Tag Archives: narrative nonfiction

Dispatches from the Writing Life #9: A Blizzard and Its Aftermath

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Two things from this week:

1. In revisionland, it was another week of digging into primary sources. This time I was examining a pair of letters that Alexander Woollcott sent to Jane Grant while he was in France during World War I. They were colleagues at the New York Times where he worked as a drama critic before he enlisted, and they exchanged gossip about co-workers and other people they knew in New York.

I fell down a bit of a research rabbit hole trying to fill in the details about one of the subjects of their gossip whose important position with the newspaper was tied directly to the war. And I kept coming up with almost nothing. I searched through the Times as well as the Newspapers.com database, both of which returned scant information. Ancestry returned to many hits that sorting through them would have taken much more time than I wanted to devote to a short scene. But I had to know something more about this person.

Turns out I had been misspelling the name. It all came down to the placement of one “e,” which actually belonged someplace else. That threw everything off in the searches. Once I corrected that I found what I needed, finished writing the section, and moved on.

2. I’ve been thinking a lot about Jennifer Szalai’s review of Julia Cooke’s Starry and Restless: Three Women Who Changed Work, Writing, and the World in the March 15 issue of the New York Times Book Review. It is a positive review. Szalai pronounces the book “a vibrant triple biography” of the writers Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, and Emily Hahn, appreciating how Cooke writes with “verve and expansiveness.” Although I haven’t finished reading Starry and Restless yet, I agree. Cooke is a wonderful writer, and I get totally immersed in these women’s lives whenever I sit down with the book.

Then there is Szalai’s final paragraph:

“Apparently the cultural imperative to wrest salutary lessons, even from the most audacious and defiant women is strong: ‘Maybe they offer a new compass by which a person may orient herself within her own choices.’ Maybe. Or maybe the idiosyncratic lives of these peregrinating writers invite a simpler, but no less significant, proposal: Read this book and be enthralled.”

That’s the part that has stuck with me all week as I think about the subject of my book and the very different worlds of writing (i.e. Toni Morrison’s advice: “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”) and publishing (i.e. who is going to read and buy this book?)

And how many times do you think I checked the spelling of Szalai’s name?

Women’s History Month

Final reminder that I will appear live on John Heckman’s YouTube channel on March 24 at 2:00 p.m. Central to talk about Dr. Mary Walker. The installment bears the bold title, “She Defied Them All.” You can find The Tattooed Historian’s page on Facebook, follow him on Instagram, listen to his podcast, read him on Substack, and/or watch his YouTube channel.

Pamela Toler’s annual WHM blog series on History in the Margins is still posting new Q&As. Be sure to take a look.

What I’m Reading

As mentioned above, I’m still reading Starry and Restless: Three Women Who Changed Work, Writing, and the World by Julia Cooke. I’ve found Emily Hahn’s life particularly fascinating, plus it’s been interesting to see Alexander Woollcott make an appearance. He was one of Jane Grant’s first friends when she joined the New York Times.

Finished Dinner at the Night Library, a novel by Hika Harada, translated by Philip Gabriel, which was lovely.

Kind of hurriedly finished Mike Pitts’s Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island because it was due back at the library and was non-renewable.

What I’m Watching

Finished How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (Netflix) and liked it. Not sure what will come next.

Sticking with Mudtown (BritBox), a crime series set in Wales, featuring a female magistrate, with episodes that drop once a week. That’s okay. We’ve never done binge-watching.

Also continuing Young Sherlock (Prime) but haven’t been back to Hope Street (BritBox) yet because of its unevenness and soapiness. And haven’t felt at all compelled to return to Scarpetta (Prime) after that first episode.

What Else I’ve Been Doing

This was the first time in over three weeks that bowling went very well, this despite a bigger crowd because of spring break, one lane that stopped properly resetting the pins, and another lane that only periodically returned the balls. Yet one of us had their highest lifetime score and the other one had no trouble breaking 100 in each game. Then we went for ice cream.

