An Antarctic Mystery by Jules Verne

No doubt the following narrative will be received with entire incredulity, but I think it well that the public should be put in possession of the facts narrated in “An Antarctic Mystery.” The public is free to believe them or not, at its good pleasure.

Thus begins Jeorling's narrative of An Antarctic Mystery.

I follow Garrison Keiler's A Writers Almanac and learned that Sunday, February 8,  was the birthday of Jules Verne. I had read Verne as a kid but have not read him since I was perhaps 13. It was about time to revisit Verne.

I checked around for free e-books and came across An Antarctic Mystery. Being a sucker for polar exploration stories I settled on reading it.


I was happily surprised to learn that it was based on Edgar Allen Poe's 1837 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, using the story and characters in a kind of 1897 version of fan fiction.

Pym was inspired by a news story of a ship that sank. The subtitle is tells it all: Comprising the Details of Mutiny and Atrocious Butchery on Board the America Brig Grampus, on Her Way to the South Seas, in the Month of June, 1827. With an Account of the Recapture of the Vessel by the Survivors; Their Shipwreck and Subsequent Horrible Sufferings from Famine; Their Deliverance by Means of the British Schooner Jane Guy; the Brief Cruise of this Latter Vessel in the Atlantic Ocean; her Capture, and the Massacre of Her Crew Among a Group o Islands in the Eight-Fourth Parallel of Southern Latitude; Together with the Incredible Adventures and Discoveries Still Father South to Which that Distressing Calamity Gave Rise.

Verne imagines the captain of the Grampus has a brother who searches for him, and several characters whose deaths were erroneously reported. It would help to read Poe's novel first, but if you don't (I had not read Pym since I was in junior high) Verne offers enough information for the reader to understand the story.

Captain Guy's ship has come into port. American Jeorling is weary of the Desolation Islands and wants to board with the Grampus to get out of town. Guy won't agree to taking him on until he learns that Jeorling is from Connecticut and was familiar with Pym's narrative. Jeorling believes Poe's novel is fiction, although Poe in the novel refers to the story as a history. Guy argues it is fact.

"Captain! Why, that story is due to the powerful imagination of our great poet. It is a pure invention.”
“So, then, you don’t believe it, Mr. Jeorling?” said the captain, shrugging his shoulders three times.
“Neither I nor any other person believes it, Captain Guy, and you are the first I have heard maintain that it was anything but a mere romance.”
“Listen to me, then, Mr. Jeorling, for although this ‘romance’—as you call it—appeared only last year, it is none the less a reality. Although eleven years have elapsed since the facts occurred, they are none the less true, and we still await the ‘word’ of an enigma which will perhaps never be solved.”

It takes a while for Jeorling to change his mind, but he becomes as ardently monomaniacal about finding Pym and Len Guy as the captain. That way lies...shipwreck, mutiny, death, and lurid discoveries. I won't give away the story.

So then it was all true? Edgar Poe’s work was that of an historian, not a writer of romance?

I had great fun reading this book. I remembered my love of Verne's Journey To The Center of The Earth as a kid. The science is inaccurate, sure. The South Pole was not reached until 1911, so Verne in 1897 could imagine a polar world where summer reached 34 degrees and open water ran trough the continent of Antarctica. There is a dramatic rescue of a man overboard. No one would actually jump into the Antarctic sea, or could survive it. Critters and birds abound.


There is racial prejudice typical of Verne's time. The mysterious and heroic 'half-bred' from Indiana is very strange in physic and seemingly impervious to the elements. He has super sharp vision and a gruesome secret. The black cook's teeth shine white, and he is not very intelligent--typical of his race. (Poe's racism is also evident in Pym.)

I sped through the book in two sittings and enjoyed it very much. I loved the idea of Verne's writing a sequel to Poe's book.

To read about Poe's story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Narrative_of_Arthur_Gordon_Pym_of_Nantucket
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2149/2149-h/2149-h.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/24/arthur-gordon-pym-nantucket-edgar-allan-poe-100-novels

To read about Verne's story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Antarctic_Mystery
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10339/10339-h/10339-h.htm

World War I Quilts by Sue Reich

World War I Quilts by quilt historian Sue Reich new book looks at quiltmakers response to the Great War, including Red Cross and fundraiser signature quilts and quilts made to honor veterans, set in perspective against pre-war early 20th c. quilts.

