. Auto ride!!!!

Sunday 30
All tired out from mask ball. Summer leaves for Arkansas tonight. I hate to see him go, because he was such a dear fellow. Karol & I took him down to station. B’nai Birth dance in evening.


Notes:

March 26

Sophie Irene Stampfer (born June 1900 and died 1969) appears on the 1920 St. Louis census as the daughter of Joseph, who was an insurance broker, and Jane Ruth Meyers. Sophia was a teacher living at home. She married Jessie Bernstein.

March 27

Mildred Edith Cohn appears in the 1917 Hatchet Freshman Class. Her father was Max, who on the 1920 Census was a secretary in the clothing industry. Her mother was Edith. She is in the Ukulele Club in the 1917 Hatchet.

March 29

John Hixon Kinsella was in the 1920 Senior class at Washington University. He was Assistant Editor of the Washington University News. His WWI Draft Registration shows he was tall and slender with gray eyes and light brown hair. The 1920 St. Louis Census shows he lived with his parents Thomas and Marie on Olive St. His father was a real estate agent. The 1917 Hatchet includes a poem he co-wrote for the Freshman Class.

March 30

B’nai Birth was founded in 1843 and is the oldest Jewish service organization in the world.

Unmarriageable: Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan

Soniah Kamal's retelling of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice (P and P) was an entertaining read. Pakistan and Austen's world share many of the same constraints on women--especially an emphasis on marrying well over for love and a total unacceptance of premarital sex.

In Unmarriageable, Elizabeth and Jane become Alys and Jena Binat, schoolteachers who have intelligence and beauty yet are spinsters in their early thirties. Jena is shy and sweet; Alys is an ardent feminist who pushes her students to think for themselves.

The younger sisters include the Muslim fundamentalist Mari, the precocious boy-crazy and fashion-obsessed Lady, and the unhappily overweight Qitty. The family is not of the best kind, for Mr. Binat was bilked out of his inheritance which brought downsizing in house and budget, and Mrs. Binat's grandmother is rumored to have been a prostitute.

Aly's friend Sherry is forty-one but still has hopes of 'grabbing' a husband and finally experiencing a sexual encounter with a man. Every evening Alys and Sherry meet in the local cemetery, and under the pretense of feeding the birds, enjoy a cigarette and a heart-to-heart talk.

Alys and Jena meet the well-to-do Bungles and Darsee at a wedding celebration. Bungles is obviously taken by Jena. But she won't make 'you-you' eyes at him for fear of being considered a slut. Alys and Darsee, of course, stumble through a series of misunderstandings and dislike.

Just reading about Pakistani wedding traditions is interesting. And the fashions! The food! Oh, how my mouth watered over eggplant in tomatoes, ginger chicken, seekh kabobs, naan, korma, and rose-flavored cake with a cup of chai.

The novel is not a rewriting of Austen's classic but does follow the plot line. We know what is going to happen. But I completely enjoyed this novel for on its own merits.

Kamal channels some of Austen's irony.

When Jena twists her ankle, Bungles carries her to the car and rushes to the clinic. Kamal writes, "The clinic was an excellent facility, as all facilities that carer to excellent people tend to be, because excellent people demand excellence, unlike those who are grateful for what they receive."

There is a lot of talk about literature. Book titles are dropped throughout many conversations. The characters often speak about Austen in an ironic twist.

Annie Benna dey Bagh comments that she found P and P "helpful in an unexpected way...I decided that, no matter how ill I got, I'd never turn or be turned into Anne de Bourgh."

"Thankfully, we don't live in a novel," Alys comments. And yet Sherry channels Charlotte Lucas in marrying for financial security although she does have the choice to be self-supporting.

Darsee and Alys agree on many points in these conversations about literature and Pakistan's colonial heritage.

"I believe, Alys said to Darsee, "A book and an author can belong to more than one country or culture. English came with the colonizers, but its literature is part of our heritage took as in pre-partition writing."

When Wickaam comes on the scene, English Literature teacher Alys is appalled by his preference that films are better than books. He is drop-dead gorgeous and spins his lies to cover his unsavory history.