I finally hemmed a pair of black jeans, just in time to get a few more wears out of them before I do my seasonal closet changeover.

We got through an actual blizzard. More than 20 inches fell here at Southfork over last weekend. But thanks to prompt and excellent snow removal (especially by the foreman) plus moderate to mild temperatures, right now it looks like only an average amount of snow on the ground for early spring.

So, happy spring and thanks for reading. See you next week.

Dispatches from the Writing Life #8: Jane Grant in Love?

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I became totally engrossed with archival sources when I decided to look more closely at Jane’s pre-World War I romances. I spent the whole week not only piecing together her love life but also thinking about how and why people choose which documents to keep with them throughout their lives and how those items end up in boxes in archives for researchers to later scrutinize.

The papers in this particular box of Jane’s papers that are held at the University of Oregon comprise her correspondence from 1911-1918, but it is one-sided, made up of letters she received. Sometimes they provide clues about what Jane had written to prompt a response, sometimes they don’t. It’s up to the historian to figure out what was going on.

For example, one letter, undated (which adds another layer of difficulty), was addressed to “My Dear Little Jeanette” (Jane’s legal first name) and signed “Geo.” Someone had penciled in a date range of 1912-1915 at the top of the first page, which confirmed a year referred to by “Geo” within the letter.

The letterhead was printed with “Newton Farm, Los Gatos, California.” It was easy to conclude that the letter was written by George Newton. Supplied with a date range, location, and name, I turned to Ancestry and Newspapers.com, two online library databases. A few hours of searching enabled me to make some informed assumptions.

George F. Newton, born in Iowa and in the mid-1910s somewhere in his middling forties, owned the eponymous farm, but used it as a country getaway. He and his new wife Avis, some twelve years his junior, lived most of the year in the San Francisco/Oakland area where he ran a fireworks company.

Newton wrote to Jane to thank her for her “sweet little birthday letter.” Because he told her he couldn’t spend much time on the farm until after the Fourth of July (a big day for fireworks) and because he encouraged her to come visit in 1915, I think the letter was written in the spring or early summer of 1914.

But it’s not clear how Jane knew Newton. At one point, when he was young, his family lived in Kansas, so it’s possible he was an old family friend or even a relative. In the opening salutation, he called her Jeanette, the name she tried to put behind her when she moved to New York.

I’m still trying to figure out if this sentence provides a clue about their relationship: “I have the limousine in the city and think of you every time I ride in it.” Did Newton know about Jane’s career ambitions, and did he pick up on her desire to have fine things?

Newton wasn’t angling for an affair, though. Twice in the letter he mentioned his wife, and he explained the reason behind his invitation to visit. “I am sure you could get along better here than in that big cold city of N.Y. Mrs. Newton says for you to come out here and call us Father and Mother and see how you like this country. If I can find you a position in advance will you come?” Newton understood that Jane’s career was important to her.

And here’s the connection to Jane’s love life. Newton tried to sweeten the offer in his P.S.: “I have a dandy handsome fellow picked out here for you his name is Billie.” Apparently, he knew about how she socialized with young men and wanted to assure her that she would have plenty of options in California. But maybe Jane worried that Newton’s main purpose was to get her married and settled. That was not what she wanted.

It’s not surprising that Jane didn’t take Newton up on his offer. His letter only indirectly refers to Jane’s dating. There are no other letters in the collection from Newton, but there are some from men that provide more evidence about her relationships. These men were involved with her, and thought they knew her and knew how she felt about them. But it seemed they were very wrong.

For some reason, these letters ended up with all of Jane’s other papers at the University of Oregon. It’s hard to know if she kept them on purpose because they brought back particular memories, or if they just got stuck in a folder somewhere and never got tossed out. This may all become clearer after I conduct another round of research. Or it may not.

