Helen Korngold Diary: October 13-19, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

Helen's family faces a crisis.

October
Monday 13
My last day at Maplewood. I just hate to leave. Everybody was lovely – teachers & youngsters too. Well, I was a big fool to turn down Mr. Richmond’s offer, but it’s too late to regret.

Tuesday 14
Papa is sick. Don’t know what’s wrong. Spent a sleepless night of it.

Wednesday 15
Pop is getting worse. I can’t imagine what we are going to do. Hope he gets better.

Thursday 16
Pop is still suffering. Makes it so hard for him.

Friday 17
Eloise is here. Thank goodness.

Saturday 18
Pop had a terrible night. He’s so weak.

Sunday 19
Worse and more of it. No time.

*****

I wish I knew more about Jacob Korngold's illness. I checked the newspapers and did not see any communicative illnesses mentioned. I don't find an Eloise on the family tree. 

October 14, 1919, St. Louis Star and Times articles:

This article provides an idea of what Helen's teaching income would be when she became full time: $850 a year for a graduate of Harris Teaching College where Helen's sister Otilia* graduated in 1925.

Idea beauty in 1919:

October 15, 1919, St. Louis Star and Times articles:

There was a great fear of Bolsheviks, or Reds, who could foment unrest by supporting unionizing. The newspapers are filled with articles about unionizers being arrested. A nationwide coal strike was going on at this time. It was warned the Midwest only had three weeks of coal left.

October 18 , 1919, St Louis Star and Times, cartoon on prohibition:

In 1919, Percy Grainger (1882-1961) had left the army and was offered the position of conductor of the St. Louis Orchestra! He decided to continue his career as a concert pianist.

Oct. 21:

*****

*1925 Harris Teaching College graduates including Helen's sister Otilia

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

"We can only handle so much truth at any given moment, I suppose."~Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

The world too often is quiet about things that should set off alarms.

Horrible things happen. Articles, buried deep in the newspaper, or a flash of video and a few spoken words on the screen, mention countries we don't know and perhaps don't care about. The people and their suffering are real but they are 'other', foreign, from countries where dictators rule or rival factions destroy, while we are cocooned in comfortable homes and easy lives.

Until it gets personal. Then the news is a clarion bell to wake us.

The Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay wants to wake us to the realities of life under a dictatorship that placates citizens with free birth control while suppressing journalism and truth, through his profoundly moving and beautifully written novel.

With early acceptance to the University of Michigan, Jay can coast through the rest of his senior year. But learning that his cousin Jun in the Philippines was shot by the police as a drug dealer turns Jay's life upside down.

Jay visited his father's Filipino family when he was ten. He and Jun became fast friends and were pen pals for years until Jay's teenage activities and concerns took precedence and he stopped responding to Jun's letters.

Racked with guilt, Jay wants answers. Jun was a good person. What happened that caused Jun to run away from his home? He wouldn't have done drugs. Why was Jun murdered? Why won't anyone tell him the truth?

Jay becomes obsessed, learning all he can about the Philipines and life under President Duterte. Determined to find answers, Jay proposes a trip to visit his Filipino family and learn about his heritage.

Staying with his father's siblings' families, Jay comes to understand that people are not always who we think they are and how growing up and learning the truth engenders more questions than answers.

Although YA fiction, Ribay's novel will speak to all readers. He is a master of his craft.

I received a book from the publisher through Bookish First. My review is fair and unbiased.

Sometimes I feel like growing up is slowly peeling back these layers of lies."~Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

Patron Saints of Nothing
by Randy Ribay
Kokila/PenguinTeen
$17.99 hardcover
Jun 18, 2019
ISBN 9780525554912

Autumn Bouquet by Sharon Keightley Combines Patchwork and Applique

I need to make an Autumn Bouquet quilt!

I love applique. And I love these quilts that combine piecing with applique! 

Sharon Keightley has chosen color schemes suitable for autumn days, with rich browns and warm oranges. Reproduction fabrics work wonderful in these quilts, and the traditional applique patterns recall historic quilts from the 19thc.

Rose of Thorns, 22 1/2" x 22 1/2"

This Rose of Thornes quilt has a primitive feel that I love. Sharon has a 'make it easy' tip and I could make the applique in a few days. And she has no-fail Wild Geese instructions. Maybe this is the one I need to make.

