Mars, the Moon & Christmas Eve

I'm finally surfacing from a month of intense work demands! And not too soon because today's the winter solstice. This morning I read a wonderful article in my local paper about the fact that Mars will be unusually bright this Christmas Eve and there will be a full Moon. Why? According to Jack Horkheimer, a planetarium director and host of public television show "Star Gazer: Because Mars will be directly opposite the Sun, reflecting the most light, and fairly close to Earth, only 55.5 million miles away. The full Moon will appear nearby, rising about an hours later. In honor of the event, Horkheimer wrote these lyrics in honor of the event. Sing them to the tune of "Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer"


Mars is a red-tinged planet
With a very shiny glow
And if you look to see it
You will find the Moon in
tow.

All of the other Yuletides
Santa would have at his
side
The shiny nose of Rudoph
Acting as his big sleigh's
guide

But this very Christmas
Eve
Santa came to say;
Rudolph, now with Mars
so bright,
You can stay at home
tonight.

Then all the reindeer teased
him.
And they shouted out with
glee:
"Rudolph, the red-nosed
reindeer
Outsourced to astronomy."

Author Visit

Tomorrow I'm doing an author visit in Sophie's pre-school class at the Medical Center Nursery School in New York City. I'm going to read pieces I wrote for U*S*Kids: A Weekly Reader Magazine (no longer in publication)-- "Stamps!" a brief nonfiction article on stamp collecting and a short fiction story "I Like It When People Laugh." I'll introduce my readings by telling the youngsters that when I write fiction I get to make-up stuff and when I write nonfiction I don't get to make-up stuff. I checked with the teacher, and she's game for letting a room full of 3 & 4-year-old kids test out different laughs--YEAH for flexible, up-for-an-adventure teachers!!!!

On Writing & Getting Unstuck

Back to blogging after being distracted by Thanksgiving preparations and house guests and then a miserable cold that actually prompted me to cancel classes last week, a first. Happily yesterday I finally got back into writing Stirring Up the World & I want to make an observation about my writing process: when I'm stuck, i.e., I can't move my writing forward, there are two solutions 1. Unravel what I've written to the point that I get unstuck, i.e., find the place where I started down a cul de sac; 2. Resort to paper and pencil (always a mechanical pencil) to work out the problem, i.e., where to go from that point.

More on Friendship

As always, a book project has prompted me to solicit thoughts/ideas/reactions from various people; now, I'm thinking about--friendship. On 11/19/07, I posted an entry "On Writing and Friendship" with which there are also posted two comments about friendships.

Annie Unverzagt, a very special friend from the time we were graduate students in the mid-1960s, sent me her cherished copy of Gert & Frieda, by Anita Riggio (New York: Atheneum, 1990) along with her thoughts that she said I could post:
Annie on friendship: This delightful children's book tells a wonderful story about friendship. It seems to capture some essentials: emphathetic listening, acceptance of a friend's quirks and differences, enabling a friend to find their strengths, supporting your friend in good times and bad. Our family--especially the girls--have always loved this book, mostly because of "hugging around the middle" concept. I suspect we are attracted to the humor and whimsy that underlie friendship. No one is taking here--it is a relationship of giving on both parts.

As I get older, I am most appreciative of the timeless quality in a good friendship. It does not seem to matter if you last visited together yesterday or many years ago. There is the caring and interest in your friend's life and living that seems to transcend time, especially when feelings are mutual. You have moved beyond the level of getting something out of a relationship, even if it is only "does the person like me" to purely enjoying the opportunity to exchange in an atmosphere of acceptance.

I have always treasured loyalty as a time-tested strength of friendship. I suppose that is fruther refined to maintaining friendship without requiring anything in return. I think things are much trickier with political--or any other reason--friendships such as the one you are explaing in your book.

On Writing

Now that I'm in the writing phrase of Stirring Up the World, words, phrases, sentences spontaneously appear in my brain, including in the middle of the night. I went to sleep--or tried to last night--with an unsolved writing problem; about midnight a glimmer of a solution materialized. Humm, I thought, I wonder if it is worth getting up & trying this??? My body said no, but my brain was insistent--no, sleep for you until you see whether or not it works if you delete this and add that. (By works, I mean that I continue to move forward, i.e. that what I've written propels me onward, saying what I want to say, getting me to where I want to go, keeping readers turning the page.) So, I got up, stumbled in the dark down several flights of stairs to my basement office, and happily wrote and wrote until after 2:00 am! Double happily, this morning I reread my night-time writing and concluded that it works in the light of day too!

