Saturday, November 16, 2019

Helen Korngold Diary: November 10-16, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

Helen is still teaching at Harrison Elementary.

November
Monday 10
Back at work – the children ask such funny questions, such as –how old are you?

Tuesday 11
Robert is cute. Holiday.
 -
Armistice Day ad in the Nov. 11, 1919, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Wednesday 12
Back again. Stephens comes in a dozen times a day.

Thursday 13
Mr. Miller is so cute.

Friday 14
Gee, that teacher’s meeting – Mr. Miller certainly handed me some bouquets.

Saturday 15
Downtown.

Sunday 16
Out with Si Russek all day after Sunday School. Saw 5 [uniforms?] had a dandy time

Helen's Diary
Notes:


The Nov. 10, 1919 St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The coal miner's strike was ordered to come to an end.
 -

Hoover warns that the U.S. may close the door to people born in Europe while the American Legion opposed leniency towards war objectors, both attitudes rooted in fear of Red agitators.
St. Louis Star and Times, Nov.12, 1919.
 -
 -

"We are becoming an age on wheels," with deaths by automobiles soaring.
 -

Uncle Wiggly dressed dolls entered into the St. Louis Star and Times contest:
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Fur Coats on sale. The $2500 one would be $38000 today! The $169 coat today would be $2500.
 -
The man who would choose a woman over being king.
 -

Friday, November 15, 2019

The Overstory by Richard Powers

The Overstory by Richard Powers was on my TBR bookshelf and when I saw it was the November choice for the Now Read This online book club, sponsored by the PBS Newshour and the New York Times Book Review, I decided to participate.

In The Overstory, Powers gives readers nine characters whose stories entwine over the course of the novel. Each has an experience that alters their awareness, motivates them to resist the status quo, and for some, culminating in acts of eco-terrorism.

Trees, forests, ecosystems, nature--these are the stunning stars of the novel, that which gives meaning to our assorted human characters and spurs their community. They are described in gorgeous, vivid language.

It is a testament that this novel made me reconsider my personal choices. I have read nonfiction books about climate change, rising waters, the impact of animal farming, the ways we need to alter how we live. But this novel had me second-guessing my choices.

We are installing new carpeting and porcelain tile to repace vinyl tile and an awful maroon carpet. What environmental damage am I causing because I want a prettier home? 

"We have a Midas problem. There's no endgame, just a stagnant pyramiding scheme. Endless, pointless prosperity," says the creator of an alternate reality online computer game. But he was talking to me and you.

I look at the paper towels and the paper napkins on my countertop and shudder. What about the very book I read, made of paper? Yes! It is recycled paper, saving 657 trees with the first printing! AND 614,962 gallons of water, 206,700pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, 62,925 pounds of solid waste. We CAN DO BETTER!

"The best arguments in the world won't change a person's mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story," one of the characters states.

The Overstory is that kind of story. It can change your mind.

The novel won the Pulitzer Prize.

The Overstory
by Richard Powers
W. W. Norton
$18.95 paperback

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Joe Biden by Jules Witcover

Jules Witcover's biography Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption has been updated and rereleased. Reading this book helped me to understand Biden's career, his consistent strengths and weaknesses, and his deeply held values. I found the biography to be interesting, informative, accessible, and enoyable.

Witcover gives us details of Joe's legislative career, illustrating his long-held views. I was thoroughly engaged while experiencing many 'ah-ha' moments of clarity on issues currently being discussed, such as his view on busing which came up in an early Democratic primary debate.

Biden's ability to connect with people, coupled with his winning smile, his accessibility in a small state, made him Delaware's "Joe." Readers learn that Delaware is such a small state that politicians can't afford to not get along, a quality Joe brought into national politics. Joe also was unafraid to stand up against his own party's stance, such as busing. 

It was also very interesting to learn about Joe's leadership in vetting supreme court justices. The book is detailed and yet so interesting and relevant. Also, Joe's experience in foreign affairs is very revealing and relevant.

As a family man, Joe offers much to recommend as a role model. The 'life of trial,' as many know, includes the early loss of his wife and child and the more recent loss of his son Beau. Joe's commitment to his family took precedence over becoming a Washington insider, as his daily commute from Washington D.C. to Delaware isolated him from other congressmen.