Hollys Garden, 22 1/2" x 22 1/2"

Holly's Garden is also in the running. Sharon makes it easy with wash-away applique and easy pieced border instructions.

Goose Crossing, 74 1/4" x 74 1/2"

Oh, no wait--Goose Crossing is too wonderful to ignore! I love the appliqued flowers set in the negative space created in this traditional, pieced quilt pattern. And such a great idea to include dark-colored flowers.

Ring a Rosie, 30 1/2" x 30 1/2"

Here is an idea I can use. Ring a Rosie has a wonderful printed border and I have reproduction fabrics I have been hoarding for just such a quilt. The pretty scrappy flower wreath is on a pieced background and is set with super-easy patchwork units.

Treasures From the Scrap Bin, 21 3/4" x 34"

I have bins of scraps all organized by size and theme. Treasures From the Scrap Bin would be a great way to use some up! The Sho Fly block center is combined with a graceful flower urn border. I love a flower urn border.

There are a DOZEN quilts to choose from! Something for everyone! All sizes!

I have saved my very favorite until last. Sharon's Surprise was inspired by her study of antique quilts that combined pink and red.

I love these colors. I love the flower block with its reverse applique and the unique scalloped border. I love the light background and the way the applique colors pop.

This is it. This is the quilt I need to make.

Sharon's Surprise, 30 1/2" x 30 1/2"

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher. My review is fair and unbiased.

Autumn Bouquet - Patchwork and Applique Quilts from Reproduction Prints
by Sharon Keightley
Martingale
$25.99 softcover
ISBN: 9781683560180
Publication Date: August 1st, 2019

Why We Quilt: Contemporary Makers Speak Out about the Power of Art, Activism, Community, and Creativity by Thomas Knauer

When a stranger learns that I make quilts I am told stories about grandmothers who made quilts. You can see in their eyes the warm memories they hold dear of sleeping under grandma's quilt, or draping a quilt over a table to build a sleeping tent, or carrying it to some shady park for a picnic. Quilts are made to be used. And they are often used up, like the one my mother-in-law gifted us in the 1980s, sun-bleached with one fabric completely decayed.

Some quilts are so precious they are folded away and stored in a closet or a cedar chest.

Dresden Plate made by Carrie Bobb, my great-aunt

Single Wedding Ring made by Harriet Scoville Nelson,
my husband's great-great-grandmother, stored in a cedar chest

Every quilt is also the product of its creator's love of beauty and design, a tactile work of art, the quilter selecting colors and prints and designs.

Never used quilt purchased at a flea market
made by a Detroit quiltmaker

Quilts can be born out of frugality, using up and preserving, fabrics, like the first quilt my mother-in-law made for my husband to take to college using fabric scraps from curtains and pajamas and clothing she had made. Quilts are no longer items of necessity as during the Depression, a need to repurpose precious fabrics for warmth. But we love fabrics that come with a memory.

Scrap quilt made by my mother-in-law for my husband

Family photo quilt I made for my father

My third quilt was made for my son

Quilts symbolize values held by the maker, from love of family to love of country, from a symbol of healing to a symbol of protest. They represent a choice for the hand-made and the unique over the impersonal and factory manufactured.

With my quilt, I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet, featuring women
Abolitionists and Civil Rights leaders, at 2013 AQS Grand Rapids, MI

Quilts tell a story. Quilts can change our perception. Quilts are comfort. Quilts connect us with each other even when separated by time and space.

My latest quilt The Bronte Sisters uses Jane Sassaman fabrics
From my series of quilts celebrating literature

Quilts are created for joy, and for protest. They are vehicles for self-expression, sharing what we love and what we fear. Quilts are personal and they are communal. They are to be used today and to be preserved for future generations.

No one description can explain a quilt.

detail of a quilt from Detroit, MI found at a flea market

*****

Thomas Knauer grew up in Amish country, an area associated with quilting, but his first personal encounter with quilts was the AIDS Memorial Quilt, opening his eyes to the many uses quilting can assume. A contract to design quilting fabric finally led him to make his first quilt. Knauer learned first hand of the power of quilts when he gave that quilt to his daughter, whose reaction of excitement and love impelled him to make more quilts.