Kamal includes loads of nods to Austen. Minor characters are named Thomas Fowle and Harris Bigg-Wither, real people in Jane's life.

Alys often parodies the famous opening line of P and P, such as "it was a truth universally acknowledged that people enter our lives in order to recommend reads."

Thankfully, a Goodreads win brought this book into my life!

The Parade by Dave Eggers

Four just wanted to do his job. He operated a state-of-the-art paver and he had a schedule to meet. He was to pave a road that would connect two halves of a country, the rebels at one end and the modern city and army at the other end. He was to keep to himself, not get involved, just do his duty and go home.

Nine had other ideas. He was to ride ahead and remove anything that might hinder Four's advancement. But Nine was a free spirit. He chatted up the locals, ate at their fires and went to bed with their women. He made connections.

Four couldn't control Nine. If he reported Nine's misadventures it would make Four look bad. Nine's behavior brought a crisis when he came down deathly ill, forcing Four to accept the help of locals to save his life.

This short novel is an extended parable. What interests me is that the title is not 'The Road' or a reference to Four and Nine's divergent attitudes towards the people they met who have endured war but still offer hospitality. No, it is called The Parade.

Four's time schedule must be met because there is a parade scheduled by the general in the city at the other end of the road. The road's completion is to be celebrated. Four completely believes in the road's peaceable purpose of bringing progress to the rural bush folk. He has bought the story of the celebration.

The twisted, dark ending was almost expected.

In some ways, Four's faith in his supposed peaceful purpose recalled to mind another novel I recently read, The Cassandra by Sharma Shields, in which a young woman finds work at a government facility working on something that will end WWII. She completely buys into her work and purpose until she discovers what it is that will end the war--the Atom Bomb.

I have always wondered how people can participate in industries that manufacture products of destruction. How do they justify their work? Do they willingly believe some fantasy? Do they push the purpose out of their minds?

How hard it must be to discover too late what you have done. It is easier to believe in a fantasy parade.

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

Read a Q&A with Eggers about The Parade here.

from the publisher:
An unnamed country is leaving the darkness of a decade at war, and to commemorate the armistice the government commissions a new road connecting two halves of the state. Two men, foreign contractors from the same company, are sent to finish the highway. While one is flighty and adventurous, wanting to experience the nightlife and people, the other wants only to do the work and go home. But both men must eventually face the absurdities of their positions, and the dire consequences of their presence. With echoes of J. M. Coetzee and Graham Greene, this timeless novel questions whether we can ever understand another nation's war, and what role we have in forging anyone's peace.

The Parade
by Dave Eggers
Knopf/Random House
Publication March 19, 2019

Chronicles of a Radical Hag (With Recipes)

Lorna Landvik has created a character beloved and influential who we only know through the reactions of the people whose lives she touches. Chronicles of a Radical Hag (With Recipes) tells Haze's story through the columns she wrote for a Minnesota small town newspaper, her readers' responses, through the memories people hold of her, and most interesting, how her columns reach out and speak to a generation of teenagers.

Haze was unabashedly herself in her columns. She wrote in a speaking voice, musing on her life and the people she meets and on national and world news. She garnered letters from people who enjoyed her work and from people who called her a "radical hag." Haze embraced it all, happy to just get people thinking. And when a reader suggested she would better use the column to share recipes, she began to throw in a recipe now and then.

When Haze is felled by a stroke the newspaper publisher, Susan, begins to republish her early columns dating back to 1964. For some readers, they are a nostalgic trip into the past. Susan's teenage son Sam has been assigned the job of reading the columns and summarizing them, with suggestions on which to rerun.

It is Sam and his generation who are surprisingly touched by Haze. She becomes real to Sam. He learns from her musings on life, love, social change, and political crisis. He sees the elderly around him in a different light. And when he discovers Haze's hidden papers he learns a secret that will alter perceptions about Haze, the past, and the present.

Subplots follow women who struggle with broken marriages, heartbroken widows, acceptance and inclusion, disappointment and redemption.