Chapters include "Quilting Through the 1910s"; "Loyal To The Cause: Quilts for Soldiers"; "Under the Red Cross Flag"; and "Afterward: Poppy Quilts: The Fields of Flanders".

The book's full color photographs of quilts, vintage illustrations and photographs, vintage textiles and ephemera make a visual feast. (The pages were slow to load on my e-reader because of the many photographs!) Along with chapter introductions and a foreword, Reich includes related newspaper articles about quiltmaking from across the country.

There is a wealth of information in this book. It is not a book you will causally flip through, looking at the quilts, and call it 'done.' You will want to take it in small pieces, enjoying the details, returning to it again and again. I laughed when I read advice to cut the worn feet off old socks and use the tops as quilt batting. Another article suggested sewing channels and inserting padding into the channels as an 'easy' quilt.

Early 19th c. quilts incorporated printed flannel pieces given away with tobacco. After crazy-quilting's ruling late Victorian culture, a patchwork 'revival' invigorated quiltmakers. There seemed to be a competition for quilts with the most pieces. Quilters had new products available. The availability of electricity meant electric sewing machines could be employed for quilting. Nationwide quilt competitions began in 1910. Signature quilts and embroidered quilts continued to be popular. Women's magazines abounded with quilt patterns. Quilt designers like Marie Webster and Ruby McKim arose to offer patterns for modern tastes.

Quilters rallied to support war efforts. Signature quilts raised money. We find Red Cross quilts, Ladies Aid Society quilts, and quilts featuring textiles with patriotic and political themes. The Biscuit or Puff Quilt was created without batting to "conserve wool for our soldiers in the battlefield.'

The 1918 flu epidemic was devastating. Preventative measures included the burning of bed linens, including quilts. Post war quilts included Poppy quilts to commemorate veterans.

Quilters have traditionally responded to current events and needs: Abolitionist quilts; the Sanitary Fairs during the Civil War; fund raising quilts for church building and missionary work; Temperance quilts; and for WWI war efforts and the Red Cross. Quiltmakers continue their response to this day. Michigan quilter Ami Simm's Art Quilt Initiative raised $1 Million dollars for Alzheimer Research; recently a member of my Clawson quilters group attended a ceremony where her son received a Quilt of Valor for his military service.

Quilt historian Sue Reich has published a series of books. Her forthcoming book of Presidential and Patriotic Quilts, also from Schiffer Publications, will include the Presidential Quilt Project created last year--including my John Quincy Adams quilt. Sue's books include WWII Quilts; Quiltings, Frolics, and Bees: 100 Years of Signature Quilts; Quilts and Quiltmakers Covering Connecticut; Quilting News of Yesteryear: 1,000 Pieces and Counting; and  Quilting News of Yesteryear: Crazy As A Bed-quilt. 

Some of the quilts in her new book can be seen at
http://www.coveringquilthistory.com/quilts-of-world-war-i.php

I received the free ebook through NetGalley for a fair and unbiased review.

WWI Quilts
by Sue Reich
Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
Publication: Dec 28, 2014
ISBN:9780764347542
176 pages, all full color
$39.99 hardcover

+++++

I have several WWI era handkerchiefs in my collection. They were sent or brought home to sweethearts and family members, often made of silk and embroidered. The embroidery thread was not colorfast! These were for 'show' only.

Love Poems by Emily Dickinson

Further Poems of Emily Dickinson Withheld from Publication by Her Sister Lavina, Edited by Her Niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson, was published by Little, Brown, and Company in 1929. Many years ago I came into possession of a copy of this book.

A good history of the publication of Dickinson's poems can be found at https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/book/export/html/108 where Martha Dickinson Bianchi's role in bringing Emily's poetry to publication is mentioned:

When Mabel Loomis Todd ceased her work on Dickinson’s poems, a period of quiet ensued in the publication story. Lavinia Dickinson, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Susan Dickinson all died, and Martha Dickinson Bianchi began to assume a larger role in shaping her aunt's legacy. Having inherited Dickinson’s manuscripts from both Lavinia and Susan, Martha edited at least six volumes of Dickinson’s poetry. With a lighter editorial hand than her predecessors, Bianchi did not title the poems and kept their rhyme schemes intact. Incensed by publications about her aunt that she judged inaccurate, Bianchi wrote several memoirs to assert her unique perspective as “the one person now living who saw [Emily Dickinson] face to face” (Bianchi, p. xxii).