Grace Paley and The Great Hall at Cooper Union

Last night I went to "A Tribute to Grace Paley: An Evening of Readings and Remembrance" at The Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York City.
Paley was a poet, short story writer and political activist. Francine Prose, president of PEN American Center, opened the evening. She was followed by Paley's daughter Nora. Other participants, including Katha Pollitt, Sonia Sanchez, Walter Mosley, Michael Cunningham, and Vera B. Williams, read from Paley's works and gave reminiscences. The program opened and closed with a recording of Grace Paley reading her poem Responsibility that includes these lines: It is the poet's responsibility to speak truth to power as the/Quakers say/It is the poet's responsibility to learn the truth from the powerless/It is the responsibility of the poet to say many times: there is no freedom without justice and this means economic justice and love justice/. . . . It is the responsibility of the poet to be a woman to keep an eye on/this world and cry out like Cassandra, but be/listened to this time.
The announcement of the event had this quote from Paley:
Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.
Her dream for her grandchildren, Grace Paley said in a May 2007 interview was: It would be a world without militarism and racism and greed--and where women don't have to fight for their place in the world.
I was moved by the event and thrilled to finally be inside the The Great Hall of Cooper Union, the scene of many legendary speeches and meetings and events in American history. The Great Hall, which opened in 1858, has figured in several of my books, including Strike! The Bitter Struggle of American Workers from Colonial Times to the Present--where I wrote about the mass meeting of striking workers on November 25, 1909, when Clara Lemlich, a teenage worker who had been badly beating during her stint on the picket line, electrified the meeting with her words: "I am a working girl, one of those who are on strike against intolerable conditions. I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in general terms. What we are here for is to decide whether we shall or shall not strike. I offer a resolution that a general strike be declared--now!" Lemlich's call to action resulted in, what became known as, "The Uprising of the 20,000," a strike that dramatically demonstrated the power of semi-skilled and unskilled immigrant women workers and catapulted women into prominence in the labor movement, which had traditionally ignored them.

The Great Hall was also the scene of the first meeting of the U. S. Sanitary Commission that organized the hospital transport ships during the Civil War. I wrote about Katharine Wormeley, a lady superintendent aboard the hospital transport ships in Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made a Difference. My essay about Wormeley includes excerpts of her letters. On May 31, 1862, from on board the Knickerbocker she wrote to her mother: It is a piteous sight to see these men: no one knows what war is until they see this black side of it. We may all sentimentalize over its possibilities as we see the regiments go off, or when we hear of a battle; but it is as far from the reality as to read of pain is far from feeling it.

And, of course, The Great Hall played a role in the fight for women's rights--meetings were held there and most of the male and female leaders spoke there, including the women I'm currently writing about--Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. At one time, Anthony had an office in The Great Hall.
p.s. I'm happy to report that two days ago I finally moved from the intense research phase to the writing phase of Stirring Up the World: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, a Biography of a Powerful Friendship.

On Writing and Friendships

The end of another long thinking
about--how am I going to structure this book?!?
Here's a picture of what my thinking "looks" like tonight. At one point in the day, I emailed my friend Dot: "What do you think about friendships??"
"Well, let's see," she replied. "Friendships are--rewarding, sustaining, inspiring, fun, frustrating, enduring or fleeting, friendships inspire growth, common interests hold them together, old friendships are a great source of comfort, new friendships are energizing and on some days, your pet is your BEST friend!"

Feel free to add your thoughts/ideas/experiences on the topic of friendships!

On Writing

Spent about 16 hours yesterday with the results of my research into the friendship of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. What do I have? Masses of material! Now the writerly question/decision is--what to do with all that material?!? How to turn it into a clear, coherent, compelling (my 3Cs of good writing)nonfiction narrative??? How am I going to structure this book? That question is constantly on my mind. In my sleep last night I was remembering the structures of some of my other books--5 strand interwoven multi-layered structure for Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II, a topical chronology for Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts: A History of Burial, a modified chronology for A Woman Unafraid: The Achievements of Frances Perkins. In an early post (8/7) I wrote about a structure I "saw"--"knitting something with a pattern, i.e. I've got two main skeins of yarn--ECS (I'm thinking she's orange) and SBA (perhaps green) and I'll be picking up stitches from other skeins as I go." One of my tests of the viability of an idea is whether or not it sticks with me--that one is still with me. The ultimate test, of course, is whether or not I can implement the idea & this one isn't there yet. So, back to work!