Landvik's book is a pleasure to read, alternately funny and poignant. And, the recipes will propel you to the kitchen!

I received a free book from the publisher through Bookish First.

Chronicles of a Radical Hag (With Recipes)
University of Minnesota Press
Publication Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 9781517905996
$25.95 hardcover

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam

Professor Chandra, soon to be seventy, has once again not won the Pulitzer Prize in Economics. His career was built on theories now unpopular--as unpopular as the Professor himself!

His kids won't talk with him, his ex married a male bimbo, his coworkers are sick of him. He has some nagging doubts about his whole life. Has he valued the wrong things?

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss had me laughing out loud through the first half.  Chandra's struggles with the world and his family are presented with humor.

Chandra takes up the challenge of spending time "seeking his bliss" at Esalen. He takes in stride new experiences like meditation and nude hot tub conversations. He uses what he learns and tries to reconnect with his alienated children. All Chandra's problems don't disappear like magic, but what he learns and absorbs does bring him to a place where healing can begin to happen.

I enjoyed the novel and felt invested in Chandra and his family. But...Halfway through the book, I felt like there was a secret agenda. Like the author was proselytizing! Was the novel just one big sales pitch for a certain experience and lifestyle? The author, I discovered, practices Zen meditation.

Can we solve our issues with better self-talk, claiming responsibility for myself, opening up about my repressed feelings? Would spending time at a Zen monastery change our life? Do self-help gurus really help? Maybe. I mean, this is all very good advice. Maybe we all need a spiritual journey now and then. Reevaluate our goals and values.

So decide for yourself. If you are seeking a role model for change, Chandra might be your guy.

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

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss
by Rajeev Balasubramanyam
The Dial Press
Pub Date 26 Mar 2019 
ISBN 9780525511380
PRICE $27.00 (USD)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rajeev Balasubramanyam was born in Lancashire and studied at Oxford, Cambridge, and Lancaster universities. He is the prize-winning author of In Beautiful Disguises. He has lived in London, Manchester, Suffolk, Kathmandu, and Hong Kong, where he was a Research Scholar in the Society of Scholars at Hong Kong University. He was a fellow of the Hemera Foundation, for writers with a meditation practice, and has been writer-in-residence at Crestone Zen Mountain Center and the Zen Center of New York City. His journalism and short fiction have appeared in The Washington Post, The Economist, New Statesman, London Review of Books, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, and many others. He currently lives and works in Berlin.

Helen Korngold Diary: March 17-23, 1919

This year I am sharing the 1919 diary by Helen Korngold of St. Louis, MO.

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

March

Monday 17
Ed. 5 exam. It wasn’t so bad. Home – Dr Mackenzie has the flu.

Tuesday 18
School. In afternoon, Paul, Zel & I crammed Shakespeare. I was all in. Home & to lecture. Dorothea Spinney gave an interpretation of Iphigenia in Tauris. It was marvelous. Never saw anything like it. Summer liked it too!

Thursday 20
School. Thrilled! Dr. Usher gave me an “A” in History 16. Asked me to come back next year to take a seminar, offered me a fellowship and a position as his private secretary. I was so pleased. Had a delightful talk with him. Out with Maynard Stillman to Temple Satellites.

Friday 21
School. Dancing. I was just happy over history.

Saturday 22
Geol. Exam – pretty good. Heard Dr. Usher’s cousin, Mr. Harlow, a missionary. Dr. U told me he played Bach. Gee, that’s going some. Downtown.

Sunday 23
Read papers – had company in afternoon – Aunt B. in evening.

Notes:

March 18

Mrs. Dorothea Spinney of Stratford-On-Avon, England spoke on “The Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides.”

Senior Washington University classmates Zelda Ysobel Siegfried and Pauline Westphaelinger.

Zella Siegfried appears in the 1917 Hatchet on the women’s basketball team. She was a neighbor, living at 4211 Page Ave.

