Louisa on the Front Lines: Louisa May Alcott in the Civil War by Samantha Seiple

Louisa on the Front Lines by Samantha Seiple recounts the little-known story of Louisa's experience as a nurse and how it affected her life and her writing. 

At a time when women were considered to be weak physically and intellectually, Louisa May Alcott challenged every stereotype of her sex, from running through the streets for health to supporting a woman's right to vote.

Her father Bronson Alcott's extreme idealism made him unsuitable as a father of a large family. His wife Abby worked any job she could find to support them. Lu took the burden of breadwinner on herself, working in various jobs "suitable" for a gentlewoman and by writing sensational stories. She was expected to marry and thereby help her struggling family but preferred independence. "I'd rather be a free spinster and paddle my own canoe," she wrote.

When the Civil War broke out, Lu watched the young men march off and felt frustrated with merely sewing "for the boys" and making lint for the hospitals. The establishment of the Sanitary Commission and appointment of Dorothea Dix as superintendent of female nurses led to a call for the first women nurses. A nurse had to be single, over thirty, and "plain." Lu applied and, with her family's blessing, traveled to Washington, D.C. to work in a hospital. 

It is all very well to talk of the patience of woman; and far be it from me to pluck that feather from her cap, for, heaven knows, she isn't allowed to wear many; but the patient endurance of these men, under trials of the flesh, was truly wonderful. Their fortitude seemed contagious, and scarcely a cry escaped them, though I often longed to groan for them, when pride kept their white lips shut, while great drops stood upon their foreheads, and the bed shook with the irrepressible tremor of their tortured bodies.from Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott

Louisa wrote Hospital Sketches about her experiences, the first to document life for nurses during the war. It was a sensation during her lifetime. Somehow, we have forgotten this part of her life. 

In vivid detail, Seiple recounts the hard work and long hours in a subpar facility, the suffering of the boys, the awful food, the ineffectual medical treatments, the high death rate, and how workers stole from the supplies and the wounded. Lu realized the importance of her role as surrogate mother, sister, and wife for the suffering and dying men.

Marmee received bad news from the war
Little Woman quilt designed by Marion Cheever Whiteside Newton
Hand applique and hand quilted by Nancy A. Bekofske

....at the Hurly burly Hotel, disorder, discomfort, bad management, and no visible head, reduced things to a condition which I despair of describing. from Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott

The experience changed Lu's life. She had seen the world, became close to the dying boys, and had contracted typhus and became mortally ill. Bronson brought Lu back home and she survived, although her health never fully returned. 

Having lived fully, profoundly affected by the men she nursed, Lu went on "to create characters and stories that would transcend the page and full her readers' hearts." Including her most famous novel, Little Women.

I very much enjoyed Louisa on the Front Lines. Although it focuses on the few months Lu spent as a nurse, there is enough background information on her family and life to provide a fuller context. The battlefield is brought to life as a background to the men Lu nursed. It is a moving story.

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

Louisa on the Front Lives
by Samantha Seiple
Seal Press
Publication Feb. 26, 2019
$27 hardcover
ISBN: 9781580058049

Little Women by Nancy A. Bekofske
Pattern by Marion Cheever Whiteside Newton
hand appliqued and hand quilted

Learn more about Louisa May Alcott:
Meg Jo Beth Amy by Anne  Boyd Rioux
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-story-of-little-women-and-why-it.html

The River Widow by Anne Howard Creel

"Over the course of her life, she had learned that people could hold inside the brightest peaks and the darkest pits, and there were those who straddled the break--half of them drawn to evil, half drawn to beauty. Those people could step from one side to the other and back again as if the line were as thin as a hair. Her husband had been one of those people. Was she one of them, too?"  from The River Widow by Anne Howard Creel

In 1937 Paducah, KY as the Ohio River was flooding, Adah's husband Lester once again lost his temper and began to beat her. In desperation, Adah grabbed a nearby shovel and lashed out at Lester, striking him in the head. 

Horrified by what she had done, she dragged his body to the raging river, desperately hoping it would carry away the evidence of her crime.