Most of my favorite Emily Dickinson poems appear in this book. Such as,

To fill a gap--
Insert the thing that caused it.
Block it up
With other and 't will yawn
The more;
You cannot solder an abyss
With Air.

Amherst by William Nicholson suggests that Emily heard her brother Austin's lovemaking with his mistress in her family's home parlor. Some have written that Emily was in love with Austin's wife--her "Sister Sue"-- or that she loved Austin's lover Mable Loomis Todd. There is supposition that Emily loved Thomas Wentworth Higginson to whom she shared her poems, or her father's friend Judge Otis Phillips Lord, or family friend Samuel Bowles, or any number of people.

Read more at
https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/love_life
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2008/10/emily_dickinsons_secret_lover.html
http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/master-narrative-who-did-emily-dickinson-write-her-love-letters-to
http://www.sappho.com/letters/e_dickinsn.html
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/13/emily-dickinson-lyndall-gordon

The question of Emily's love interest remains conjecture. Emily tells of her great love in these poems from the book. It is obvious why they were withheld from publication by her sister Lavinia. They are so personal, telling a story unbefitting to the Victorian image of womankind.

+++++

Why do I love thee, Sir?
Because--
Require the grass
To answer wherefore, when
He pass,
She cannot keep her place.

The lightning never asked
An eye
Wherefore she shut when
he was by--
Because he knows
She cannot speak,
And reasons not contained
Of talk
There be--preferred by daintier folk.

+++++

Renunciation is a piercing virtue,
The letting go
A presence for an expectation--
Not now.

So well that I can live without--
I love Thee; then how well
Is that?
As well as Jesus?
Prove it me
That He loved men
As I love Thee.

+++++

If he were living--dare I ask?
And how if her were dead?
And so around the words I went
Of meeting them afraid.

I hinted changes, lapse of time,
The surfaces of years
I touched with caution, lest they slit
And show me to my fears.

Reverted to adjoining lives
Adroitly turning out
Wherever I suspected graces--
'T'was prudenter, I though.

And He--I rushed with sudden force
In face of the suspense--
"Was buried"--Buried!"
"He!"
My life just holds the trench.

+++++

After great pain a formal feeling comes--
The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs;
The stiff Heart questions--was it He that bore?
And yesterday--or centuries before?

The feet mechanical go round
A wooden way
Of ground or air or Ought,
Regardless grown,
A quartz contentment like a stone.

This is the hour of lead
Remembered if outlived
As freezing persons recollect
The snow--
First chill, then stupor, then
The letting go.

+++++

There is a pain so utter
It swallows Being up
Then covers the abyss with trance
So memory can step
Around, across, upon it,
As One within a swoon
Goes steady, when an open eye
Would drop him bone by bone.

+++++

I tie my hat, I crease my shawl,
Life's little duties do precisely
As the very least
Were infinite to me.

I put new blossoms in the glass,
And throw the old away,
I push a petal from my gown
That anchored there--I weigh

The time 't will be till six o'clock,
I have so much to do--
And get [sic; should be yet] existence some way back,
Stopped, struck, my ticking through.

We cannot put ourselves away
As a completed man
Or woman--when the errand's done
We came to flesh upon.

There may be miles on miles of nought
Of action,--sicker far,
To simulate is stinging work
To cover what we are

From Science and from surgery,
Too telescopic eyes
To bear on us unshaded,
For their sake, not for ours.

+++++

I got so I could hear his name
Without--
Tremendous gain!--
That stop-sensation in my soul,
And thunder in the room.

I got so I could walk across
That angle in the floor
Where he turned--so--and I
Turned--how--
And all our sinew tore.

I got so I could stir the box
In which
His letters grew,
Without that forcing in my breath
As staples driven through.

Could dimly recollect a Grace--
I think
They called it "God",
Renowned to ease extremity
When formula had failed--

And shape my hands
Petition's way--
Too ignorant of word
That Ordination utters--
My business with the cloud.

+++++

Staples driven through! Our sinews torn! We tie our hats and go about daily business, dead inside. After great pain Emily wrote the most exquisite verses resounds through the centuries to pierce our hearts with sympathy. She understood all we have experienced.

What did Lavinia know, what caused her to keep back these poems? It is the untold stories that most capture our imaginations.