Knauer's protest quilts make us uncomfortable. Like the Trayvon Martin quilt based on a shooting target, Tea and Skittles and the Sunbonnet Sues carting AK-47s in One Child is too Many. I personally respond to quilts of protest as much as respond to antique quilts or contemporary quilts made to be used.

from Playing With a Purpose by Victoria Findlay Wolfe
my review here

Why We Quilt addresses the many motivations behind creativity in the quilt world. Artist Statements are illustrated with photographs of the quilter's work.  Voice of Quilting offers insights into the most important quilters of today, from traditionalists to innovative art quilters, including Denyse Schmidt, Joe Cunningham, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Lynette Anderson, Mary Fons and Marianne Fons, and Chawne Kimber. Each chapter includes Quilting Vocab Explained, clarifying quilt concepts discussed in the chapter.

Knauer writes with love and emotion of the history of quilting, sharing antique and contemporary quilt photographs.

Joe Cunningham at CAMEO Quilt Guild 

Each chapter offers a deeper look into the reasons why we quilt:

• We Quilt to Connect with a Rich Tradition: The roots of American quilting
• We Quilt to Explore and Express our Creativity: The maturation of quilting
• We Quilt to Move Beyond Modern Consumer Culture: The Introduction of Standardization
• We Quilt to Create a Connection with Loved Ones: Other voices in American quilting
• We Quilt to Change the World: The role of signature quilts in reform movements
• We Quilt Because We Can--and Because We Cannot Help but Do So: The American Bicentennial and Quilting's great revival

Why We Quilt is a beautiful book. There is a wonderful diversity and range of quilts and quilters. Quiltmakers will find kindred spirits. As a quiltmaker who loves both traditional and antique quilts and contemporary quilts, especially those that address contemporary issues of justice, I found much to enjoy. Each time I open the book I find something to inspire.

In the end, what draws me to quilts--and indeed what I think makes them relevant in the twenty-first century--is the sense that quilts are an archaic item that's no longer materially necessary. Today quilting is neither an expected practice nor a basic practicality; it is a conspicuous choice. Quilts are not about material need but instead fulfill other needs, personal needs that are unique to each quilter. For me quilts offer a vehicle for protest, a means for venting my outrage. For others they offer a step away from the same world my quilts comment upon. Either way, I think quilts remain relevant and will continue to do so, precisely because we do not need them but rather want them. ~ from Why We Quilt by Thomas Knauer

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

Find Thomas Knauer's blog here
Learn more about Knauer's career at Thomas Knauer 
Read about Knauer's previous book The Quilt Design Coloring Book here

Why We Quilt
by Thomas Knauer
Storey Publishing
October 15, 2019
Price: $29.95 Hardback
ISBN: 9781635860337

The Adventures of the Peculiar Protocal by Nicholas Meyer

Nicholas Meyer presents us with another 'newly discovered' Sherlock Holmes case from Dr. Watson's diaries in The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols. Mycroft Holmes summons his brother Sherlock Holmes to investigate a murder and a document being circulated that warns that a secret group is bent on taking over the world. The document appears to be part of a conspiracy to foment and spur trouble.

My husband and I both read The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer when it came out in 1974. He offered a new view of the perpetually popular Sherlock Holmes. Later my brother shared his copy of Meyer's third Holmes mystery, The West End Horror. I thought this would be a fun read.

Soon after I got into the book I discovered this story is more than entertainment. The story of a secret group is 'fake news' being used for political purposes.

Now, where have we heard that story before?

It is 1905 and Watson is married to a suffragette and has built a practice. Holmes notes that crimes are getting bigger. Electric lights are replacing gas. There is an uprising in Russia and Czar Nicholas is struggling to maintain control. The Jews are looking for a homeland, perhaps in Uganda.

Holmes, of course, needs Watson's assistance; they are not so sure about the help of a female radical socialist, Anna Strunsky. Her beauty alone is problematic for the married Watson. Watson's wife made him pledge to end to his risky adventures with Holmes. Will his marriage survive--or his practice? But this is no regular murder investigation; behind the murder is a plot that will set Europe careening into mass hysteria and death.