Adah's guilt is heavy, but she has the motivation to carry on.  She loves Daisy, Lester's daughter from his first marriage.  Lester's family insist that Daisy and Adah stay with them. 

The Branch clan is feared for their violence and imperious disregard for decency and the law. They suspect there is more to the story of Lester's death. Adah works on the tobacco farm like an indentured servant and hires herself out to do laundry to add to the family's income. She is unable to protect Daisy from the harsh punishments and rough treatment meted out by her father's kinfolk, but at least she can comfort and love the child.

As the months go by, Adah struggles with one question: how can she get Daisy out of the Branch family's clutches? In the meantime, she learns more about Lester and his family--and meets a man who offers her an alternate future.

The River Widow by Anne Howard Creel has an almost Gothic atmosphere, the story of a woman isolated and held against her will, powerless and unprotected. The bulk of the novel is psychological and internal. The suspense comes not in action as much as through emotion and insight. At times I was reminded of Jane Austen's character Fanny from Mansfield Park, a girl completely dependent, suffering, without any power for self-determination, but with a moral clarity that sets her apart.

I learned that one of Creel's books had been made into a movie, The Magic of Ordinary Days, had been made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. We watched it and enjoyed it very much.

Learn more about the author and The River Widow at
https://www.annhowardcreel.com/about

I thank the author for a copy of her book and other gifts, a win through the American Historical Novels Facebook Group.

from her website: 

Ann Howard Creel writes historical novels about strong female characters facing seemingly impossible obstacles and having to make life-changing decisions. In her new novel, THE RIVER WIDOW, a former tarot-card reader turned widow and stepmother must escape the clutches of an evil family while also facing the crime she herself has committed. In THE WHISKEY SEA, a fierce young woman becomes one of the only female rumrunners on the Atlantic Coast during Prohibition. And in WHILE YOU WERE MINE, a New York City nurse must give up the child she has raised as her own during World War II.
​
When asked where she gets her ideas, Ann answers, “From history.” She doesn’t know when the muse will strike, but often while reading about history, she sees an image in her mind. The spark for THE RIVER WIDOW came while learning about The Great Flood of 1937 along the Ohio River. Ann immediately saw a woman dragging her abusive husband’s body to the river to let floodwaters take it away. Rather strange, she knows.
​
In the works are new novels about an American horsewoman joining an all-female group of doctors, nurses, and ambulance drivers during World War I and a tale of an American teacher needing an escape who inherits a Paris nightclub just as Europe is steadily marching toward war.
​
Besides writing, Ann's other interests include old houses, new yoga routines, red wine, and all things cat.  For book clubs, Ann will visit you via Skype. Contact her through her website: www.annhowardcreel.com.

Helen Korngold Diary: February 17-23, 1919

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

Helen Sarah Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

February
Monday 17
Wellston. Kept box of candy. Class. Home—4th unanswered letter from J. K. Also a very beautiful book souvenir of N.Y. it’s a dream. Studied.

Tuesday 18
Wellston—exam. Class—Home—correct papers—lecture—Summer came—Holmes-Smith lectured. Summer gave us his photo. Handsome!

Wednesday 19
Wellston—last day. Kids hated to see me leave. But I didn’t have to leave. Class. Basket Ball. Home.

Thursday 20
Geol. exam. Rotten. Nothing exciting.

Friday 21
Practiced with Aunt Beryl—school. Played with Maizie Rothman & Irene Miller. Lovely. Dancing. Home—Rushed thru dinner. Summer came & all of us went to Gatis’ & to auto show. Pretty good.

Saturday 22
Washington’s Birthday. Board hike called off. Wrote invitation for kid party at Sara’s. Home—slept. Played at Oddfellows Lodge. Earned $5, Puck [?] got $3. Soft.

Sunday 23
Fooled around. T. Haas engagement reception in evening. Engaged to Marcus. Nice couple.

Notes:

February 21

On the 1910 census, Maizie Rothman appears as the daughter of Paul Rothman, a physician, and Rosa, a mid-wife, and had an older sister who was also a physician. Both parents were from Russia.