Witcover doesn't shy away from exploring Joe's 'fatal flaws' which have labeled him. For instance, the charge that Joe talks too much is explored while also affirming that Joe really knows what he is talking about. Although a lackluster student, Joe is an avid reader and lifelong learner, which with his years of experience, makes him an authority.

Previously, I had read Joe's profoundly moving and inspirational book Promise Me, Dad and The Book of Joe. I had also read about how Joe and Beau Biden supported Sarah McBride in her memoir Tomorrow Will Be Different.

I won a free book from the publisher through LibraryThing. My review is fair and unbiased.

Read a sample from the book at https://aerbook.com/books/Joe_Biden-81529.html?social=1&retail=1&emailcap=0

from the publisher:Based on exhaustive research by one of Washington's most prolific journalists, including numerous exclusive interviews with Biden's confidants and family members, as well as President Obama and the former vice president himself, Joe Biden goes beyond conventional biography to track the forces that have shaped a man who, with his plainspoken style and inspiring life story, has resonated with millions of Americans and whose work has shaped modern American life.

The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt

It was the 1956 rerelease of Fantasia that rocked my world. I was four years old and Mom took me to a Buffalo, NY theater to see my first movie. The images and the music made a lasting impression, driving a lifelong love for symphonic music.

I already was in love with illustrative art, thanks to the Little Golden Books that my mother brought home from her weekly grocery shopping trips. My favorite was I Can Fly, illustrated by Mary Blair. And on my wall were Vacu-Form Nursery Rhyme characters including Little Bo Peep, Little Boy Blue--which I later discovered were also designed by Mary Blair! And even later in life, I learned that Mary Blair had worked for Walt Disney. And of course, growing up in the 1950s, anything Disney was a favorite.

Especially the 1959 release of Sleeping Beauty. I was still in my 'princess' phase, which came after my 'cowboy gunslinger' phase. Mom took me to see the film. I had the Disney Sleeping Beauty coloring book. I had the Little Golden Book. And I had the Madame Alexander Sleeping Beauty doll! Sadly, my dog chewed it up but in my 40s I purchased one on eBay to satisfy my inner child.

Fast forward to the late 1980s and my husband and I were buying up Disney videotapes for our son, raising another generation of Disney fandom. His first theatrical movie was The Little Mermaid.

My fandom never took me as far as to read books about the Disney franchise or Walt. Until The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History. I remembered my love of Mary Blair and thought, Nathalia Holt has something here. I wanted to know the names and the contributions of these unknown women.

It was a joyful read, at once a nostalgic trip into the films that charmed and inspired my childhood-- and our son's --and a revealing and entertaining read about the development of animation and the rise of women in a male-dominated culture. I put aside all other books.

Holt concentrates on the women's careers but includes enough biographical information to make them real and sympathetic. I was so moved to read about Mary Blair's abusive marriage.

Holt also does a stellar job of explaining the rising technologies that would impact animation, eventually eliminating the jobs of hundreds of artists. We learn about Walt's interest in each story that inspired the animated movies and the hard work to develop the story, art, and music, along with the conflicts and competition behind the scenes.

I learned so many interesting facts! Like how Felix Salten's novel Bambi: A Life in the Woods was banned in Nazi Germany because it was a metaphor for Anti-Semitism! How Mary Louise Weiser originated the grease pencil, one of the many technologies Disney developed and perfected or quickly adapted.

And I loved the story of Fantasia. Bianca Majolie presented the music selections to Walt, including The Nutcracker Suite's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Waltz of the Flowers. Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker ballet had never yet been produced in the United States at the time! The male animators did not want to work on illustrating fairies (they instead created the Pastoral Symphony's centaurs and oversexualized centaurettes, including an African-American servant who was part mule instead of horse).

Choreographer George Balanchine was touring the studio with Igor Stravinsky, whose The Rite of Spring was included in Fantasia, and he loved the faires in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. Fifteen years later he debuted The Nutcracker at the new Lincoln Center and it became a Christmastime annual tradition.

I just loved this book for so many reasons! Thank you, Nathalia Holt!

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

The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History
by Nathalia Holt
Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date 22 Oct 2019
ISBN 9780316439152
PRICE $29.00 (USD)

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

News, Quilts, TBR

This week it became real that winter is coming. We had our first snowfall here in Metro Detroit. We planted bulbs on Monday, the leaves on our trees started to fall on Tuesday, and it snowed on Wednesday. By the weekend we were breaking records for coldest days.