Women’s History Month

A reminder that I will appear live on John Heckman’s YouTube channel on March 24 at 2:00 p.m. Central to talk about Dr. Mary Walker. The installment bears the bold title, “She Defied Them All.” You can find The Tattooed Historian’s page on Facebook, follow him on Instagram, listen to his podcast, read him on Substack, and/or watch his YouTube channel.

Also remember to check out Pamela Toler’s annual WHM series on her blog, History in the Margins. She runs the best Q&As with people who write women’s history.

What I’m Reading

I picked up my library copy of Starry and Restless: Three Women Who Changed Work, Writing, and the World by Julia Cooke. I’ve been particularly interested to read about Emily Hahn, one of the women I wrote about in my very first book, Prisoners in Paradise. I’m pleased to see that Jane Grant’s name pops up a few times in Starry and Restless, and the book had got me thinking about some of the choices Jane made during the 1930s, after she’d been shut out of The New Yorker and she left her job at the New York Times. Jane was restless then, but not, I think, starry.

I’m continuing with Mike Pitts’s Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island. It still holds my interest.

For pure leisure reading, I’ve been enjoying Dinner at the Night Library, a novel by Hika Harada, translated by Philip Gabriel.

What I’m Watching

Started Mudtown (BritBox), a crime series set in Wales, featuring a female magistrate, and it’s good so far. Better though—at least based on the first two episodes—is Young Sherlock (Prime). I always like a good reimagining of Sherlock Holmes.

I’m much more on the fence after watching the first episode of Scarpetta (Prime). I don’t mind the dual timeline, but the portion that takes place in the present day (with Nicole Kidman as Kay Scarpetta) reminds me of why I stopped reading the novels by Patricia Cornwell that the series is based on.

Hope Street (BritBox) has been a bit uneven, but I’ve been enjoying How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (Netflix).

Finished Starfleet Academy (Paramount+) and The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix). The season finale of Starfleet displayed the qualities I’d hoped to see in all of the episodes but didn’t.

What Else I’ve Been Doing

Weekly bowling, two games. The first was abysmal, the second mediocre. So, progress, I guess.

Almost finished another very small sewing project: hemming a pair of jeans, something I’ve been meaning to do ever since I bought them two or three years ago. No matter how much I measure and pin and try them on, I keep thinking I’m going to make them too short.

Thanks for reading. I’m not sure what’s more ferocious than a March lion, but whatever it is, it’s barreling into the upper Midwest. Between Saturday night and Monday morning there might be at least twenty inches of snow, accompanied by high winds. Here at Southfork, we’re under a blizzard warning, and there is ample gasoline for the snowblower and a fully stocked refrigerator, both courtesy of the foreman (who is also my bowling partner and my partner in everything, especially life).

See you next week.

Dispatches from the Writing Life #7: Springing Forward

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Chapter revisions of the Jane Grant book continued over this past week. Did I get as much done as I wanted? No. As I hoped? Again, no. Right now it looks like chapters two and three need to expand a bit to make room for some important historical context. I managed to answer a couple of questions I had about changes to the passport system during World War I and how the influenza pandemic affected New York City. Both had an impact on Jane’s wartime journey to France.

And I’m also thinking that chapter two needs to include something about Jane’s love life. There’s evidence that she had one well before she met Harold Ross, and I find it interesting that marriage did not seem to be her end game.

Women’s History Month

Just when I thought this would be the first Women’s History Month in recent memory that I didn’t have some kind of event planned, John Heckman, known on social media as The Tattooed Historian, invited me to appear live (!) on his YouTube channel on March 24 to talk about Dr. Mary Walker. You can find his page on Facebook, follow him on Instagram, listen to his podcast, read him on Substack, and/or watch his YouTube channel.

Here’s the information about my presentation/discussion, which bears the bold title, “She Defied Them All.”

And remember to check out Pamela Toler’s annual WHM series on her blog, History in the Margins. She runs the best Q&As with people who write or produce/promote women’s history.