Maizie Rothman

Irene Miller appears in the University of Missouri yearbook of 1921 as a Spanish major.

Irene Miller in the 1922 Hatchet Senior Class Photo

The 12th Annual St. Louis Auto Show was held at the former Southern Hotel daily from 11 am to 11 pm from February 17 to 22. Matinees cost 25 cents and Nights 50 cents. Their display ad read, "All the 1919 Passenger Cars. A Commercial Car Selection. Automotive Equipment Section."

The Feb. 21 newspaper article noted record turnouts with an estimated 6,500 in attendance. "Throng beats any preceding one in number and enthusiasm." "They came early and they stayed late," "debutants and matrons, richly gowned and with eyes that sparkled as brightly as the jewels they wore," "many of the women were decollette and there was  more than a sprinkling of men in full-dress attire."

"And the automobiles! They just seemed to beam with the joy of being there--and being admired."

Many sales were expected.

February 22

Daniel David Wolf (b. 1895) is mentioned on Jan 25 and May 8. His WWI draft card shows he was of medium height and weight with brown eyes and black hair. He lived in Valley Park with his mother Rose and worked for Wagoner Electric in St. Louis. The 1920 St. Louis Census shows him living with his mother Rose, who was of Hungarian German heritage. Rose owned and operated a dry goods store which she ran along with Dan, her daughter Carrie, age 20, and son Milton, age 14. Daughter Adelaide was age 18.  Daniel married Clementine Marcus in 1931. He died in 1963 in St. Louis.

Dan's father Charles Wolf started Wolf’s Dry Goods Store. His mother was Tose Weiss. Wolf’s sister married Rudolph Gates, father of Helen’s friends Morris and Jeanette Gates. The 1900 St. Louis Census shows Charles (born 1869) as a ‘burger’ with his family Rosa, (born 1872), Milton (1895), Daniel (1896), son Carrie (1898), Adelaide (1899). Also living with the family was Charles’ father Samuel (born in 1827 and arrived in America in 1860) and Charles’ brother Phillip (1862) who worked in a mercantile business. They also had a servant.

February 23

Marcus Demosthenes White appears in the 1919 Washington University School of Medicine graduating class but he appears to have married a Wimsett.

Imagine That by Mark Fins

When I was in 8th Grade my English/Social Studies teacher lamented that people lose their imaginations when they grow up. This struck a cold fear into my heart, for make-believe was my favorite world and imagining stories my passion. I was determined it would not happen to me--I would keep my imagination. I would NOT grow up!

Of course, I did grow up, but I hope I kept a healthy amount of imagination mixed in with the necessary evils of practicality and pragmatism.

Later, I was the mother of a boy whose imaginary world was so palpable I could almost see it as he walked through life telling his stories out loud, enacting the scenes running in his head. 

Used correctly, one's imagination can enrich life. Without understanding and self-control, it can create problems.

Mark Fins' character Mark in Imagine That is an eight-year-old boy who lives in a world of his imagination, acting out the scenarios in his head. Mark narrates his story, telling us how he is drawn to act out what is in his head, leading to near catastrophes and punishments from his beloved father. Especially when he imagines a lit match as a kamikaze pilot plummeting to earth.

Mark's father is stressed over his business and it makes him short-tempered and impatient, resorting to the belt, so that Mark has learned to fear him. 

After a move, a lonely Mark meets an elderly man who values Mark's imagination and befriends Mark and his family, subtly aiding them to personal growth and harmony. Mr. Hawkins struggles with regret and sadness over choices that severed his family.

The novel began to feel didactic at this point, more like an extended example of how to parent a difficult child. (Nothing wrong with that! Many of us are flummoxed over child raising.) But Fins has incorporated themes that elevate the story to something more as he tackles issues of love and redemption, punishment and forgiveness.

"This is the face of war," I heard myself say. The screaming and suffering and dying and the faces of the solders in a fight to the death made me realize that even though it was glorious to pretend, war was a terrible thing, just like Mr. Hawkins had once said.

I didn't want to do war anymore, maybe even for a long time. There was too much sadness in war.  