Cranberry Harvest

Our Jersey Shore bungalow is near the cranberry bogs in Double Trouble State Park in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Luckily this year, we--me, Linda, and Sophie, my three-year-old granddaughter-- managed to get there from NYC in time to watch the wet, or water harvest; an event I've been curious about, especially after writing my forthcoming book Thanksgiving: The True Story. The first two pictures (left to right) show a cranberry bog with ripe berries (cranberries grow on a dwarf evergreen vine in a peat or sandy bog), and two specialized harvesters that knock the berries off the vine. In that picture, the first driver has lifted up the bar that has 9 metal circle because he's about to turn around (see next picture). The other driver still has the bar down and the circles are rotating and knocking the cranberries off the vine (note the water in the bog splashing up). The man wearing the waders directs the drivers and walks in front of them to make sure they don't hit a rock or other obstacle.
"Hey," I shouted to get his attention. "What do you call those machines?"
"Knockers," he shouted back. "Also pickers, I call them pickers."
"What do most people call them?"
"Ask him," he said gesturing to a man standing a bit behind me. Jose has been doing this for fifty years."
Turning to look as Jose, I asked, "What do you call them?"
"Knockers."
The next two pictures are of the bog after it has been flooded with 6" to 8" of water. Since cranberries float, the workers corral them by encircle them with a very long piece of black, flexible material about 8" wide that floats. We could see two workers standing in the corral using a type of push-broom to move the cranberries around but couldn't figure out why. Walking to the side of the truck, we found a man on a ladder who was watching the cranberries fill up the truck.
"Hi," I called out, "We have a question." I didn't expect him to climb down, but he did and cheerfully explained that there is a tub just below the surface of the water with a suction hose that sucks the cranberries up to a platform on the back of a truck. The men in the water are moving the cranberries toward the tub. Periodically one of the men walks over and tightens the black strip encircling the cranberries, thus making the corral smaller; a task, we all agreed, looks like hard work!
The last picture shows the workers standing on the platform. They remove pieces of vine and use a type of push broom to move the cranberries onto a conveyer belt that dumps them into the back of the truck that will go to the receiving station in Chatsworth, NJ. That is where the cranberries get processed into juice and cranberry sauce. (Cranberries that are sold whole are gathered by a "dry harvesting" method by which mechanized machines "pick" the cranberries). As we were leaving, a woman wearing a "Piney Power" T-shirt hailed us to warn us about chiggers (happily no problems for us). Ever the journalist, I asked her about her t-shirt, etc. and discovered she has a cool website (www.pineypower.com) with lots of material about the Pine Barrens, including information about cranberries.

A "Nonfiction Moment" and a 6th Grade Science Lesson

Dot Emer--Emer being the married name of Dot Chastney whose true stories about being a kid during World War II appear throughout my book Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on The Home Front In World War II (there are also photos from Dot's life then), and who you'll meet again in my forthcoming book Thanksgiving: The True Story--is a middle school librarian in Boca Raton, Florida. Dot just sent me the following email about the photographs of the Monarch butterflies on my blog: "Hi Penny, Just want you to know that your Monarch butterfly photos provided a nice science lesson on Wednesday. I went to the sixth grade science teacher and showed her your blog site with the photos. We threw the photos up on the SmartBoard so the whole class could see them and the teacher read your description. She also told the kids that when her boys were young they vacationed in Cape May and there were so many Monarchs on the move that they were landing on the kids."

This is such a great example of a concept I love to introduce when I teach courses in nonfiction writing and nonfiction literature and that is--a "Nonfiction Moment" i.e. anything real that really happens during the course of a day--a conversation, an incident, an observation, a taste, a surprise, an unexpected encounter, something you overhear--that sticks with you. Something that you remember. It doesn't have to be momentous. It can just be a snippet or a sliver of something. It doesn't have to matter to anyone else, just to you is enough. All it has to be is something that really happened--nothing made up--that catches your attention and hangs around inside you.

Friendship--Dear Jan, Thank you

Just now, I was working on Stirring Up The World and thinking deeply about the 19th century friendship between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony when I heard a vigorously banging on my front door. Disoriented--remember my brain was in the 1800s--I opened the door & had to think a moment when the woman who was holding a big bouquet of flowers said: "Special surprise for Penny Colman. Are you Penny Colman?" The flowers, I discovered, are in celebration of my 20th anniversary as a freelance writer from Jan Kristo, my dear friend and colleague and co-author along with Sandip Wilson of the forthcoming chapter "Bold New Perspectives: Issues in Selecting and Using Nonfiction." Thank you, Jan, for the gorgeous bouquet, and thank you for the timely reminder of the joy and power of 21st century friendships!

Twenty-Year Anniversary

One month after my 43rd birthday, I became a full-time freelance writer. It was October 1, 1987. I mark that as my starting date because that was the first day after the last day that I received a salary from a full-time job with benefits, an office, and support staff. My first-born child--Jonathan--had graduated from high school in June and my second- and third-born children--David and Stephen, identical twins--were seniors in high school.

I had been writing on and off for years and published some articles and a one-act play, but I had never really focused on myself as a writer. Instead I had concentrated on being a mother, a community activist, a wife. I had also compiled a diverse resume as a teacher, a speaker, an executive director of a social service agency, and founder of an art gallery. But as I moved into my 40s, I became aware of an increasingly insistent internal need to write. So, twenty years ago, I took the plunge.

Although I have written fiction, my passion is nonfiction--real stories about real people, events, things, and ideas. In my quest for true stories I've paddled a raft through whitewater rapids; hiked out of the Grand Canyon; tracked down grave diggers; walked across a high wire strung between two trees: interviewed interesting people; spent countless hours at archives, libraries, and historic sites immersing myself in the lives and words and deeds of historic women; and etc.--all amazing adventures!