What I’m Reading

I’ve started Mike Pitts’s Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island. I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if I hadn’t seen reference to Katherine Routledge. In the book’s preface, Pitts writes, “Though I had never heard of Katherine and Scoresby Routledge, their visit was well known on the island, where it was said they had conducted the best statue survey and collected important histories. … Who was Katherine Routledge? My quest brought ever more surprises as I leafed through piles of rarely seen manuscripts in archives across England. …Why had the lifework of this woman, who seemed to have understood the place like no other outsider, vanished? The loss of this perspective mattered because, I realized, the story being told of the island’s ancient past, even today, is profoundly wrong.” (p. xviii) Of course I’m very curious to see where Pitts’s story goes.

I finished Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress by Lorissa Rinehart and liked it.

What I’m Watching

I saw the first episode of the new season of Call the Midwife (PBS), and it had a couple of interesting twists.

New in the rotation are the police crime drama Hope Street (BritBox) and the quirky, comedic, kind of murder mystery How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (Netflix).

Finished The Game (BritBox), which was an effective thriller, and All Creatures Great and Small (PBS), dependably sentimental.

Saw the latest, better than most, episode of Starfleet Academy (Paramount+) and watched more of The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix).

The filler sitcom is still Ghosts (Paramount+), and if there’s time for a filler drama, it’s been The West Wing (Netflix).

What Else I’ve Been Doing

Took a whole day away from revisions this week to go up to Green Bay. Visited the Neville Public Musuem for the first time and found the exhibits well done, especially in ways that promote learning for children. Then it was off to lunch at the Copper State Brewing Company where no beer was actually consumed, but the food was good.

Weekly bowling, two games. Both quickly slid from mediocre to awful. That’s not the direction I was aiming for.

Finished a very small sewing project, in which I turned an outdated eternity scarf into a wraparound, making it much more versatile.

Thanks for reading. March has indeed arrived like a lamb, with slightly warmer temperatures and rain instead of snow. And now, in most of the United States, we’re headed into daylight saving time. Don’t forget to set your clocks forward. Regardless of how it registers on the clock, I’m always happy with more light in any given twenty-four hour period. See you next week.

Dispatches from the Writing Life #5: Incremental Progress (again)

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This week I realized that to properly revise chapter three, I needed to make some additions to chapter two. So, I’ve been reading more about the role of the YMCA in World War I to more fully explain what was expected of Jane Grant during her overseas posting and how she delivered on those expectations. That means I’ve been toggling between those two chapters to add context and additional details to sharpen the descriptions of Jane’s experiences.

I’ve made progress that seems incremental, especially when I look at how much—or little, really—the word count in each of the chapters has increased. Keeping an eye on the word count is important because I don’t want the manuscript to get bloated. Telling Jane’s story doesn’t require a Big Book in terms of the number of words and pages.

The 1918 poster below features the artwork of Neysa McMein, who also went overseas during the war to entertain the troops. She and Jane were friends.

What I’m Reading

I’m more than halfway through Angela Flournoy’s The Wilderness. It had a strong start, but now I find it very uneven. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up.

I’m almost done with Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade. Stein has died and Toklas, in her grief, is trying to carry out her wishes for her unpublished work and trying to protect her reputation as a pathbreaking author. I really like this book.

Wednesday night’s Vanity Fair Zoom book discussion was fascinating. I can’t wait to find out what the 2027 novel will be.

What I’m Watching

Nothing new in the rotation of Starfleet Academy (Paramount+), Grace and The Game (BritBox), All Creatures (PBS), and The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix). Down to one episode left of both The Game and All Creatures. It kind of seems like The Lincoln Lawyer may never end, but I’m only at the halfway point. Last week’s Starfleet was one of the better episodes, and I hope this week’s can at least match it.