Mark in Imagine That

I loved the section where Mr. Hawkins helps Mark and the neighborhood children reenact WWI as a way of teaching them that the glorification of war hides its cruel realities.

My favorite scene, near the end of the book, finds Mark discovering a nascent belief in God, finding meaning to his Jewish heritage. I was choked up reading this section.

Fins' novel is deeply autobiographical and his delving into his early memories creates a rich character. 

The ebook includes a Reading Group Guide.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through a Goodreads win.

The papberback ($4.99) and ebook ($2.99) are available at

http://www.markfins.com/buy

WIP, TBR, & News

I have a head cold. My husband gave it to me for Valentine's Day. He felt bad so he bought me chocolate covered macaroons. 

It has been bitterly cold and snowy in Michigan.

painting by Joyce Gochenour, my mother

We have been enjoying the Detroit Symphony's American Panorama series and were lucky to have tickets to see two of the concerts live. I shared a remark on Facebook and was surprised to open their February newsletter to see it included at the top of the page!

POSTCARDS FROM THE STAGE

The DSO has made its mark in the month of February for the past several seasons with six extraordinary winter music festivals. Now halfway through American Panorama, it’s safe to say this festival has launched us on an incredible journey.

We watch the DSO concerts on Livestream, on our Comcast channel 900, plus they are available online. 

I am hand quilting the top I made from Carolyn Goins' book The Fiona Quilt Block.

The weekly quilt group I attend has a 'free table' where we share things we don't want. Fabric, patterns, books, trims--all kinds of goodies show up. The ladies are always showing off something they made with the free fabric they found on the table. A few weeks ago I picked up a piece of Marvel comic book heroes material and used it to make a bag.

 I lined it and added a deep pocket.

A surprise package came!  Fault Lines from W. W. Norton. The book shows how the American political divide began in 1974. This will be especially interesting to read as I am currently reading Camelot's End by Jon Ward about Ted Kennedy's challenge to President Carter, and how the Democratic party lost the presidency to Reagen.

I just finished The Gown by Jennifer Robson, a novel about the making of Princess Elizabeth's wedding gown. I won the book from Book Club Cookbook. My review is to come. Another book arrival, a Goodreads win, is That Churchill Woman by Stephanie Barron, whose Jane Austen mysteries I have enjoyed.

I am still waiting for my Goodreads win Unmarriageable, a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, and the LibraryThing win Falter by Bill McKibbon.

For Valentines Day I bought myself Elizabeth McCracken's new novel Bowlaway. I just loved what I was reading in the reviews.

We bought a heated outdoor dog water bowl after watching squirrels eating ice. Once in a while, a bird will visit for a drink, too. But this little black squirrel comes all day long. He is the same critter who robbed our apple trees all summer long! We didn't mind, as the fruit last year was affected by the drought and was too small to use.

Our son's rescue dog Ellie has made huge progress in the last ten weeks. She sits to be harnessed and to get her coat on. She lets him know when she wants out or in or a pet. Ellie loves to romp in the deep snow!

I am scheduled for cataract surgery next week but fear it won't happen unless I have a quick and complete recovery from my cold! I will have both eyes taken care of and will get a lens that corrects my astigmatism while I am at it. Hopefully, I will only need glasses to read!

Knowing there were be several weeks when I won't have the best vision I have been cleaning up my NetGalley shelf and resisting adding new books until my surgeries are over.

I am reading Stephen Rowley's The Editor, historical fiction about a writer whose editor was Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

Books on my shelf include:

• The Life and Death of Aida: A Border Story by Aaron Bobrow-Strain
• A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father by David Maraniss whose Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story I have read
• The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith whose The Last Painting of Sara DeVos I have read

There are a few other publisher-sent NetGalley books which I may also get to. 

Today a dozen fat Robins visited the yard! They settled in the little ornamental pear tree to pluck the small fruit from last year. Then off they flew. Spring will come!

Daughter of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

Alan Brennert's novel 2003 Moloka'i has a huge fan base and is much beloved among historical fiction readers. Now he continues the story in Daughter of Moloka'i.

