What Books Changed MY Life?

While I read the essays in The Books that Changed My Life I thought about what books had changed my life. I concluded that what I read as a child set the direction of my adult reading life. And the books I heard read out loud by my teachers at Phillip Sheridan Elementary School in Tonawanda, NY. Each classroom had a small library and I would find the book my teacher had read and brought it home. The school was new and the books were new too. Now they are classics.


Charlotte's Web taught me the value of friendship and to never stereotype. Templeton the rat and Charlotte the spider are creatures we are taught to fear and avoid, but in E. B. White's book they become beloved friends. Charlotte also loves words! I don't think any book made me more aware of the meaning of friendship than Charlotte's Web.




Mr. Popper's Penguins is about a man who dreams of going to the South Pole and ends up with penguins to care for. He returns the penguins to Antarctica.

It led to The Great White South about Robert Falcon Scott's fatal journey to the South Pole, which led to I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination by Francis Spufford which led to White Eskimo about Knud Rasmussen. Polar exploration has always fascinated me. Plus, it is about restoring animals to their rightful place.

Caddie Woodlawn, Ben and Me, and Johnny Tremain led to an interest in American history. That led to reading David McCullough, Doris Kearn Goodwin, Nathaniel Philbrick, Steven Ambrose, Joseph Ellis, Timothy Eagen, Robert Caro, and a slew of Presidential and First Ladies biographies.

Star Girl was a lovely tale about children caring for a space alien accidentally left on earth. It's how we should treat all refugees. It led to joining the Sci-Fi Book Club and reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and Ray Bradbury.

Homer Price made a big enough impact that I named an imaginary friend after him--Home the Ghost who went to school with me each day.

I wanted to grow up to BE Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. I imagined my hair in a white bun and being surrounded by the neighborhood children.

Before the Disney movie, Bedknobs and Broomsticks was a huge favorite of mine. What adventures! It led to fantasy books like Terry Pratchett.

Follow My Leader about a boy and his guide dog led to enjoying books about resilient people and the love of a good dog story. (See Rags, the WWI Hero!)

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson gave me a love of poetry. (My son loved Windy Nights and recited it to himself as a toddler.)

A Child's Garden of Verses led to discovering One Hundred and One Famous Poems on my grandfather's bookshelf, along with the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe-- which lead to Robert Hillyer, Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Emily Dickinson, Anne Sexton, and Ranier Marie Rilke.

A biography of Stevenson from my classroom library was my first biography! That led to reading about Clara Barton, Jane Addams, Joan of Arc in junior high. And I still enjoy a good biography to this day.

Books read out of school as a girl left their mark, too.

Starting with the books Mom brought home from the A&P--The Little Golden Books. They also gave me a real love of art with illustrators like Mary Blair, J. P Miller, Garth Stein, Eloise Wilkens, Gustaf Tenggren, Leonard Weisgard, Feodor Rojankovsky, and Alice and Martin Provensen! I loved the story of Pantaloon and also Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather.

Mom brought home another grocery store series of chapter books that included Grimm's Fairy Tales, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, The Black Arrow, Treasure Island, and others.

My first trip to the public library I brought home The D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. I had several Fairy Tale books which led to Carl Jung and Bruno Bettleheim.

I came across a fake memoir that I loved as a girl, The Cradle of the Deep by Joan Lowell. It told about a girl's life growing up on a trading ship in the South Seas. I never thought about if it was fiction or memoir. All I knew was it was fascinating and made me want to go to sea in a sailing ship. It led to an interest in Capitan Hornblower and sea shanties and Master and Commander.



In Sixth Grade I was in Junior Great Books. A Christmas Carol and The Happy Prince were my favorites. The school library was antique. I found the Oz books, The Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and all the children's classics I had not read.

The Classics Illustrated Comic Books I loved as a girl impelled me to tackle reading the classics in junior high including The Count of Monte Cristo, Jules Verne's sci-fi, Lord Jim, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Les Miserables, and Jane Eyre.

I have never forgotten those early books. It was wonderful to revisit them with our son. I can only believe that our son's love of reading dates back to the books read to him when he was growing up.

The Books that Changed My Life: 100 Remarkable People Write About Books

I am immensely interested in how books impact people. At age nine I decided I wanted to be an author because books were powerful and could change lives. Being a good person affected a few. Put your life into words and suddenly you could reach a greater audience--forever. After all, James Barrie wrote "Death will be an awfully great adventure," and over half a century later Peter Pan set an example for the eleven-year-old me on how to face every stage of life.