Three Little Quilts

My new quilt guild's quilt show will be held this June and they are soliciting small quilts to sell at the show. I have had fun using leftover blocks.

I took a left over four patch block from a baby quilt and gave it a few borders, then embellished it with some lace and buttons that reminded me of the kitten's blue eyes.

I embroidered this some years ago, and had no idea what to do with it. Just a simple border and a little hand quilting.

Another embroidered piece from a vintage transfer embroidery patter was finished with some 1990s Ginny Beyer water fabric and hand quilting.

I am back to Love Entwined! I work on it during my time with the Clawson quilters. There is so much preparation: cutting the applique pieces and basting them onto the background has taken me hours. THEN I have to needle turn embroider it all!

I am also working on Alice in Wonderland Redwork from Mirkwood Designs.

A Pledge of Silence

Flora J. Solomon's book A Pledge of Silence won Amazon's 2014 Breakthrough Book Award, the prize being publication by Lake Union Press.

1936 finds Margie a typical Michigan small town girl, with a childhood sweetheart and dreams of becoming a New York City dress designer. Her mother has other ideas and encourages her daughter to become a nurse. Margie is accepted into medical school in Ann Arbor while her fiancée goes off to fighter pilot school.

After America enters WWII Margie is called to active service. She is shipped to the exotic Philippines. She is finally escaping her small town, but mother soon rues pushing her daughter into nursing.

Manila was the 'Pearl of the Orient', a splendid city created by 40 years of American occupation. After Margie's fiancée breaks off their engagement, Margie meets Royce, a handsome young doctor, and they become involved and fall in love. Her best friend Evelyn is seeing a doctor who is manipulative and devious. Rumors of rape follow his trail.

But the Japanese bomb the Allied military installations and take over the island. The soldiers are taken to Bataan of the infamous 'death march'  during which Royce is killed by the Japanese. The nurses are relocated to Corrigidor's underground hospital. When the Japenese reach Corrigidor the nurses and civilians are taken to Santo Tomas prison camp where they face starvation and depredation. Margie finds solace with Wade, also from Little River, Michigan, and after the war they plan to marry.

When the island is liberated by American troops Margie's ordeal is not over. What happens leaves as great, or greater, an impact on her psyche than even the POW camp and life in a war zone.

"An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior."

The first part of the book deals with Margie's roots and time in Manila as a hospital nurse during WWII. The second part follows her into a Prisoner of War camp. The third section shows Margie back home, married, and with children but suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and guilt. The ending shows how she finds help and reinvents her life.

The book keeps the reader going at a fast pace, especially after Margie arrives in Manila. Those unfamiliar with WWII in Southeast Asia will find this an eye-opening history lesson. I was uncertain about the relatively hands-off treatment of the women under the Japanese, but the POW experience is based on the author's research based on first-hand accounts. The Pledge of Silence was an actually paper POWs signed at liberation, and also refers to Margie's self-imposed silence to protect her family from knowing her dark secrets and deep pain.

This book will appeal to many readers, particularly women: those interested in historical fiction, strong female protagonists, issues of war related health issues. We follow Margie's many changes in the book, from a 16 year old to old age. She undergoes psychological treatment; turns to prayer; and finally organizing a food bank to fill her need to do something.

I found Margie and the nurses to be well drawn. The men in her life seemed more stock characters.I had expected that life at Santa Tomas would have been harsher. Lack of food and proper nutrition wore down the prisoner's health but there was little personal threat individually from the Japanese guards. I thought that Margie's reactions, as well as her veteran brother's, to readjusting to life back stateside had good emotional draw. Her crisis of self-imposed silence is poignant.  Perhaps the ending is a little too nicely wrapped up, but it is what the reader would want for this woman who has endured so much.

I received the free ebook through NetGalley for a fair and unbiased review.

A Pledge of Silence
Flora J. Solomon
Lake Union Press
Publication Date:February 24, 2015
$14.95 paperback
ISBN: 9781477820865

Trunk Show: Quilts Old and Older

Clearing out and organizing has become part of daily life since retirement and moving to a smaller house. I am still finding places to store my quilts. I find that I don't have decent photographs of all my quilts, including many which I no longer have. Here are some photos I have come across of quilts made in the last century!