The three make a journey on the Orient Express to Odessa, Russia. Proving the document a fake is essential. Thousands of lives hang in the balance. Or is it already too late? Once fake news is in the world, it tends to stay there.

People love to place blame on something concrete, some 'other' as the source of their problems.

This is a fun read, filled with historical references and events, political intrigue, a kidnapping, and an expansion of the classic characters of Watson and Holmes. But the underlying message is serious, chilling, and sadly, timeless.

I was granted access to a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D.
by Nicholas Meyer
St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books
Pub Date 15 Oct 2019 
ISBN 9781250228956
PRICE $25.99 (USD)

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

I purchased Angie Kim's Miracle Creek at Barnes and Nobel's #Blowout sale. I had heard so much good buzz about the novel! I was not disappointed.

A Korean immigrant family endeavors to the American dream when a tragic accident causes the death of a woman and a child and disfigures several others. Now, the party guilty of causing the accident is being sought in court.

Not only is the novel a well-paced and well-written courtroom drama, and the characters unique and vivid, the slow revelation of the truth makes for page-turning, engrossed reading.

Timely and timeless issues are central: the immigrant experience, assimilating and reaching for the American dream; the awesome burden of care and love carried by parents of special needs Autistic children; how infertility strains a marriage; the secrets we keep; how frustration and anger and guilt we feel drive us to lash out in actions contrary to our nature.

"...that was the thing about lying: you had to throw in occasional kernels of shameful truths to serve as decoys for the things you really needed to hide."~from Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

Everyone is lying. They lie to hide their sins, they lie to protect their loved ones, they lie out of fear, and they lie to themselves.

Everyone is guilty, contributing to the series of events that caused death and permanent bodily harm and psychological damage.

Some are more guilty than others. Someone lit the fire.

Punishments are not in balance with guilt. The innocent of crimes hold the personal guilt of falling short of their high standards of perfection and inflect their own penalty. A horrible crime goes unpunished.

Miracle Creek is a fantastic read and an amazing debut novel. I will eagerly await more from Kim.

I will recommend this to my book club!

Helen Korngold Diary: October 6-12, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

Helen is enjoying her temporary teaching job at Maplewood High School.

October

Monday 6

At it again. I certainly like it.

Tuesday 7

Too bad Sudie likes this job. I like it too.

Wednesday 8

Getting along fine

Thursday 9

There are some [illegible] that are in that Soph class, but all the others are dear.

Friday 10

This was a fine day. Good lessons & senior dance. Danced with the principal & some of the classy boys & girls.

Saturday 11

I certainly liked this school.

Sunday 12

Satellites – Ed Stiff

Notes:

October 11

On March 2 of the year, Helen went to Temple Society with Ed Stiff (b. 1895).

In the news:

On October 2, 1919, President Wilson was found by his second wife Edith after he suffered a stroke. The newspapers reported that he was doing fine when actually Wilson was totally incapacitated. "The president had a good night's sleep," Rear Admiral Grayson reported to the paper. "His condition is favorable." On October 6, Wilson was reported as "Eager to Return to Work."

It was an outright lie. In fact, Edith ran the country until Wilson's term of office ended in 1921.

Oct. 11, 1919, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, fashion sketches from the Veiled Prophet's Debutant ball Organized in 1878, the social group patterned their ball after Mardi Gras. 

In 1919 the Queen was Marian Franciscus.

An October 7, 1919, St. Louis Post-Dispatch article avers that women are more beautiful without corsets.

"The first physician with whom I talked was pretty, blue-eyed, blonde-haired Dr. Radmila Lazarewitch, representing Serbia at the conference. Her husband is attached to the Serbian Legation in Washington. "Women," she said, "are not only more healthy without corsets; they are more beautiful and charming. That is why I do not believe they should be put on any healthy young girl. If the corset is to be worn at all, it should be by the fat woman of forty who is not strong enough to hold herself properly, or by the woman who has had an operation and whose muscles have not regained their strength and elasticity. Think for how many hundreds of years women lived without corsets before they were invented!"

Dr. Lazarewitch went on to explain how exercise and good posture can help women keep an attractive shape."