In the first novel, we meet Rachel in the Hawaiian leper colony, her infant Ruth placed in a Catholic orphanage to protect her from developing her parent's leprosy. In this new novel, Brennert continues Ruth story as she is adopted by a Japanese couple. They move to California where they come up against anti-Japanese sentiment. The family is caught up in the horror of relocation camps during WWII, suffering a division when a loyalty oath compels the patriarch to make a choice that leads to repatriation. Ruth's story is continued as the family struggles to regain what they have lost. And in the end, Ruth is reunited with her birth mother and learns her heritage. Readers will learn a lot about Hawaiian and Japanese culture and religion.

Brennert does not shy from including gruesome stories of racist injustice, scenes that are far more disturbing than those shared in other recent novels about Manzanar which I have read. 

Years ago I read Brennert's novel Honolulu and enjoyed it. I already had Moloka'i on my Kindle and intended to read it before Daughter of Moloka'i but ended up reading only about half of it. Consequently, my emotional involvement in the reunion at the end of the novel was weaker.

Overall, my response to both novels was lacking. I don't know if I was just burned out by too much historical fiction, especially about these events, or if I was burned out by family sagas, or if the prose just didn't work for me. The events covered are certainly intense and relevant. But I didn't really *get into* the characters and often felt there was too much telling and not enough action. Scenes I wished were acted out were only referred to, and other scenes took up too much space.

But that's me, and I am often out of sync with mainstream readers. Because people love these novels and characters.

I can't find fault with Brennert's commitment to using fiction to broaden reader's knowledge of history and the ways the American government has grievously erred--and still errors-- practicing racism that employs unjust and cruel laws. So, kudos to Brennert! And may readers everywhere love these characters and pledge that America's past moral failing not continue to be perpetrated in the future.

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

You can read an excerpt at 

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250137685

Daughter of Moloka'i

by Alan Brennert

St. Martin's Press

Pub Date 19 Feb 2019  

ISBN 9781250137661

PRICE $27.99 (USD)

Meet Mrs. L. Frank Baum in Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts

Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts is a charming imagining of the life of Mrs. Frank L. Baum. 

In 1938 a seventy-seven-year-old Maud Baum pushes her way into MGM studios to fulfill her promise to her husband to always protect Dorothy. She isn't taken seriously, but nonplussed, continues to show up during the production of The Wizard of Oz to protect her husband's creation, so believed by children. She notices the appalling treatment endured by teenage actress Judy Garland and befriends the girl. 

Maud Gage was the daughter of a well-connected suffragette who expected her to earn a college degree. Being a coed was hard enough in 1880; being the daughter of a notorious activist brought further harassment. 

Visiting her college roommate's family she meets L. Frank Baum. He wins her heart--and her parent's approval, even though he was self-educated and ran a traveling troupe that performed his plays across the country. 

Their life is filled with hardship and challenges, love and loss, taking them from New York State to touring the country, to the upper plains to Chicago, until Frank finally sets down on paper the stories he loves to tell.

Letts' story is based on actual events and persons. Some of the most amazing events in the novel actually happened.

As a girl in the 1950s, I was always so excited when The Wizard of Oz movie was aired on television. I was an adult before I saw it in color! I discovered very old copies of the Oz series in my elementary school library and read most of the books.

I enjoyed Finding Dorothy and I think you will, too. It was wonderful to learn about the "man behind the curtain" who imagined the Oz stories, and the strong woman he married. Judy Garland's experience of abuse mirror stories we still hear today. 

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

"A woman with a heart, a brain, courage to spare, and a girl’s sense of wonder—this is the heroine of Elizabeth Letts’s sparkling, touching. Maud Baum is the daughter of a suffragette and the wife of a dreamer, but she is also a force to be reckoned with in her own right.”—Melanie Benjamin, author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue

Letts' nonfiction books The Eighty-Dollar Champion, which I have read and enjoyed, and The Perfect Horse, which I should have read, have been best-sellers.  

Finding Dorothy

by Elizabeth Letts

Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine

Pub Date 12 Feb 2019  

ISBN 9780525622109

PRICE $28.00 (USD)