The picture is of the gorgeous gladioli we bought yesterday at a fall festival in Mays Landing, NJ (we happened upon it as we were driving a let's-try-a-new-route-home from a research trip in Washington, DC)--$5 for ten stems--yellow, red, purple, lavender, white, and coral. We've dubbed them the twenty-year-anniversary-flowers. I love the array of colors. I love the way a gladiola unfurls and opens from the base to the top. Twenty years ago I could not--did not--imagine the challenges facing full-time writers, especially writers who hope to earn a living. But I'm so glad I couldn't & didn't because I might have gotten cold feet and missed twenty years full of fun and adventure and satisfaction and the opportunity to get to know many marvelous people! Thank you to everyone who has cheered me on, including my three sons who said--Go for it, Mom! and Charlotte who never doubted that I would make it & who buys multiple copies of my books, and Dot who is full of information and stories, and, of course, Linda who is always here and there and everywhere.

Ocean Scene

Back to my home-base in Englewood to teach two classes
at Queens College tomorrow. This picture was taken at Island Beach State Park, ten miles of beautiful dunes and wide beaches at the south end of Barnegat Peninsula (really an island). My favorite beach walk is the mile from where the road ends to the Barnegat Inlet, the channel of water between Barnegat Penisula and Long Beach Island, the other long barrier island of the coast of NJ.

More Monarch Pictures

It was a chilly night and I worried about the Monarchs (see previous post and picture 9/15).
But they appeared
fine when
I arrived about 8 am. There were more than a hundred butterflies roosting in the trees. They left during the day--off on their long journey. What a thrill--I saw a sight I had never seen but will always remember!

Migrating Monarch Butterflies

During a bike ride today, I saw many Monarch butterflies flying in the air--like a cloud, I thought. Awestruck, I stopped and watched and then noticed that some were heading for a row of trees, including two pitch pine, growing on the shore of Barnegat Bay. Walking closer, I saw a large group* of Monarchs resting, i.e. with their wings closed thus the tan color. Others, as you can see in the picture, had their wings open. Mid-September is when the Monarchs migrate along the Atlantic coast past the section of the Jersey Shore where I've been for a week working on a book. They come through on a north or northwest wind (and today there was a strong northwest wind) on their way to the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico. I took this photograph at 6:45 p.m. I'll go back tomorrow morning and see what's up.
*Not knowing what to call a group of Monarch butterflies, I did a search and it appears that a group of butterflies is called a Kaleidoscope, also a swarm and rabble. I discovered that the American Butterfly Assocation is holding a contest to select a name for a group of butterflies. Think I'll do some more research on this issue, but, for now, back to my book project.

Jersey Shore House & Writing

My favorite and most productive place to start a book is in this little house at the Jersey Shore. At the moment, I'm sorting through massive amounts of primary and secondary source material trying to figure out the structure for my next book, Stirring Up the World: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, A Biography of a Friendship (yes, that's a new title, which I'll explain in another post). On the left is a picture of Stanton, Anthony is pictured on the right. I've filled up one little bedroom with books!! I write at the kitchen counter with breaks for walks, bike rides, and kayaking.

I'm in the middle of a writing-week at our Jersey Shore bungalow & spend my days and nights working on my bio of the friendship between Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony. However, when I need a break, I paddle my kayak to check up on the black swan.

Grand Canyon Magic continued from 8/18 post

Grand Canyon Magic continued from 8/18 post
May 4, 1987, Flagstaff, Arizona

The night before we started on our raft trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon we met the head guide, Dave Edwards, in a room at the Holiday Inn in Flagstaff. Arizona for a pretrip orientation. Anxiety and excitement played tag inside me while I listened to Dave, a tall, lean, intense man with years of experience as a river guide. (Here's a picture of Dave rowing a raft. Arlene is the "peep" sitting in the front of the raft.)

Quickly I scrounged a pen and paper (actually the back of a postcard Bob found in his pocket), and took notes: "first thing in the morning is coffee call . . . do approximately twenty miles a day . . . six hours on the river . . . hike in side canyons . . . drink lots of fluids, and not just when you're thirsty . . . carry out all waste for proper disposal except urine (this experience prompt me to write my first nonfiction book, Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom). . . water is very cold because it's released from the bottom of the dam . . . everyone gets a waterproof ammunition can (army surplus) for personal belongings . . . for your sleeping bag and clothing you get two heavy rubber bags slightly bigger than a grocery bag (formerly used by soldiers to carry radio transmitters) . . . in an emergency you'll go out in a helicopter (a prospect I vowed to avoid).

Dave repeatedly characterized waterfalls, canyon walls, rapids, stars, clouds, etc. as spectacular. "I use that word a lot," he interjected a bit self-consciously, "but it's the way I feel." The next day, after a three-hour bus ride to Lee's Ferry on the Colorado River where the rafts and rest of the crew waited for us, we began to find out why Dave frequently said--"spectacular!"

