Thursday, December 3, 2020

Pan-American Exposition Redwork Quilt Top Compete

Years ago I purchased reproduction fabric of Pan-American penny square Redwork blocks reproduced by Blue Hill. I embroidered the blocks and then created additional ones by tracing blocks on my antique Pan-American Redwork quilt. 

I am finishing up UFOs and decided to set these blocks with fabric from my stash. It is not what I envisioned when I started, but it is another quilt top done!

The blocks are set with plain blocks from Buttermilk Basin fabrics left from my Hospital Sketches quilt.

Note President McKinley ant President Theodore Roosevelt are on the quilt along with their wives Edith Roosevelt and Ida McKinley. There were also blocks for George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Buffalo Bill, and a Native American. And, a Buffalo which I suppose stood for the city that hosted the Exposition.

The reproduction blocks included common motifs from the era of children, a mother and child, and natural motifs.

Here is the quilt made with the penny squares sold at the Exposition in 1901.

President McKinley was shot while standing on the steps of the Temple of Music. At his death, Theodore Roosevelt became president.

Buildings for the fair are depicted. Below is the Johnstown Flood.



The Temple of Music "Where President McKinley was shot"


Bostock's Trained Wild Animals was on the Midway

Learn more about the Pan-American Exposition at "A Guide to Buffalo's 1901 Pan-American Exposition" here.

See Thomas Edison's films of the Exposition and President McKinley's death at the Library of Congress here.

Read  my review of The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City by Margaret Crieghton here. Learn about Tesla's contribution to the electric lighting of the Exposition in Tesla by Richard Munsen.



Tuesday, November 24, 2020

The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams by David S. Brown

 

Henry Adams was born in 1838, the year the telegraph was first demonstrated. Native Americans were  forced to relocate and the Underground Railroad was being established. Meanwhile in Britain, slavery was abolished, Victoria was newly on the throne, and Dickens published Oliver Twist. Adams died in 1918 during WWI, the year of the Spanish Influenza and the first time airplanes were used by the USPS. 

Henry was the grandson of President John Quincy Adams, 'the Governor' of Henry's childhood, and the great-grandson of founding father President John Adams. His own father Charles Francis had served as ambassador to England, as had generations of Adams men.

Unlike his predecessors, Adams did not committ his life to public service. He never had children and his wife committed suicide when he was in his late 40s. He spent some time teaching at Harvard, and was popular with the students, but it did not suit him.

Henry became a historian, a world traveler, and an insider Washingtonian socialite. 

"What could become of such a child of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when he should wake up to find himself required to play the games of the twentieth? " he wrote in the first chapter, continuing, "As it happened, he never got to the point of playing the game at all; he lost himself in the study of it."~ from The Education of Henry Adams

It was his book The Education of Henry Adams that introduced me to him. It is a strange book, self-published and shared with his friends. He writes about his childhood in Quincy and his later life, skipping the death of his wife and his most regarded histories. He writes about the changes in society, the rise of capitalists and industry and the power of money.

Like his predecessors, Henry was intellectual, high-minded, and could be contrary. Like his predecessors, he believed one should be called to public duty, not seek it, an 18th c concept dated by his time. Unlike his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, he was not called to serve as an ambassador, although he was his father's private secretary in London. 

Instead, he wrote. He wrote an eight-volume history of Jeffersonian America, he wrote political commentary, he wrote travel pieces and about architecture and medieval history.

John Adams and John Quincy Adams were men of  their time, men of action, called upon to serve their country. Henry was an observer and an outsider, out of sync, never at home.

John Adams was against slavery and John Quincy Adams fought Congress over the ban to discuss abolition.  His father Charles Francis was involved with the anti-slavery Whig party. Henry was uninterested and unengaged with the problems of African Americans. 

As capitalism and business men rose to power, Anti-Semitism became mainstream, and Henry was not immune. He despaired to see that the big money of the 'northern plutocracy" was the rising power in Washington. He railed against corruption and the patronage system, and despaired that too many 'good men' avoided politics as a dirty business. He railed against the rise of the Boston Irish. 

He married a cerebral woman overly attached to her father, a woman liked by few.  After her early death, Adams built her a enigmatic memorial, the details of which he left up to the famed sculpture Saint-Gaudens while he went on a world tour while claiming he died to the world with her. 

The arc of Adam's life crossed a part of American history and politics I was not well versed on, and I found this aspect of the biography to be very interesting. The problems we see today in American politics have deep roots.

