Michigan 101: Spring Flora and Fauna

I wanted to share some lovely photos taken by my brother Tom and my friend Jan. First up are photos Tom took this past week on his walks around Michigan.

A few weeks ago we had a mackerel sky.

Jan Major is a friend from many years--and moves--ago. She took these great photos at rearing ponds where my family used to go walking. Just beautiful!

For past posts with Michigan nature photos see:
Michigan Lakes and Rivers here
Michigan Spring flowers here
Michigan Winter Wonderland here
Michigan Old Barns and Autumn here
Michigan Water Wonderland here
Michigan Critters here

Shakespeare Obsession: The Millionaire and the Bard by Andrea Mays

It was 11:00 pm and I was sitting up in bed reading, unable to put the book down, biting my fingernails in anxiety.

I was not reading a thriller. No character was in a life or death situation.

I had to laugh at myself. I was reading to see if Henry Folger's quest to purchase a rare Shakespeare First Folio was successful.

The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger's Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare's First Folio by Andrea Mays was an informative and interesting read. Mays "tells the miraculous and romantic story of the making of the First Folio, and of the American industrialist whose thrilling pursuit of the book became a lifelong obsession."

In Shakespeare's day plays were not published. The theater was about as well respected as network television is today. Paper was expensive and publishing was a long process. Plays were not 'set in stone' but adapted and altered and improved constantly. Without legal protection of intellectual rights a theater troupe's repertoire was jealously protected. Actors were given their lines, but no complete script circulated.

Shakespeare wrote plays for twenty years then returned to Stratford where he died in 1616. It was seven years after his death that his business partners in the theater, John Hemings and Henry Condell, gathered all of his work to publish thirty six plays--the First Folio. The book took years to print, one page at a time, 750 copies, and took nine years to sell out.

With each new publication of the Folios changes were made. Plays were added that were not by the Bard. Older folios were discarded, replaced by the new. The books ended up in personal libraries across Britain, often forgotten or unidentified.

One of the Gilded Age's nouveau riche industrialists was William Clay Folger, who worked with Standard Oil. He didn't make unlimited money like his employer John D. Rockerfeller. Folger and his wife Emily agreed in their early marriage to live frugally, keep their lives private, and to spend all their money on Henry's dream of building a world-class collection of Shakespeareana. Mays chronicles Folger's life long quest for all things Shakespeare with particular consideration on his First Folio acquisitions. He ended up with a third of the surviving, known First Folios. Folger was lambasted by the Brits for taking their native son's legacy out of country.

The Folgers put their collection away in warehouses across New York City, unseen for years, until in 1932 the Folger Shakespeare Library was built in Washington, D.C.

Mays points out that Folger is an example of hoarding 'done right'. The Folgers' ashes reside in the library along with their collection.

I enjoyed reading about Shakespeare's career, how books were published, the early collecting by Folger, and the building of the library. Because he bought so many First Folios it would get tedious reading about each sale, but the lesser important Folios are quickly noted. I also found interesting the viewpoint on the Standard Oil antitrust act and Ida Tarbell's journalistic attacks--a far cry from how things were perceived in The Bully Pulpit by Goodwin from the perspective of Teddy Roosevelt and the McClure's magazine staff.

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

The Millionaire and the Bard
by Andrea Mays
Simon & Schuster
Publication May 12, 2015
ISBN: 9781439118238
$27.99 hard cover

Vintage Rose for Mothers Day and a Memory Quilt for Mom

I am just finishing up a quilt I called Vintage Rose. It incorporates a vintage embroidered doily (which was a giveaway from my weekly quilters group; read about it here) appliquéd on a vintage linen napkin, vintage cutter quilt rose blocks bought on eBay, a vintage glove, and vintage tatting, buttons, and other linens.

 Worn rose-shaped buttons frame "Rose" in her heart-shaped doily.

The rose appliqués were in bad shape. I covered them with sheer tulle, machine sewed it along the appliqué, then trimmed it. The tatted roses are trimmed from doilies I bought a while back.

A few months ago when I bought out a dealers linen stash there were a dozen gloves included (read about it here). This one is satin with a pretty crystal button.

On my bed I put the second quilt I ever made, made in 1991. I used Mom's painting shirts, all red plaids. I found the block pattern in a magazine, just the block, no instructions. I pretty much made up my own instructions. I had no idea what I was doing at the time. In the middle of appliquéing the hearts I met Holly Perry who taught me the appliqué and quilt stitches. We joined the quilt group at the church, which is still going on 24 years later with many of the same ladies.

Mom was an oil painter. She took her first classes in adult education back when I was a tyke. Later in life she took private lessons.

One of Mom's paintings

Mom died of cancer in 1990. She was 57 years old.

Mom about 38 years old at the time of my graduation from high school

Mom in 'the project' in her Jitterbug Queen days

Read About Songs My Mother Sang Me found at
http://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2014/04/songs-my-mother-sang-me-1940s-novelty.html

At the Library: Feedsacks, Quilts and of course, Books

The Clawson library has a changing display case and this month it features feedsacks.

 Quilts made by the Clawson quilters group are displayed throughout the library.

 Two preprinted panel quilts by Shirley K. whose French Beaded Flowers were on display last month.

There is a nice children's area which include these puppets.

 And of course lots of books!

I picked up books from their perpetual book sale: Flora by Gail Goodwin and a biography of Isak Dinson by Judith Thurman. Just a few weeks ago at their big book sale I brought home Selected Stories of Alice Munro and Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains. And at a huge local book sale at the beginning of the month charity I found Marilynne Robinson's Home, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and What is the What by Dave Eggers. As if I don't have enough NetGalley e-books to read!

