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.