Some trivia tidbits from Adams life:
  • Henry James wrote in a letter to Edith Wharton that Adams read Jane Austen's Persuasion aloud in the evenings.
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald's character Thornton Hancock was inspired by Adams; he had met him when a boy.
  • Adams studied under geologist Louis Agassiz at Harvard, saying his class was "the only teaching that appealed to [my] imagination."
  • Adams wrote two novels, including Democracy about Gilded Age Washington DC politics; Teddy Roosevelt found it "essentially mean and base."
  • Adams fell in love with an unhappily married, beautiful and intelligent socialite who counted on his friendship but rejected him as a lover. She did not find him physically attractive.
I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams
by David S. Brown
Scribner
Pub Date: November 24,  2020
ISBN: 9781982128234
hardcover $30.00 (USD)

from the publisher

A revelatory biography of literary icon Henry Adams—one of America’s most prominent writers and intellectuals of his era, who witnessed and contributed to America’s dramatic transition from “colonial” to “modern.”

Henry Adams is perhaps the most eclectic, accomplished, and important American writer of his time. His autobiography and modern classic The Education of Henry Adams was widely considered one of the best English-language nonfiction books of the 20th century. The last member of his distinguished family—after great-grandfather John Adams, and grandfather John Quincy Adams—to gain national attention, he is remembered today as an historian, a political commentator, and a memoirist.

Now, historian David Brown sheds light on the brilliant yet under-celebrated life of this major American intellectual. Adams not only lived through the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution but he met Abraham Lincoln, bowed before Queen Victoria, and counted powerful figures, including Secretary of State John Hay, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and President Theodore Roosevelt as friends and neighbors. His observations of these men and their policies in his private letters provide a penetrating assessment of Gilded Age America on the cusp of the modern era.

The Last American Aristocrat details Adams’s relationships with his wife (Marian “Clover” Hooper) and, following her suicide, Elizabeth Cameron, the young wife of a senator and part of the famous Sherman clan from Ohio. Henry Adams’s letters—thousands of them—demonstrate his struggles with depression, familial expectations, and reconciling with his unwanted widower’s existence.

Presenting intimate and insightful details of a fascinating and unusual American life and a new window on nineteenth century US history, The Last American Aristocrat shows us a more “modern” and “human” Henry Adams than ever before.

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Iconic Poet by Marta McDowell

 

I purchased Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life by Marta McDowell as part of my reading about Emily Dickinson as I developed a quilt. 

This is a gorgeous book, from the cover and the end papers to the illustrations that fill the pages. 



McDowell incorporates Dickinson's poems flawlessly. 
Readers are taken on a year-long journey into the garden, from early spring to winter, each season telling a part of Emily's life journey. 

It was a joy to read, an escape from lock-down in the early spring, an inspiration as I tended our own garden, and this autumn found me dreaming of visiting The Homestead some day when this pandemic is over.

Chapters include an annotated list of Emily's plants and a visit to her home and garden.

This would be a wonderful Christmas gift for the reader of Dickinson or gardener in your life.

I have McDowell's book All the President's Gardens on Kindle. But after holding this book in my hands, with its lovely artwork and illustrations, the heft of it, I may need to buy a hardcover copy...along with Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life!

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Covid-19 Life: Nature in the 'Burbs, Books TBR

The leaves are all down, except for a black willow at the end of our street. It is time to notice other things on our walks. Like squirrel nests! 

The city park is filled with oak trees which feed the squirrels. 



We have the Eastern Grey Squirrels and Fox Squirrels I remember from growing up, but now there are more black squirrels than any other.

I researched why they have appeared in Michigan and discovered that they had been introduced intentionally! Their color helps to protect them during the cold winters and so they have thrived. 

According to Wikipedia, the black morphs had nearly disappeared when John Harvey Kellogg decided to repopulate Battle Creek, MI, with the black Eastern Gray Squirrel in 1915. In 1958 and 1962, the black morphs were trapped at the Kellogg Biological Station and released on the Michigan State University campus! They were also reintroduced at Kent State University in Ohio.

Where there are squirrels and bunnies and chippies (and yes, skunk, opossum, raccoon, rats, and mice, too) there will be raptors. Our city is filled with all of these creatures.

Today we saw this hawk circling our street.
I have seen a hawk sitting in a tree, watching a squirrel. The squirrel was distraught, wanting to go into its nest but he knew the hawk was there. He ran up and down the lower trunk while the hawk flew from branch to branch. Lucky for the would-be prey, the hawk grew bored and flew to other feeding grounds.

A number of winters ago there was a hawk on our roof holding a frozen rate. Last summer I saw the peregrine falcon winging overhead.

On a community Facebook page I mentioned seeing raptors in the city and one person was aghast. She thought 'velociraptor' not hawks!

Telephone lines and fences and houses and garages block our view from the house, but the sunsets and sunrises are easier to see now the leaves are down.