May Brings Smiles and Sunshine

May has me smiling. The snow is over. Sunshine has returned.

Last Saturday I took an all day painting class. Everyone in the class was far more advanced and were quite adept. Teacher had to finally give me a little one-on-one to catch up.

 I received my first real--not ebook--for review! Thanks Schiffer!

Our apple trees have loads of buds after a good pruning.

We will be signing the contract for the kitchen remodel soon. We are going with the natural cherry cabinets, the Betty laminate from Wilson Art, and a lighter cork floor.

Our new tree is blooming. (We planted it in September:

 http://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-new-tree-comes-to-yard.html)

 And we have had daffodils and now tulips in bloom.

Our doggies have had needed dental care and teeth removed and they are eating with relish again.

Suki

Kamikaze

I also started writing again...something creative and not related to quilts or books I have read. We were at the Detroit Symphony concert last Thursday and during Schumann's Spring Symphony I was given an opening line and a character. I hope this time I finish what I have started!

Life is good!

The House of Hawthorne by Erika Robuck

My reading of Nathaniel Hawthorne came after my formal education. When other high school freshman were reading A Scarlet Letter I was in a team English class, in the 'advanced' reading group, and we were given different books to read. Taught by Mr. Botens we read The Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Salinger--with parental approval. I had never read anything like it and that summer I read all of Salinger. (In senior year I would have Mr Botens for World Literature, sending me off to the library to read in full the excerpted philosophers and writers we covered.) But A Scarlet Letter and Silas Mariner and even Romeo And Juliet became part of my 'catching up' reading after university.

I was in my later twenties when I first encountered A Scarlet Letter. I loved it and read it again. I then read other works by Hawthorne: (click on title to links to ebooks) Rappicini's Daughter, The House of the Seven Gables and even A Blithedale Romance. I later realized that one of my favorite books as a girl had been A Wonder Book For Boys and Girls.

As to Hawthorne's personal life, outside of his ancestors being involved with the Salem Witch trials and his working at the Custom House, I knew little.

The House of Hawthorne by Erika Robuck surprised me. I was unsure I would like it. The cover made me think of, well, a romance novel. But I was carried into the narrative world of Robuck's fictional Sophia Peabody and enjoyed every page.

Sophia Peabody, later Hawthrone

Sophia was one of the "Peabody Sisters of Salem."  Her sister Elizabeth never married; she became an educator and was the first woman publisher. Sister Mary also taught but later married educator Horace Mann. Sophia was artistic, but suffered migraine attacks that disabled her; the treatment included morphine. In 1833 it was arranged for Sophia to visit Cuba for her health with Mary as her companion; Mary acted as governess to their hosts children in exchange for room and board.

Cuba changed Sophia's life. The exotic atmosphere and environs inspired her as an artist. She felt her first attraction to a man and gave up all ideals of remaining unmarried and dedicated to her art. And she encountered the horrors of slavery.

After she returned home her sister Elizabeth received a visit from their neighbors, two sisters and their brother Nathaniel who Elizabeth declared more handsome than even Lord Byron. For Sophia it was love at first sight.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Who could blame Sophia? When I first saw this portrait about, oh, thirty years ago I thought he was very handsome and bought the postcard!

Robuck has written her story through Sophia's viewpoint. The novel begins at her last parting with her ailing husband Nathaniel, looking back over her life and the love shared with her husband. They were spiritual soul mates and intellectual equals who shared a deep sexual attraction. Nathaniel was a loner, uncomfortable with notoriety and with society, a man who dwelt too much on his ancestors and his personal failings. He set Sophia on a pedestal with the angels and calls her his Dove. She she gives him a painting he considers it too precious to share and he keeps it behind a black curtain for personal viewing.

Their physical attraction overcomes Nathaniel's hesitancy to marry and Sophia's desire to become an artist of repute. Nathaniel was 35 and Sophia 30 at the time of their marriage. The new lovers kept a diary of their marriage, and love letters survive. Their marriage brought personal joy although they live in near poverty as Nathaniel struggled to find employment to support them as he wrote.

Sophia is the stronger of the couple. Her motto is "Man's accidents are God's purposes." She supports her husband and neglects her own art.

They moved from place to place, and Nathaniel from job to job including a stint in England when his college friend Franklin Pierce gave him the position of Consul. Sophia longed for permanence.

Sophia was able to give up morphine when she began treatment under Dr. Fiske who used mesmerism. Nathaniel was uncomfortable with the process of Fiske's hands-on technique and objected to his wife's later belief in the occult and obsession with contacting the 'other world.'

New England was the center of America's intellectual world, and the Hawthornes knew all the movers and shakers. The Alcotts, Thoreau, Melville, Longfellow, Margaret Fuller, the Brownings, and Emerson were friends.

Tragedy came easily in the 19th c. Friends and family drown at sea, malaria takes lives and health. Children and spouses die, leaving broken families. Sophia describes her husband chopping wood and giving food to his family, growing thin, and agonizing over his inability to provide for them. Their daughter Uma nearly dies from "Roman Fever" while in Italy.

Photograph of Nathaniel Hawthorne 

Nathaniel became America's first novelist of repute after the publication of A Scarlet Letter. They were able to purchase a home and find financial security.

The story of the Hawthorne marriage proves that fact can be more romantic than fiction.

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

The House of Hawthorne
by Erika Robuck
Penguin Group
ISBN: 9780451418913
$25.95 hard cover
publication May 5, 2015

Charles Dickens Quilting Coming Along

Thanks to the weekly  quilters gathering I am getting Charles Dickens quilted. All the center is done!