Pauline Geraldine Elizabeth Westphaelinger was born August 31, 1893, in Ridgeway, Ill and died May 25, 1978. There are several extensive Westphaelinger trees on ancestry.com

Her father Henry arrived in American in 1866 and in 1882 he married Pauline Wilhelmina Papenmeier. They had children George, Clara, Wilhelmina (Minnie), Gustav, Katherine, Pauline, Dr. Henry, Mary, Caroline and Christian. The 1900 State of Illinois Census shows he was a farmer.

The 1920 State of Illinois Census shows Pauline living with her widowed mother and siblings George, Mary, Chris and Caroline. Pauline and Mary were both teaching.  Pauline never married.

March 20

Helen went to Temple Satellites with Maynard Stillman, son of Issac and Nellie. Issac was a Russian emigrant originally surnamed Carnowsky. Issac was a retail merchandiser for men’s furnishings on the St. Louis Censuses of  1910 and 1930.

Maynard was born on February 8, 1896. He lived at 1013 North 11th St. His WWI draft card shows he was working as a stenographer for a Detective Agency and had passed the exam for officer’s reserve. He was medium height and build with brown hair and dark brown eyes. In 1930 he was a sales clerk. He died in 1973 in Baltimore.

Dr. Usher's History 16 course description read:
European Expansion and Imperialism. The course will deal with the extension of the political influence of European nations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and with the wars and rivalries growing out of it. While the history of the earlier centuries will not be neglected, the major part of the course will be devoted to the more recent phases of the period since 1885, in particular to German colonial policy, to French rule in Africa, and the development of the British Empire. Three hours a week. Credit 6 units.

The Sunday newspaper

Books I Have Read But Missed Reviewing

When I got my first Kindle I bought up bargain books, many of which were wonderful discoveries. I did not review them at that time.  I thought it's time to share books that have stuck with me.

I was looking around Netflix and happened upon the film Harry and Snowman. It rang a bell. It only took a minute before I realized I knew Snowman from The Eighty-Dollar Champion, which I had read quite a few years ago.

This book by Elizabeth Letts is one that has stayed with me. The story of an immigrant who buys a horse on its way to become dog food and how the horse becomes a champion is an inspirational story.

"Harry knew what it felt like to be powerless. Beat up or not, this horse seemed brave." from The Eighty-Dollar Champion

Harry de Leyer grew up on a farm in Holland during WWII, hiding Jews and working in the resistance. He helped to save horses abandoned by the retreating Nazis. After the war he was sponsored to come to America to work on a tobacco farm. Harry was 22 years old. But his passion for training horses was noted. He worked his way up to teaching riding at an elite girl's school.

Harry needed an easy riding horse. He was late to the auction and the only horses left were on the trailer going to the slaughter horse to become dog food. He noted a horse who seemed to have something special. The horse looked him in the eye and nuzzled his hand. He bought the horse for $80. When he got home it was snowing and one of Harry's children thought it made the horse look like a snow man. And he got his name.

Harry ended up selling Snowman but the horse kept jumping fences and returning to Harry. So Harry bought him back and began to work with Snowman. The horse had a love of jumping.

"There was more to horses than columns of numbers, the profits and losses in his farm ledger. There is one thing no horseman can ever put a price on, and that is heart."from The Eighty-Dollar Champion

Snowman was not pretty. He did not have a pedigree. Harry was not a college-educated, East Coast elite like the competition. What Harry and Snowman had was chemistry, heart, and the desire to be winners.

Their achievements brought international fame.

Who can resist a tale of the underdog stealing the win?

I can't. And that is why I remember this story and this book.

In 2014 I read An Unfinished Season by Ward Just. I enjoyed it immensely and later read The Eastern Shore and liked it even more. I have his novel American Romantic on my TBR shelf. An Unfinished Season is the story of a young many who falls for a girl from the upper crust. The young man discovers that all that glitters is not gold. Through the story of one young man, Just considers the American psyche and the choices we make.

I bought the book for 50 cents at Big Lots. It sat on my shelf for at least a year. I picked it up and fell in love. I did not want to read it too fast, yet did not want to put it down. In his blurb, Pat Conroy confesses, "I love this book." Well, Pat, I do too.