I have so many 'win' books that have not arrived! Instead, I received a book that was a total surprise! Jane Smiley's new novel Perestroika in Paris sounds like a charming read!

To come is The Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping-Chen, stories from China, from BookishFirst. And new on my NetGalley shelf is Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli.

I will soon have another quilt top completed, I started a small embroidery project, and am toying with doing some painting.

There is plenty to keep me busy as we self-isolate. Michigan and our county has seen escapating Covid-19 cases.

Over 329,00 cases and 8,875 deaths in Michigan.

Over 40,000 cases in Oakland County and 1,310 deaths.

Our city has 260 cases and 18 deaths total, 217.03 positive cases per 10,000 people.

Sadly, I now can say I know someone with Covid, along with knowing many people who has a family member that became ill, and several people who lost loved ones. 

Stay safe, out there. Use a mask. Stay home. Better to miss one Thanksgiving than to lose a family member.

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge


I listened to the 'Hammerklavier' on YouTube with the music appearing in the visual. "Beethoven's impossible piece" was dedicated to his student Prince Rudolf whose health precluded him from actually playing it. In the year of its composition, Beethoven said that he had not known how to compose, but he knew now. 

I was stunned by the music. I studied piano as a girl and have enjoyed playing (badly) for my own enjoyment. I had some idea of what was required to perform it. Few could actually conquer it, Laura Tunbridge writes in her new biography, Beethoven.

I have heard Beethoven in concert many times. I had never heard this piece before and would have remained ignorant if not for Tunbridge including it in her book. It is one of the nine pivotal compositions she uses to tell the story of Beethoven's life.

The composer lived through turbulent times and decades of war. 
The age of reason morphed into the romantic era. Beethoven took music into the sublime and beyond, shocking people with its dissonance and loudness. Some complained that the music was too cerebral, 'elaborate musical puzzles.' 

Through Beethoven's music, Tunbridge presents a complete biography. The familiar questions of the identity of 'The Immortal Beloved' and the changing dedication of the 'Eroica' are discussed, but also the development of the piano and the role of the conductor in his time, self-marketing and sheet music, Beethoven's religious life, and the long custody battle over his nephew. I found it all fascinating, and I felt I had a better grasp of this iconic composer.

I listened to the music as Tunbridge discussed the piece, added so much to my appreciation, doubling my enjoyment of this biography.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces
by Laura Tunbridge
Yale University Press
Pub Date: October 26, 2020  
ISBN: 9780300254587
hardcover $35.00 (USD)

from the publisher

A major new biography published for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, offering a fresh, human portrayal

The iconic image of Beethoven is of him as a lone genius: hair wild, fists clenched, and brow furrowed. Beethoven may well have shaped the music of the future, but he was also a product of his time, influenced by the people, politics, and culture around him. Oxford scholar Laura Tunbridge offers an alternative history of Beethoven’s career, placing his music in contexts that shed light on why particular pieces are valued more than others, and what this tells us about his larger-than-life reputation. 

Each chapter focuses on a period of his life, a piece of music, and a revealing theme, from family to friends, from heroism to liberty. We discover, along the way, Beethoven’s unusual marketing strategies, his ambitious concert programming, and how specific performers and instruments influenced his works. 

This book offers new ways to understand Beethoven and why his music continues to be valued today.

About the author

Laura Tunbridge is Professor of Music at the University of Oxford. She is the author of three monographs—Schumann’s Late Style, The Song Cycle, and Singing in the Age of Anxiety—and the recipient of a three-year Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust for a project on string quartets. 

Saturday, November 14, 2020

Covid-19 Life: New on my TBR Shelf, Virtual Book Clubs, Quilting Projects

With the pandemic raging, many of us are self-imposing a lock down. 

Last week, the quilters met at the park. It was a warm day, reaching 77 degrees. Several came without masks and other slowered their mask to talk. 

This is not safe behavior. So, I will join the quilters who prefer to Zoom meet.

But first, we visited with our family before the weather changed. We visited my brother, sitting on his deck. Deer came to the yard and birds visited the feeder as we talked.

He designed and built a shed that is like a small cabin with a porch swing facing the canal that goes to Cass Lake.


Canal to Cass Lake

And we visited our son and his girlfriend outdoors, with masks, watching the grandpuppies play in the yard. We only spent a few moments indoors to see Gus, the new kitten.

Gus
Sunny

The weather quickly changed, the leaves came down, and it finally feels like November.

local Oak and Moon last week

Luckily, I have plenty to keep me busy. My TBR galley shelf is filled up and I have dozens of incomplete quilt projects to finish and fabric to 'use up'.

Bellevue Literary Press sent me the ARC of Norman Lock's new book in his American Novels series, Tooth of the Covenant which is about Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have enjoyed four other novels in the series and some day hope to read the others. 