When I saw Bethanne Patrick's The Books That Changed My Life on NetGalley I didn't think twice about requesting it. 100 icons talk about the books that made them who they are today, a diverse selection from Susan Orlean (Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend), Margaret Atwood (The Heart Goes Last), Tim Gunn of Project Runway, Gillian Flynn (The Girl on the Train), Gregory Maguire (Wicked), Al Roker, Carl Hiaasen, to Tommy Hilfiger.

The books they write about are also diverse: childhood books like Green Eggs and Ham (Gail McGovern), Grimm's Fairy Tales (Margaret Atwood), and Little House on the Prairie (Rosanne Cash) to The Sound and the Fury (Susan Orlean), David McCullough's John Adams (Beverly Johnson), and Fedrico Garcia Lorca (Juan Felipe Herrera). Alan Cheuse wrote on Ulysses by James Joyce and Peter Coyote on The Odyssey by Homer. There were books I loved, books I was familiar with, and books I had never heard of before.

It was great to know I was not alone in compulsively reading everything, even cereal packages (Fay Weldon), or that one book leads to another (Thomas Wolfe to Dostoevsky to Joyce to Proust for Peter Straub). Louis Bayard was impressed that Dickens was so powerful he could make a reader 'a kind of slave'--and loved the Classics Illustrated comics too.

I enjoyed every essay.

826National receives a portion of the book's proceeds to provide students ages 6-18 with opportunities to "explore their creativity and improve their writing skills." So along with delving into the inner lives of the famous you can support a cause, too.

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

The Books That Changed My Life
Bethanne Patrick
Regan Arts, Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: March, 2016
$24.95 hard cover
ISBN: 9781941393659

Dance! At the Detroit Institute of Arts

Today I was able to tour the new exhibit at the DIA which opens tomorrow. Dance! American Art 1830-1960. The selections were wonderful and diverse. Screens show movies on dance styles in several rooms.

The art portrays dance in art from Native American to the Jitterbug to contemporary ballet and includes paintings and sculpture and even costumes.

detail from The Mandan Bull Dance by George Caitlin

detail from The Jolly Flatboatmen by Bingham, 1846

detail The Jolly Flatboatmen

detail The Sidewalk Dance by John George Brown, 1894

detail The Sidewalk Dance

detail The Sidewalk Dance

detail from The Charleston by Frank Myers

Groovin' High by Faith Ringgold!Paint on fabric

detail Groovin' High 

detail Groovin' High

Patchwork Dress by John Pratt

detail of A Summer Night by Winslow Homer

I also was able to see the Shakespeare First Folio on loan from the Folger Shakespeare Museum! 

Bunny Quilts & More

The Blair Public Library has bunny & chick quilts for spring!

 

Two quilts are not spring related but lovely.

My friend Marilyn has a wonderful stash of heirloom laces, buttons, and trims. She was inspired by my collages and made this lovely quilt.

Just for fun...

When Kamikaze steals Suki's preferred corner spot...

 Seen in the parking lot of the community center:

Have a great day!

Irish Rebels Handkerchief; My Irish Roots

The Irish harp and shamrocks are a give-a-way to its Irish connection. It is a large silk handkerchief, ivory in color, with deep hems. It looks remarkably like one I found in a greeting card with a note of dating from 1906. Five portraits appear.

When this handkerchief appeared on eBay I knew it was 'something' and placed my bid. No one bid against me.

Lord Edward FitzGerald

The date 1798 and name Lord Ed. Fitzgerald soon brought up 'google' hits. He was a trained soldier who assumed leadership of the United Irishmen, whose goal was independence from England. They planned an insurrection in March 1798 but he was arrested and died in prison in June 1798.

 Robert Emmet in 1802 wanted to renew the Irish struggle for independence. He was eventually arrested and tried for high treason. He was hung and decapitated, only 24 years old. He had asked, "When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written."

 

General Edward Roche was involved in the battle of New Ross in the 1798 rebellion. 

 Henry Joy McCracken helped to form the first United Irishmen in Belfast and fought in 1798. He was arrested and hanged at age 31.

Theobald Wolfe Tone  envisioned an Ireland formed on the ideals of the French Revolution, a country where Protestants and Catholics could live in harmony. He was defeated in the Rebellion of 1798. Upon capture he was 34 years old. He died of a self-inflicted wound.  He was said to have been "brave, adventurous, sanguine, fertile in resource, buoyant under misfortune, warm-hearted...[and] near being almost as fatal an enemy to England as Hannibal was to Rome."