Corey, the son of a blue-collar, working-class man, shares his father's high standards of careful workmanship. While helping his father replace a drain, and saving the roots of an aged oak tree, he is noticed by Liam Metery, who has inherited the wealth accumulated by his Gilded Age grandfather. Corey is asked to help around the Metarey estate, and as Liam Metary and his family come to respect Corey, he is invited into their lives. Liam himself is a man who loves workmanship, and the simple pleasure of hands-on industry. He is also a progressive liberal who decides to back the great Liberal senator from New York State, Henry Bonwiller, in his run for the presidency in 1972.

As Corey becomes involved with the behind-the-scenes machinations of politics, his world widens. Corey is especially taken by a journalist, who becomes his role model, leading him to his life's work in journalism. Corey is also affected by Liam's dreams of a better country, the end of the war in Viet Nam, and a government that aligns itself with the common man's good. Liam recognizes the boy's potential and assists him with a scholarship to a private school, and later leaves him money for a Harvard education.

The fairy tale unravels, dragging Liam and Corey into the ambiguous black hole created by Bonwiller, and their loss of innocence reflects the national loss of idealism in the 1970s.

What would you do to protect your most sacred dream? How reliable are the human vessels in whom you place your dreams? Can you live with the knowledge that you have compromised yourself?

One reviewer wrote that the title "America, America" should be heard like a sigh for what might have been, knowledge of what has been lost.

I later read Canin's novels Carry Me Across the Water, which I reviewed here, and  The Doubter's Almanac which I reviewed here.

I remember Song of the Orange Moons by Lori Ann Stephens as a lovely book. I wish I could tell more about the plot but it's been a long time since I read it in 2012. The blurb reads,

A mosaic of stories that follow the intertwined lives of three girls coming of age. Two young girls from Jewish and Christian families and their elderly widow next door try to find happiness in a seemingly cruel world. In spite of their different cultural and economic backgrounds, Rebecka, Helen, and Adelle all share the delicate and self-conscious journey to womanhood. In their search for they find lasting strength in the power of their friendships. 

 My highlights from the book include:

Those church-ordained picnics and prayer lines and ladies groups are the finest excuse for conjuring up rumors I ever heard, and just more evidence that God is a woman. 

For the first time since I moved, I felt the immense emptiness caused by grief. I cried for the loss of my friend, and for my inability to find her again. 

Skin is not like love or morality. Love is just a tradition that people follow. A word that means “you must.” Morality is a death sentence to the imagination, a noose for passion—I’d seen the hand of morality in torn pages of the library books. 

Being cynical is better than walking onto cattle cars on a direct route to the incinerator and still hoping that humans are basically good at heart. 

...feel his sadness like a blanket covering us both. 

They feel a terminal loneliness. They feel like a misplaced foot or a forgotten ear. 

Of course she was lonely. Everyone is swimming alone. But we are swimming alone together, sometimes bumping into each other, sometimes rubbing our fins together awkwardly against the current, and sometimes floating at the top with our bellies exposed to the dry air.

...telling me the facts of life that I knew couldn’t possibly be true, but telling them with such conviction that the truth seemed to bend like a spectrum, into so many beautiful colors.

Well, now I want to read it again!

MODA All-Stars on a Roll!

Quilters know that a "jelly roll" isn't something to eat with coffee but a delectable collection of 2 1/2" strips of fabrics, coordinated and ready to sew.

If you haven't yet developed a sweet tooth for these enticing treats, MODA All-Stars On A Roll might just have you running to the quilt shop for a quick fix.

Fourteen patterns from top designers are offered with something to appeal to every aesthetic. Each of the designers is introduced with cute Q&As and hints.

Just look at Square Dance by Karla Eisenach! This subtle plaid pattern at once modern and traditional. Karla used one Jelly Roll of assorted red and tan prints. I just love it.

Square Dance, 58" x 58", 12" blocks

Betsy Chutchian's Mountain Climbing has a traditional Country look. She used contrasting colors, one set "north" and one set "south," from a Jelly Roll of assorted prints set against a dark gray.