My NetGalley shelf is filling up! New books include:
  • John Keats, a biography by Suzie Grogan
  • Jane Austen’s Best Friend: The Life and INfluence of Martha Lloyd by Zoe Wheddon
  • The Life She Wished to Live: A Biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of the Yearling by Ann McCutchan
  • Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature by Angus Fletcher
  • The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts that Illuminated the Renaissance by Ross King
  • The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan interested me because it is about Germans in the Ukraine under Soviet rule who had to escape during WWII
Previous books on my NetGalley Shelf include
  • The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington
  • The Invisible Women by Erika Robuck
  • Girl Explorers by Jayne Zanglein
  • Brood by Jackie Polzin
  • Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight by Julia Sweig
  • Astrid Sees All by Natalie Standiford
  • Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
  • The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken
I purchased several books for book clubs and readalongs. 

Little, Brown & Co reissued Brideshead Revisited for its 75th anniversary and arranged a read along. I read the edition that was published when the television miniseries was out.

I purchased Jess Walter's brand new novel The Cold Millions for the Barnes & Noble book club December 1. I so enjoyed his novel Beautiful Ruins.

Our local library book club is discussing The Bear next week with author Andrew Krivak Zooming with us!

This week I joined the Leesburg Public Library, FL, to discuss Jerome Charyn's novel The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King, imagining Teddy Roosevelt's early life, with Charyn Zooming with us at the end to answer questions.

The book club enjoyed the novel and the 'energetic' and 'dramatic' characterization. Those who were not familiar with TR's life appreciated learning about him while others remarked the novel was not a history. Charyn talked about finding the voice and the music for his novel, and how writing in the first person offers a greater intimacy that a history or biography cannot provide. "Writing is dreamin," he remarked.

I have signed up for a number of other online events with authors.

I tried to sort out my collection of vintage quilt tops, fabrics, and trims and embellishments. I was inspired to play with them and made a small quilt.

I used a vintage embroidered linens, crotchet, trims, buttons, and a quilt top. 
Every day I take a walk around the neighborhood. I was surprised by this squirrel going in and out of a hole in the tree.
Another day I saw this really fat squirrel in the park!

It's time to prepare for winter. Like the squirrel, we are stocking up on food and supplies. I have plenty of hand quilting to keep me busy--and warm as the quilts lay on my lap while quilting. And loads of books to read.

Stay safe out there. Take care of each other.


Thursday, November 12, 2020

Angry Weather: Heat Waves, Floods, Storms, and the New Science of Climate Change

 


Angry Weather by Friederike Otto tells readers about the importance of attribution science in understanding climate change. The Weather Attribution Team has developed a way to connect localized extreme weather events to climate change. To do this, they must be able to model what the world would be like if there was no climate change and then calculate if the weather event was created by climate change.

Otto considers recent extreme weather and explains if it was connected to climate change. She also addresses broader climate change issues.

Attribution science is a complex idea, and perhaps if Otto did detail the process I would not understand it. Still, it is a weakness in the book that the scientific method is not discussed.

Parts of the book were interesting, and she addresses some issues with passion. But overall, it was a boring read and it was hard to pick it up to finish the book. I don't know if the translation added to this problem, or if this remarkable scientist just isn't a remarkable writer.

I was given a free book by the publisher through LibraryThing in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Angry Weather: Heat Waves, Floods, Storms, and the New Science of Climate Change
By Friederike Otto
Translated by Sarah Pybus
hardcover $32.95
ISBN: 9781771646147
Published On: September 15, 2020 

from the publisher
A pioneering scientist solves a pressing climate question: Can we pin the blame for individual extreme weather events on humans?

Massive fires, widespread floods, category 4 hurricanes—weather disasters are becoming more frequent each year, but not everyone agrees on what causes them. Renowned University of Oxford researcher Friederike Otto provides an answer with attribution science, a revolutionary method for pinpointing the role of climate change in extreme weather events. Anchoring her book with the gripping, day-by-day story of Hurricane Harvey, which caused over a hundred deaths and $125 billion in damage in 2017, Otto reveals how attribution science works in real time, and determines that Harvey’s terrifying floods were three times more likely to occur due to human-induced climate change.

At a time when our inability to determine climate change’s role in weather events has impacted everything from how much aid a devastated region receives to the culpability of corporations and governments, Otto’s research laid out in this groundbreaking book will have profound impacts, both today and for the future of humankind.  

Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.

Friederike (Fredi) Otto is a physicist, climate researcher, associate professor, and the acting director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford. Otto is also a co-investigator on the international project World Weather Attribution, which assesses the human influence on extreme weather and has been profiled in the New York Times, Nature, and others.