A challenge by the Capital City Quilt Guild in Lansing was to make a quilt based on a book title. I chose Remembrance of Things Past by Proust. The center has these appliqued pansies, enhanced with colored pencil. 

In the border I used prints evocative of personal memories, and added embellishments from my past--like this patch from the Kenmore, NY Day Camp at Herbert Hoover Junior High in the early 1960s.

This pattern was from a 1990s magazine, I think Traditional Quilting, but instead of signatures I penned my favorite book and song quotations.

I had only been quilting a few years when a Hillsdale, MI neighbor asked me to maker her a quilt in colors she could not find. She liked this Georgia Bonesteel pattern. It was one of the largest quilts I have made, and also one of the more difficult. It is hand quilted.

Another early quilt is this Cactus Basket. I shocked some folk when I used the large scale floral print. I had seen such things done in antique quilts pictured in magazines and books. But it was not done much in the 1990s. On the wall is my Mary Pickfort collage.

I made this for my office when working as a church secretary, inspired by the stained glass windows in the hallway outside the office door. I guess it still hangs in there. I made matching window valances.

Life in the parsonage can be brutal. Conflicts within the church often overflows to the pastor and parsonage family. This quilt top shows a family in the center surrounded by those who have isolated them, and broken crosses to represent a broken church community no longer heeding God's will. It was good therapy but I never finished this quilt.

I had few skills and a small fabric stash and no money when I came up with the idea to use a traditional block design for Easter Sunrise.

The quilt looked horrid close up but on Easter Sunday it worked out pretty nice.

I had super confidence when young and never balked at trying anything. So to pay for my fabric habit I signed on to teach at a Jackson, MI quilt shop. This was a class sample for my first class.

I had few skills and had not even TAKEN a class, but learned from quilting around the frame with a quilt group at church and from books and magazines. 

Don't ever be afraid to JUST DO IT. Perfection is the result of practice, so make all the mistakes you can and learn. Plus, no one ever said perfection was a requisite for a beautiful and loved quilt. What are collectors seeking today? Improvised, folk, imperfect, polyester, quilts--the very ones that not long ago were relegated for picnic blanket and pet use.

Madison's Gift: Five Partnerships that Built America by David O. Stewart

I have read quite a few books on Dolley Madison but had not read a book about her husband President James Madison. So I was glad to have been accepted to read David O. Stewart's upcoming book Madison's Gift which looks at Madison's working relationships with President George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, President Thomas Jefferson, President James Monroe and his wife Dolley. Although the reader receives a basic understanding of Madison's biography it is really a 'political biography', similar to Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" which considered Lincoln and his cabinet which was made up of political rivals for the presidency.

Madison's service to his country included championing the 1787 Constitutional Convention and the Bill of Rights; the creation of the first political party in alliance with Thomas Jefferson; service as the first 'war president' during the War of 1812;  the revision of The Articles of Confederation to insure the government rested on a more solid base; fine tuning the election process; support for a national tax to fund a standing army and pay debt; working on the amendment to guarantee free speech, the right to bear arms, due process of law, the freedom of the press and other rights we take for granted today.

Madison had a systematic and deep intelligence. He was small and frail in body, but was a giant intellectually. His public persona was not easy and warm, although his good humor shone in his family life. His friendships and partnerships perfectly balanced his weaknesses. Jefferson and Monroe forged deep friendships with Madison, with Jefferson encouraging Madison to become a neighbor, while the Monroes in Europe purchased and shipped furnishings for the Madison's first home.

Dolley was a beautiful and well off young widow when Madison fell in love with her from afar. Martha Washington encouraged Dolley to consider Madison's attentions and she married the "great little Madison", who was 15 years older and considerably smaller than her. But their relationship became legendary, both as marriage and political partners.

Stewart's book covers familiar events and historical passages but in a detail that opened for me a better appreciation and understanding. Our American government did not spring full blown at its inception. It took years of considered thought and political action to hone the system we now enjoy. At the center of this continual process was James Madison. He did not work in a vacuum, but in accordance with other gifted, inspired, and dedicated men.

I was not always riveted by the book. It does take attention. But the story is an important one, and made me better appreciate the marvelous experiment called democracy.

I received this e-book through NetGalley and Simone & Schuster for a fair and unbiased review.

Madison's Gift: Five Partnerships that Built America
by David O. Stewart
Simon & Schuster
Publication Feb 10, 2015
ISBN: 9781451688580
$28.00