Mountain Climbing, 54 1/2" x 64 1/2", 9" x 8" block

The adorable Sweet Butterfly by Stacy Iest Hsu is a pattern any girl would fall in love with. She used a Jelly Roll of assorted pastel prints. Imagine it with bold colors!

Sweet Butterfly, 63" x 68 1/2", block is 17 1/2" x 14"

Lynne Hagmeier employed strip piecing for Chain Reaction. She used a Jelly Roll of tan and dark prints.

Chain Reaction, 62 1/2" x 76 1/2", 6" x 8" block

Trifle by Janet Clare is inspired by the British dessert that is to die for, made with layers of sponge cake, fresh fruit, custard, and whipped cream. She used two Jelly Rolls of assorted brights and 81 5" x 5" squares in assorted prints. This is a foundation pieced pattern.

Trifle, 63 1/2" x 63 1/2", 7" x 7" block

Maisy Daisies by Joanna Figueroa is another sweet pattern that can be made in the pastels she shows or in brights. Joanna used an assortment of Jelly Roll strips for this beautifully coordinated palette.

Maisy Daisies, 56 1/2" x 71 1/2", 9" x 9" block

One Roll Wonder by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson uses one Jelly Roll of assorted pastels. This is a simple pattern to construct and would be a quick gift quilt to whip up.

One Roll Wonder, 60 1/2" x 60 1/2", 10" x 10" block

As a quilter who loves applique, one of my favorite designers is Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill. She offers Rule the Roost.

Rules the Roose, 40 1/2" x 40 1/2", 8" x 8" chicken blocks

I wondered what it would be like to hand applique these Jelly Roll pieced hens. So I made a table topper with my precut strips of fabric which I keep in a bin.

 I just loved it!

If you need more reasons to buy MODA All-Stars on a Roll, the royalties from the book are donated to School on Wheels which provides educational opportunities for homeless children.

That's a win-win for me.

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

MODA All-Stars On a Roll
Martingale
Lissa Alexander
On Sale Date: March 15, 2019
ISBN: 9781604689884, 1604689889
$25.99 USD

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner

For several years my husband's department secretary was a Japanese American who came of age in a WWII internment camp. Her stories were the first I had encountered. Later I learned that German Americans were also identified as suspect hostile aliens and sent to internment camps. But before reading The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner I had not heard of the repatriation program, exchanging interned families for POWs held by Germany and Japan.

The Last Year of the War is Elise's life story. Her parents were born in Germany and love their homeland but embraced America wholeheartedly. Elise is a typical American girl.

Mariko is another American born child of immigrant parents. Her Japanese parents have held to their heritage and identity.

Circumstantial evidence flag their fathers as potential alien enemies, their goods and money confiscated, and the fathers interned. At Crystal City their families can join them, but with the agreement that they may be repatriated to their homelands.

Elise is lost and angry until she meets Mariko. They bond and become best friends, sharing dreams of turning eighteen and moving to New York City together to pursue careers.

Through these sympathetic characters, readers learn about life at the internment camps, and, when Elise's family is sent to Germany, life in war-torn Germany.

Elise struggles with being an American in the land of her enemies, while to her parents it is their homeland. Mariko's America dreams are shattered by her traditional parents' expectations.

Readers of Historical Fiction will love this book. I commend Meissner for bringing this aspect of American history to light, especially in the context of America's current distrust of immigrants.

Meissner sidesteps vilification of the German people, noting that Elise's German family were required to hang a portrait of Adolph Hitler on the wall and describing the destruction of German cities and civilian losses and hardships. The perils of war are addressed, including the harassment and rape of German girls by the occupation army after the war.

Elise does find her place in the world, not the life she dreamt of as a teenager, and she finds love.

Learn more about Crystal City here.

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

The Last Year of the War
by Susan Meissner
Berkley Publishing Group
Pub Date: 19 Mar 2019
Hardcover $26.00 (USD
ISBN: 9780451492159