It's all happening too fast!
photo by Tom Gochenour, my brother

We have been so busy lately choosing new livingroom and entryway flooring, driving to showrooms and calling for quotes. I finally fit in a class for my 'new' sewing machine which is now ten months old. I restarted working with the fitness coach after my surgery, but I'll have to start easy as I still can't lift over ten pounds or do any lower body workouts. 

But I made sure to attend a talk by April Anue, Fiber Artist and owner of Your Heritage Quilts LLC, about her quilt Strange Fruit at the St. John's Episcopal Church in Royal Oak, MI. 
April told the audience how God called her to find the names of the 5,000 victims of lynching between 1865 and 1965 and to undertake the sacred duty to record them in this quilt. Every stitch was blessed by her tears.

The quilt appears in the book Quilts and Human Rights published by Michigan State University Press. See an interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idammoba2Po

When my family moved to Royal Oak in 1963 my grandfather would pick me up and take me to church here. I was confirmed here, knelt at this altar rail for communion. It was a profound experience to encounter both God and American sin in this space.
April brought another quilt made in memory of the child Syrian refugee found dead on the shores of Turkey, Alan Kurdi.
April said she doesn't make 'pretty quilts.' As you can see from the quilt above, the workmanship and colors and fabrics and design are gorgeous, but the message is disturbing. Art makes us see things anew.

But my latest quilt is 'pretty', meant to use some of my drawers of scrap fabrics. I created Hexie flowers and appliqued them. I call it April Showers Bring May Flowers.
 It was machine quilted by Maggie Smith.

During my recovery from surgery, I embroidered five more original designs for my Wizard of Oz quilt which has been languishing for five years.
 Our library held their semiannual book sale and I found some great books.

My NetGalley TBR shelf includes some real impressive reads:
  • Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict
  • American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
  • Things in Jars by Jess Kid 
  • A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
  • Eden Mine by S. M. Hulse
  • The Great Unknown by Peg Klingman
  • Miss Austen by Gil Hornby
  • Exploring Your Creative Voice in Contemporary Quilt Art by Sandra Sider
  • The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
  • Frida in America by Celia Stahr
  • These Fevered Days by Martha Ackmann
I still have book win Polite Society by Mahesh Rao to read and will be receiving Father of Lions by Louise Callaghan from Bookish.

I am reading The Overstory by Richard Powers with the Facebook Now Read This  group sponsored by PBS Newshour and the New York Times Book Review. It is powerful. Readers have been sharing photographs of trees in their lives. My contribution was my childhood home's Weeping Willow Tree.

We had weekend guests a few weekends ago; Hazel and Ellie tolerated us well enough but were thrilled when their people came to bring them home.
And this weekend we puppysat just Ellie.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

There's Something About Darcy: The History of a Romantic Archetype


I became a Janite in 1978.

At Temple University a professor told our class there were three courses we should not miss and I took them all. Toby Olshin's honors class on Jane Austen was one; it had a huge impact on me as a student and a reader.

In 1978 no one could foresee Jane Austen becoming universally recognized or Darcy taking precedence as our favorite literary romantic hero. Although Pride and Prejudice was early adapted for the stage, it took film to reach a wide audience. Darcy's various film portrayal have eclipsed Austen's original in the public mind. Darcy has become Colin Firth in a wet shirt or Mathew Mcfayden's soulful sensitivity. 
Darcy hands Elizabeth a letter. Regency Redwork, a Pride and Prejudice
Storybook quilt by Nancy A. Bekofske
In There's Something About Darcy Gabrielle Malcolm contends that Austen created a romantic hero archetype and traces his many manifestations and transformations over the centuries. It's a lot to cover, as she delves into every genre including romance and fanfiction!

I was engaged while reading about literary heroes before and after Darcy, including Rochester and Heathcliff.

I had seen many of the various film adaptations she discusses but was getting overwhelmed by the time she came to contemporary novels and spin-offs. I was overloaded. I have not read many of these books, and although she explains each book's plot and such, I was often reduced to skimming the text.

Malcolm has given me a lot to think about and I feel impelled to revisit the novel and the famous film versions with her interpretation in mind.