Cousins from Argentina

Yesterday, August 26th, I had lunch with my 2nd cousin, Nany, from the branch of my mother's family that settled in Argentina after World War I. Nany's daughter, Mariana, my 2nd cousin once removed, lives in Brooklyn & found me through the Internet in 2004. Mariana joins us for holidays, comes to our Shore house, and once hosted a delicious Argentinean BBQ in Brooklyn. In 2005, Nany and her husband Guido came to the U.S. to visit Mariana and we gathered for a first-time family gathering at the Shore. Nany--who speaks English, which is good because I don't speak Spanish, although I've tried and will try harder--and I are in our early 60s and it feel as if we've known each other all our lives. Nany and Mariana are both wonderful, loving, vivacious, and smart women!

Linda took this picture at a restauant in Chinatown--Nany and Mariana came by subway from Brooklyn and we drove up from the Shore. I'm holding two beautiful potholders that Nany's mother Dora crocheted for me. Dora is 91 and I remember her trip to the U.S. in about 1959. My mother met me after school one day and said, "Come on, we're driving to New York City to pick up my cousin Doritza." In those days, it was about an 14-hour trip. The way back, I remember, my mother and Doritza talking in a combination of languages--German, Croat, Spanish, and my mother periodically translating for me.

Meeting Nany has finally cleared up a mystery that haunted my mother (she died in 1997)--the identity and fate of her birth mother, a true story I'll write about later.

Paddling Down the Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon

Twenty years ago I wrote Grand Canyon Magic, an illustrated memoir of my 13-day-white water raft trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. My husband Bob (we are now divorced) had suggested we take the trip to mark our twentieth wedding anniversary. All together, thirteen people were on the trip--six paying passengers--"peeps" in river guide jargon and seven crew member, a large crew because of additional people training to be guides. The picture is of me in the bow of the raft paddling through a rapid. Note my name on the strip of duct tape on my life jacket; we joked that that was so the guides could identify our body after we capsized and drown! Obviously I survived the trip, although I did capsize and bob/swim through a rapid in forty-eight degree water.

It was such an amazing experience that I want to share it with you by periodically posting excerpts from Grand Canyon Magic on my blog. Pictures too. I'll use the title Grand Canyon Magic for the excerpts.

On Doing Research: The Stacks

I've spent the last two days in the "stacks" at Butler Library,
Columbia University doing research for my biography of the friendship between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony). There are nine floors of books in the library--rows and rows of shelves that are 7 rows high and 15 feet long loaded with books, journals, and other printed material. It's a heavenly place. Here's a visual sampler: Butler Library, a corridor between rows of book, and a row in the "stacks.

A Woman's Story: 72 years ago

On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) signed the Social Security Act. The woman in the picture is Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the subject of my biography A Woman Unafraid: The Achievements of Frances Perkins.

Perkins was the first woman in the United States cabinet and the architect of some of the most far-reaching and important reforms and social legislation ever enacted in America, including the establishment of Social Security. FDR had insisted that Perkins head the committee that created the Social Security Act: "You care about this thing," he told her. "You believe in it. Therefore I know you will put your back to it more than anyone else, and you will drive it through." And she did.

Perkins invited members of Congress who had fought for the bill to attend the signing ceremony, and she had enough pens for FDR to use as he signed the copies of the bill to give one to each person present. Except one for herself.

FDR noticed. "Frances, where is your pen?

"I haven't got one," she replied.

Turning to his secretary, Marvin McIntyre, FDR said, "All right, give me a first class pen for Frances."

"It is a great satisfaction to see the foundation stone laid in a security structure which aims to protect our people against the major hazards of life," Perkins told reporters.

Frances Perkins died at the age of eighty-five on May 14, 1965. Several years before her death, she had talked about the state of the world. "I hear people say that the world is in a crisis . . . . I think crisis has occurred in the world's history many times. I'm glad to say that in those other crises we didn't have radio, television, and the movies to run it up until everybody died of terror. . . . You can't do any of the things we did in the early part of the century if you're afraid. . . . You just can't be afraid . . . if you're going to accomplish anything."

For an NPR segment on Frances Perkins, see the link on the home page at www.pennycolman.com.

Black Swan on Barnegat Bay

Paddling our kayak on Barnegat Bay early Sunday morning (8/12/07) we headed for one of the islands to the north of our bungalow. In a channel on the east side, we saw a company of 26 Mute Swans (white with orange bills) swimming in a group, slightly to the north of that group 2 Mute Swans were feeding, in between swam a Black Swan--gorgeous black feathers with bit of white feather on the wing edges and a bright red bill!!!! We stilled our paddles and watched and watched. According to our Sibley's bird book, Black Swans are an exotic species. They breed in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia (one is depicted on the flag of Western Australia). A prized ornamental waterbird --and it is elegant--Black Swans are found in public and private collections in Europe and the U.S. The one on Barnegat Bay undoubtedly escaped from a public or private collection in the U.S.