*****

I really need to learn more about Irish history! I have Irish ancestors; my great-great-grandfather father John Smith was born in Ireland. Smith is the fifth most common name in Ireland. Smith was the Anglicization of the Irish surname Mac an Ghabhain, "son of the smith." Early Smiths were MacGowan, with variations McGowen and McGowin. John's daughter Delia (or sometimes Della) Victoria Smith was my great-grandmother.

Family lore has it that John's father bred horses in Ireland and sent John to sell some horses in England. Instead, he kept the horses (or money from their sale) and started a new life. I have also been told that my great-grandmother and siblings could 'ride before they could walk'. John and his wife Bridget Allen, of Scottish background, lived on Irlam-on-Barton at Chat Moss far m in Lancashire.

John was killed by a train in 1901; his wife had died in 1898. My great-grandmother would have been twelve years old at the time of her father's death, one of eleven children. The next I know of my grandmother was in 1906; she was a domestic servant coming to join her future husband in America. On the passenger list her age was given as 20 years old, not her actual age of 17. She married Cropper Greenwood of Bacup, England. I never had figured out how they met, but I expect they were both working in the Manchester area as servants. Cropper was mechanically trained as a quarry worker and later became a chauffeur.

Eccles & Patricroft JournalFriday 13th December 1901
Killed on the railway at IrlamAn inquest was held on Wednesday evening at the Ship Hotel, Irlam by Mr E Birch, deputy coroner, touching the death of John Smith of Moss Farm who was killed at the railway station last Monday. Mr J Mayall was foreman of the jury, Mr F Simpson was present of behalf of the Cheshire Lines Railway Co. Philip Smith said the deceased, his father was about 50 years of age. He last saw him a fortnight at home when he was in good health, he was unaware of this father habitually crossing the railway when returning from Manchester. Deceased was in no trouble and had not threatened to commit suicide, he sometimes got drunk – By a juryman: He did not know if it was a nearer way home to cross the line – several jurymen said it was three-quarters of a mile nearer at least. William Herbert Holland, booking clerk, said on Monday he was collecting tickets from the passengers travelling by train from Manchester, due at 20:03. It was a rough and dark night. Deceased came to him from the north end of the platform and had lost his ticket and paid 8d. He was sober and did not appear strange. He must have come back on to the platform while witness was engaged with other passengers. He had a right to go under the subway. After collecting all the tickets he saw deceased beyond the entrance to the subway apparently intending to cross the line, he called him back but deceased took no notice. Witness followed him and saw the headlight of an engine coming along the loop-line. The engine whistled. The train from Manchester returned from Irlam, and was being reversed. The engine stopped before getting into its usual place and the stoker came into the Station master’s office for assistance to deceased, who had been run over. His legs were cut off. Witness had not before seen deceased attempt to cross the line, though the stationmaster had cautioned him about doing so. There were notice boards at each end of the platform, warning passengers to cross the lines by the subway - Juryman: It is not fact that so many Moss people cross the lines? – Witness: No they cross by the subway and go by the end of the wall. – By the Coroner: He had seen deceased drunk many a time but he did not think he was on Monday night. He often travelled without a ticked, and paid his fare without demur, - Enoch Johnson, Fireman on the train, deposed to seeing the deceased at the end of the platform. The engine which was running tender first was about 12 yards off. Witness sounded the whistle, and when he saw the deceased attempt to cross the line told the driver to stop, and applied the hand brake. Deceased was lying face downwards in the four foot. The engine and tender has passed over him. Deceased died almost immediately – By a juryman: Instead of crossing the line he expected deceased intended to go through the goods yard – the coroner said it was a fatal short cut, deceased having come to his death by his own folly, - A verdict of “accidental death” was returned. The jury passed a recommendation that a public mortuary was desirable.The Warrington Guardian - Saturday 14th Dec 1901Railway Fatality On Monday night about 8 o'clk John Smith - commonly know as "Pigeon Jack" was killed on the Cheshire Lines Railway near Irlam Station. The deceased lived for many years at the end of the new road, Cadishead. The inquest was held on Thursday afternoon and the jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

What a sad ending. Was 'Pigeon Jack' drunk? And why 'Pigeon"? Did he race pigeons? Our ancestors are so elusive.