I was granted access to a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

There's Something About Darcy
by Gabrielle Malcolm
Endeavour Quill
Pub Date 11 Nov 2019
ISBN: 9781911445562

PRICE: £9.99 (GBP)

from the publisher:
For some, Colin Firth emerging from a lake in that clinging wet shirt is one of the most iconic moments in television. But what is it about the two-hundred-year-old hero that we so ardently admire and love?

Dr Gabrielle Malcolm examines Jane Austen’s influences in creating Darcy’s potent mix of brooding Gothic hero, aristocratic elitist and romantic Regency man of action. She investigates how he paved the way for later characters like Heathcliff, Rochester and even Dracula, and what his impact has been on popular culture over the past two centuries. For twenty-first century readers the world over have their idea of the ‘perfect’ Darcy in mind when they read the novel and will defend their choice passionately.

In this insightful and entertaining study, every variety of Darcy jostles for attention: vampire Darcy, digital Darcy, Mormon Darcy and gay Darcy. Who does it best and how did a clergyman’s daughter from Hampshire create such an enduring character? 
*****

Learn more about Jane Austen:

The Jane Austen Center, where I first heard about There's Something About Darcy
https://www.janeausten.co.uk/exhibition/

The Making of Jane Austen by Devoney Looser
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-making-of-jane-austen-creation-of.html

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/jane-austen-at-home-by-lucy-worsley.html

Jane Austen: The Secret Radical by Helena Kelly
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/02/austen-finishes.html
Simply Austen by Joan Klingel Ray
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/08/simply-austen-concise-and-comprehensive.html

Jane Austen for Kids by Nancy I. Sanders
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2019/02/jane-austen-for-kids.html

Austen for Kids: Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2019/05/jane-austen-classics-from-baker-street.html

Jane Austen's Inspiration by Judith Stove
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2019/08/jane-austens-inspiration-beloved-friend.html

Jane Austen Derivatives and Fan-Fiction:

Mary B by Katherine Chen
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/07/mary-b-plain-bennett-sisters-story.html

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/04/curtis-sittenfeld-eligible-and-you.html

Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2019/06/northanger-abbey-by-val-mcdermit.html

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2019/03/unmarriageable-pride-and-prejudice-in.html

By the Book by Julia Sonneborn
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2019/08/mini-reviews-by-book-and-man-who.html

The Bridgit Jones series by Helen Fielding, including
Bridgit Jones's Baby
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/mini-reviews-family-problems.html
Not yet reviewed is Polite Society by Mahesh Rao
Polite Society with my Austen Family Album quilt
Jane Austen's Novels:

Northanger Abbey
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/05/northanger-abbey.html

Persuasion
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2015/05/anne-eliot-vs-modern-perky-heroine.html

Jane Austen Quilts:

Pride and Prejudice Storybook Quilt
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2012/02/pride-and-prejudice-story-book-quilt.html

Regency Redwork: a Pride and Prejudice Storybook Quilt
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/11/my-regency-redwork-pattern-is-featured.html

Austen Family Album
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/02/austen-finishes.html

Jane Austen's Quilt Reproduction Pattern from Linda Franz
https://lindafranz.com/shop/jane-austen/2

Jane Austen Quilts Inspired By Her Novels by Karen Gloeggler
https://shop.americanquilter.com/books/ebooks/1427-ebook-jane-austen-s-quilts-inspired-by-her-novels.html

Monday, November 11, 2019

The Trees

I am reading Richard Power's novel The Overstory with the Facebook group Now Read This, sponsored by PBS Newshour and the New York Times Book Review.

Readers have been uploading amazing photographs as a testament to the beauty and power and meaning of trees. I have been thinking about my childhood home and the importance of the trees planted by my grandfather in my own life.

In 1935 my Grandfather Gochenour lost his job as an insurance salesman. The family had to sell their new bungalow house in Tonawanda, NY, built by my grandmother's brothers. They moved into an apartment in an old farmhouse on Military Road. 
the Military Road house in 1935

The house was built by one of the early German settlers who farmed the land. When my family moved in it was in disrepair, divided into several apartments. My grandfather was a self-made man; he left his home in Woodstock, VA as a teenager and set up a furniture polishing business in New York City before ending up in Tonawanda. In a few years, he purchased the house and restored it. There were lilac bushes surrounding the house and my family planted Weeping Willow Trees.