We continued paddling around the island and observed 6 adult osprey and 2 or 3 young osprey in a nest built on a wood platform on stilts (the largest number we've seen in seven summers). All and all a thrilling journey, except for the green-headed flies that ignored Linda and feasted on me!

Today, we returned to Englewood & took Sophie to the Bronx Zoo (Sophie & her mother are leaving tomorrow to spend a month in Europe visiting family). She surprised me by saying she wanted to ride a camel, so we did--it was fun! Watched several performances by three marvelous actors--Brian, Trevor and Gail who are member of a terrific drama group--Wildlife Theater. We loved their energy, sense of fun, effective environmental lessons, and, of course, their acting and singing.

I'm inching my way forward with shaping the structure of my biography of the friendship between ECS & SBA. Once I get it, I'm thinking I'm going to write in sections instead of starting at the beginning and working my way through to the end. I'll write in section not necessarily in chronological order. Why? Because I'm curious how that would work & curiosity is a good way to keep me & my writing engaged and fresh.

For several days, I've been immersed in figuring out my next book--a biography of the friendship between the legendary fighters for women's rights--Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Figuring out for me means finding the structure that ends up as the table of contents. It's about what to put in, what to leave out, what to connect to what, what to highlight, themes, etc. I'm at our bungalow, a really small house, on a barrier island off the coast of NJ--that probably sounds pretension, but it isn't, it's merely descriptive. Our very small house is on a lagoon so I can lift my kayak over the bulkhead into the water and paddle out to Barnegat Bay. To the east, the ocean is just a 5 minute walk. It's great to be here because the lure of outside activities--bike riding, walking, kayaking, swimming--overrides my tendency to forget to exercise when I'm immersed in a writing project. That's what happens when I'm writing at home--I just sitand write and write and write and write. Yesterday during my bike ride a structure came to me--knitting something with a pattern, i.e., I've got two main skeins of yarn--ECS (I'm thinking she's orange) and SBA (perhaps green) and I'll be picking up stitches from other skeins as I go--that's roughly the structure I "saw" as I pedaled along.

Finally ready to ship the results of my picture research for Thanksgiving: The True Story to the editor!! First thing tomorrow off it goes & then we're off with my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter for an overnight in Mystic, CT to visit the aquarium!!! As I did my final check of the material I selected I noted that I've assembled an eclectic, even quirky, collection of archival and contemporary illustrations; undoubtedly stretch readers' visual experience with the topic, but the text will too, so one matches the other.

A Thank You

I spent many hours yesterday with my dear and indispensable friends Sue and Moshe. Dear and indispensable for countless reasons--specifically yesterday for their generosity and support and skills with PhotoShop. I arrived with primary source documents--Harper's Weekly from 1857, 1858, 1866, 1899--with large engravings that I had selected as illustrations in my forthcoming book, Thanksgiving: The True Story. (In addition to writing my books, I do my own picture research, an essential but hugely demanding and time-consuming enterprise that I'll write about in more detail later). I also had emailed Sue a folder of jpg. With unfailing good humor and dazzling skill, Sue, with periodic input from Moshe, scanned and did image processing and burned a CD for me.
Sue and Moshe live in the Bronx and at one point we walked to a small Italian restaurant for homemade mozzarella and pizza with eggplant, Portobello mushrooms and zucchini (not what I would typically order but delectable). When a waiter dropped a tray of glasses, most of the eaters loudly applauded; not us, although when requested by another waiter who said he couldn't sing, we did join in singing happy birthday to someone. I left about 11:45 am, there was heavier traffic across the George Washington Bridge than I expected and my low gas light was on, but I was unfazed in the aftermath of a wonderful, creative, productive time (and I learned a lot!)--thank you Sue and Moshe!!

Check my web site for a slide show of book covers on the home page--my super talented web manager--Renee Harris--and I have been tinkering with the best timing--it's now 6 seconds--what do you think? Also Renee posted new pictures on my speaking engagement page.

Ooops, missed a month, or almost

I posted my last blog on 7/6, three days after I started teaching a course in nonfiction literature for children at Queens College, CUNY. The class ended today and two students--Stephanie and Maureen (both in the literacy program, Maureen is a terrific 4th grade teacher and Stephanie is preparing to be a terrific teacher) noted that I hadn't kept up with my blog.
"You're reading my blog?" I asked.
"Yes"--Turns out they check it everyday. So prompted by Stephanie and Maureen, I'm back blogging.

Stephanie reminded me that during one class discussion about my point that nonfiction is everywhere--Eddie had said, so "Pay attention."
"Absolutely," I responded. "That's a comment for my blog (or something to that effect). Better late than never--Eddie's words of wisdom are now posted!