What Else I’ve Been Doing

I finished my review of the book proposal for an academic press and submitted it before the deadline. So yay me, and yay for the press that will be getting a good book—if that’s how the rest of the process works out.

The weekly bowling took place, the usual two games. Once again it was two pretty mediocre games for me. But this week’s bright spot was that twice in one game I picked up a spare from a split. That was quite astonishing.

A couple of days after I switched out my winter walking boots for regular sneakers (thanks to warmer temperatures and nearly snow-free streets) to take my daily walks, winter sent about 6 inches of snow as a reminder that it’s still, well, winter. Not that I actually packed away the boots for the season….

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for next week: Are chapters two and three finally revised? Are the winter walking boots still out?

Dispatches from the Writing Life #4: Valentine’s Day Edition

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Today is Valentine’s Day, so it’s perhaps fitting that in chapter three of my book about Jane Grant, she meets Harold Ross. He becomes her first husband, and together they create The New Yorker. But that comes later.

In this chapter, Jane is overseas with the YMCA in 1918-1919 doing war work. Both adventurous and practical, she couldn’t wait to get to France. She knew that a few female journalists had managed, despite military restrictions, to get across the Atlantic and file stories about World War I. But the New York Times wouldn’t send her as a reporter, so she applied to one of the government-sanctioned service organizations that hired women for clerical work, nursing, and entertainment. Jane figured she was qualified for two out of those three, and she believed that whatever her posting entailed, it would somehow further her career.

[Jane Grant, c. 1918-1919, Jane Grant papers, University of Oregon]

The Y sent Jane to Tours, France, but her friend and colleague from the Times, Alexander Woollcott, pulled strings to get her to Paris. He had been in the army since 1917, and now, as a sergeant, he worked in Paris on the staff of the American Expeditionary Forces’ Stars and Stripes. Jane easily fell in with that newspaper crowd, and it was Woollcott who introduced her to Ross, editor of the publication. It was not love at first sight, but the attraction was strong enough to induce Ross to take a job in New York City after the war to be near Jane.

This chapter revision is ongoing. There is less to weed out, and more to weave in.

What I’m Reading

I started a novel, The Wilderness, by Angela Flournoy. Good so far. I read her first, The Turner House, back in 2016, and I noted this on Goodreads: This is a lovely, lovely novel. Set in contemporary Detroit, it tells the tale of a large family still dealing with the death of the patriarch and with the rapid decline of the matriarch. The fate of the family home, which has fallen into considerable disrepair, is a point of contention among the 13 siblings. And there’s a haint. Wonderful.

I’m continuing with Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade and Lorissa Rinehart’s Winning the Earthquake. I can’t renew the Stein biography, so I have to make sure that takes precedence during my reading time. I’m pretty sure the only thing of Stein’s I’ve read is The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, and probably only selections from it, a long, long time ago. I doubt that I would have much patience for her modern, experimental work.

I finally finished Vanity Fair, and I’m very glad. I’m participating in a Zoom book discussion this coming Wednesday night.

What I’m Watching

Starfleet Academy (Paramount+), Grace (BritBox), All Creatures (PBS), and The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix) remain in rotation. I still like Grace the best—good storylines and an efficient use of the 90-minute format. I also started The Game, also on BritBox, which has more thriller elements than I like, but the acting is good and there are only four episodes, so I think I can see it through.

What Else I’ve Been Doing

I made progress on my review of a book proposal for an academic press, so I remain on track to meet the deadline.

The weekly bowling took place, the usual two games. Overall, I rolled pretty mediocre. But there was a bright spot: I made three spares in a row, which I kind thought might be referred to as a chicken. It made sense to me since three strikes in a row is a turkey, and I figured a chicken was the next bird down, size-wise. When I finally remembered to look it up, I learned to my absolute delight that three spares in a row are called a sparrow. Perfection!

Happy Valentine’s Day! (to those who celebrate)

Thanks for reading. Check back next week to see how far the chapter three revisions have progressed.