The Military Road house in the 1940s

In the 1940s my grandfather built a gas station along the Military Road property line and ran his own business. 

my grandfather's gas station on Military Road
Dad married my mother and in 1952 I was born. We lived in one of the apartments in the house, my grandparents living in another section and my dad's sister and her family in the third.

By the time I was born, the farm fields around the house were sold off and Levittown-style housing projects were built. The willow tree had grown and towered over the landscape. I loved to climb the tree. We sat under its shade. I took the branches and dangled them over the porch pretending to be fishing. In winter the branches would be covered in ice.

In 1963 my family decided to sell the service station and move to Metro Detroit for Dad to seek a job in the auto industry. I dreamt of growing up and returning to buy my childhood home. We often returned to Tonawanda to see family and neighbors and I took photos of the Weeping Willow trees.
The willow in 1965
Image may contain: tree and outdoor

another willow near the service station
In the early 1970s the property was sold again and torn down, an apartment building erected in its place. My father's sister took photos and told us the house was so well built, framed with old-growth timbers, it was a hard tear-down. I was heartbroken.

my childhood home being torn down; you can see three willows
The trees were brought down as well.

In later life I wrote a poem* about my childhood home, The View From Windows, in which I talked about the willows:

From my bed, looking across a gravel drive,
ironposted streetlights lit small box-like houses,
while from another open window I could hear the wind
playing in the branches of willows
(how they swayed like a girl's long hair in summer,
but in winter were plaited in clean ice).
These trees my touchstone;
I knew my house by its being next to the biggest tree,
I told others so, believing my own veracity.

My mother was an oil painter who preferred landscapes that always featured trees.
painting by Joyce Ramer Gochenour, my mother
I now live in the house my parents bought in 1972. Dad planted two Silver Maples, two Northern Spy Apple Trees, two pine trees and birch.
the Northern Spy apple trees planted by my dad
We had to remove the pine trees. One was growing too close to the neighbor's driveway and onto the roof of the house and the other had a split trunk. They both were towering. We planted flowering trees in their stead.
No photo description available.
No photo description available.

My brother is fed by nature, walking, and kayaking and photographing the beauty he sees.




While reading The Overstory I came across this line: "How willows clean soils of dioxins, PCBs, and heavy metals."

I had long considered how my childhood home had lead paint and asbestos siding, and how my family used poisons to kill the rats and weeds, and how the land around the house was leveled by allowing dumping--who knows what was dumped there! And then the gas station was built with leaded gasoline and all the chemicals used in the service shop. I realized how my family had polluted the area.

But they also planted five willows, unwittingly, which helped to alleviate the pollution they created.

To survive we must preserve our trees.


*The View From Windows
by Nancy A. Bekofske

Rescue is out of the question,
going back not an option open to me.
Gone are those lofty trees like green umbrellas,
the purple flag of iris near the white rail fence,
the fragrant French lilacs, purple and white,
my world--my first world--and a life rooted
in a sense of place, no longer exists in space.

I remember the view from every window in every room.
Windows to the wider world.

I could see traffic on the burdened road;
the pushy hopefulness of yellow crocus in sooty snow.
From a doorway, looking across the room and out a window,
a water tower seen in a flat land, horizon's sentry.

From an upstairs window, I could see to the river,
the perpetual flame of the gas works,
the mangle of pipes and tanks.

Drying dishes, a glance to the left revealed a doorway,
pink hollyhock, a gigantic horseradish plant.

From my bed, looking across a gravel drive,
ironposted streetlights lit small box-like houses,
while from another open window I could hear the wind
playing in the branches of willows
(how they swayed like a girl's long hair in summer,
but in winter were plaited in clean ice).

These trees my touchstone;
I knew my house by its being next to the biggest tree,
I told others so, believing my own veracity.

At times, an airplane--no jet, not then-- droning
overhead would shake my world of make-believe to its roots
with reality's heavy awareness.

My heart would beat a faster tattoo, and restless,
disquieted, but directionless, I rushed outdoors
to breath freer air, escape the restraint of walls,
to seek the questions I already felt swelling
in my girl's breast, the mystery I could not name.

I only knew that I must shake off
girlhood's cushioned hermitage, to live and work,
now, suddenly aware of mortality's unaccustomed weight,
because I heard, and looked up from play,
to catch sight of a mystery outside my window,
common, yet profoundly unsettling.