Part of the reason for my Oooops is that I've been dealing with three copyedited manuscript that landed on my desk in July--two chapters and a book. The chapters are for a book edited by Susan Lehr: Shattering the Looking Glass; Challenge, Risk and Controversy in Children's Literature. One chapter is "On Writing: One Writer's Perspective." The other--"Bold New Perspectives; Issues in Selecting and Using Nonfiction"--I coauthored with my amazing colleagues and friends, Jan Kristo and Sandip Wilson. The nonfiction chapter is packed with provocative and useful proposals, information, ideas and activities. My chapter on writing was a fun essay to write, a bit of a romp that begins:
I wrote for years before I was brave enough to think about how I did what I did--how
I got my ideas; how I did my research; how I wrote articles, essays, stories, and books.
Brave, you may wonder? Yes, brave, I reply, because I was afraid that by analyzing and articulating my process I would lose it. Poof!--there goes the magic spell that makes me a writer.

The book--Thanksgiving: The True Story--took weeks of close reading to unscramble and respond to the copyeditor's handling of my manuscript. In addition, my partner and I had read the entire manuscript out loud during our road trip(see earlier entry) and I knew that I needed to rewrite the last chapter ("Meanings"). Also I had decided that I needed to add more illustrative material. (I do my own picture research and take photographs). All and all a massive project, in addition to teaching that required getting up at 6 am (I'm more owl than an early bird; no worms for me!) to drive to Queens. Then there is the highlight of my week--my Sophie-day, when my granddaughter and I go off on an adventure that this month included 5 hours at the American Museum of Natural History(fascinating fun, as always), a walk through a budgie bird exhibit at the Van Saun Zoo in Paramus, NJ(Wow!), and a trip to the newly reopened Liberty Science Center(disappointing).

Happily tonight everything is finished, and I'm about to dive into my next book--the biography of the legendary friendship between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Actually , I just realzied, everything is not finished--I have to grade so on that note--with the image of Stephanie and Maureen reading this--I'll sign off and finish grading!

Just Republished the first biography I wrote about a woman!
Breaking the Chains: The Crusade of Dorothea Lynde Dix

An inspiring biography of a courageous, determined, and passionate woman who made a difference in the world. A role model for all ages.

To order call 1-800-AUTHORS or visit www.iUniverse.com

Dorothea Dix was almost forty years old when she discovered that people, especially poor people, with mental illness were "confined in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens . . . . chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience." Outraged by this knowledge, Dix led a forty-year crusade for the humane treatment of people with mental illness. Year after year, she traveled thousands of miles by stagecoach, boats, horseback, and railroad to investigate and expose the horrendous conditions. She lobbied legislators, governors, and presidents to provide treatment and facilities for pople with mental illness. She took her crusade to Scotland, Italy, and Russia. During the Civil War, she served as the Superintendent of the Female Nurses of the Army, as such she had more authority and power than any other woman had had in the military prior to and during the Civil War. After the war, she resumed her crusade. When Dorothea Dix died in 1887, people around the world honored her. Proclamations, testimonials, and tributes were spoken and printed from the United States to Japan to England. A prominent American doctor wrote, "Thus had died and been laid to rest . . . . the most useful and distinguished woman America had yet produced."

Gift of a Valued Used Book

Check my previous entry under the title "New York City Women's History Book Tour" and you'll read about the walking tour I recently conducted for Books Afoot (a week-long literary tour in NYC led by Mollie Hoben of the Minnesota Women's Press). Today I returned from spending a few days at our bungalow on a barrier island off the coast of NJ and found a package with a North Dakota return address. I looked at the name and realized it was from the woman on the tour who knew who Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was and had read Freeman's book The Revolt of Mother! and other stories. (The first stop on the tour was the Academy of Arts and Letters where the inscription on the bronze doors reads: "Dedicated to the memory of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and the women writers of America." I told the group that I did not know about Freeman until I discovered the inscription about the Academy's doors.)

I opened the package and found her copy of Freeman's book with a note: "Hi Penny, I found my copy of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's The Revolt of Mother! . . . . Although the book is showing its age I'm sure you will give it a good home. And perhaps the biographical information in the Afterword will be of some good use to you." Absolutely I will give it a good home and put it to good use and thank you for your thoughtfulness and shared love of women's words and writings.

Catch Up

I wrote my last blog four months ago; proof I guess of what I wrote in my forthcoming chapter "On Writing: One Writer's Perspective" (in Keep Literature Alive! edited by Susan Lehr): "Whenever I talk or write about my writing process, I hasten to point out the following: a) What works for me will not necessarily work for someone else, and b) My process is contrary to much of the conventional advice put forth for writers. For example, I do not write everyday."

I flipped back through my date book to see what I've been doing: teaching at Queens College, The City University of New York; doing research for my next book project that I've nicknamed Thunderbolts which is short for I Forged the Thunderbolts, She Fired Them: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, A Biography of A Powerful Friendship; and cherishing my Sophie-Days, i.e. the day-a-week when my granddaughter and I take off on an adventure together--a trip to the Bronx Zoo, the New York Aquarium, the New Jersey Children's Museum, bookstores, parks; reading a stack of books; drawing; and, of course, talking about this that and everything.

Then there was the enormous amount of time I spent creating PowerPoint presentations for my intense Spring speaking schedule in diverse venues, e.g. Federal Bureau of Prisons, Northeast Regional Office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission; and the University of Maine.

Celebrating Women: Life Lessons From Our Foremothers is the title of one of my PowerPoint presentation. It is based on what I've learned from years of immersing myself in writing women's history.

First, I've learned that women's history is everywhere--pay attention and you'll find it in monuments and plaques, etc.; in the names on street signs, schools, parks, museums, theaters etc.; in archives, historical societies, etc. When I find concrete examples of women's history, I photograph it. My extensive archive includes statues of historical women and sculptures by women sculptors, gravestones, primary source documents, plaques and monuments, etc..

Second, I've learned that historical women offer us indispensable life lessons.

Using my photographs to illustrate life lessons from historical women, I created Celebrating Women: Life Lessons from Our Foremothers. My narration with the images is a mix of travelogue, memoir, and biography that entertains, informs and inspires audiences. This presentation is full of surprises and great fun to do. As always, I meet great people and learn from audience members(see my previous entry On Women's History. In Maryland, I spent time with Edith Michel, the dynamic chief of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. She introduced me to Carole Bergmann, a forest ecologist, who generously showed me the way to Rachel Carson's house, a women's history site I've long wanted to visit and photograph.

More Women's History Sites

In late April I drove to Maine to keynote the First Annual Nonfiction Institute at the University of Maine. (More about that exciting event in another entry). On the way, I stopped in Dover, New Hampshire, to learn about the pioneering 19th century lawyer, freethinker, and suffragist Marilla Ricker and to photograph her house.

Dover, NH, is the site of another women's history event that I wrote about in my book, Strike: The Bitter Struggle of American Workers from Colonial Times to the Present:
"In 1828 the first women millworkers struck on their own in Dover, New Hampshire, to protest new factory rules that included fines for begin late, no talking on the job, mandatory church attendance, and a requirement that workers give two weeks notice before leaving the mill. If they left without giving enough notice, they would be blacklisted. Newspapers from Maine to George reported how several hundred women paraded through Dover with banners and flags. The citizens of Dover were shocked. The mill owners advertised for 'better behaved women' to replace the strikers. Faced with losing their jobs, the women returned to work without gaining anything. Their leaders were fired and blacklisted." (p. 16) There's a picture of the Sawyer Woolen Mills in Dover, New Hampshire in the early 1800's on p 17

Women's History Road Trip

On May 30, my partner and I took off on a women's history road trip, the most productive ever! Here's our itinerary with highlights from a few spots, including two fabulous independent bookstores.

May 30 Route 9W (NJ), cross the Tappan Zee Bridge; Route 684(NY) to Route 7 (MA) to West Stockbridge, MA

May 31 Route 7 (MA) to Route 9 (VT) to Brattleboro, VT
Located and Photographed:
Stockbridge, MA: Elizabeth "Mumbet" Freeman's gravestone; Her epitaph reads:
ELIZABETH FREEMAN
Known by the name of
MUMBET
died Dec. 28, 1820
Her supposed age
was 85 Years
She was born a slave and
remained a slave for nearly
thirty years. She could nei-
ther read nor write yet in
her own sphere she had no
superior nor equal. She nei-
ther wasted time nor property.
She never violated a trust, nor
failed to perform a duty.
In every situation of domes-
tic trial she was the most effi-
cient helper and the tenderest
friend. Good mother fare well.

Stockbridge, MA: The Norman Rockwell Museum
Rockwell's iconic painting, "Rosie" for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, May 29, 1943, is on the cover of my book Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II. The original cover is on display (the painting is in a private collection). Rockwell's paintings based on Franklin Roosevelt's speech outline the Four Freedoms are on display. Because my forthcoming book is Thanksgiving: The True Story, I was particularly interested in seeing the one titled: "Freedom from Want." Rockwell illustrated this freedom by painting the serving of a turkey at a Thanksgiving Day dinner.

Lenox, MA: Edith Wharton's estate and gardens, "The Mount"

Williamstown, MA: The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, now called The Clark.
Historically, women, both unmarried, partnered, widowed and married, have played important roles as philanthropists, and still do.

Adams, MA: Susan B. Anthony's birthplace
Plaque reads: Born here February 15, 1820
She devoted her life to securing equal rights for women.
She died in Rochester, New York March 13, 1906.

Wilmington, VT: Molly Stark's Statue
Plaque on base of statue reads:
Elizabeth Page "Molly" Stark, 1737-1814
Wife of General John Stark, mother of 11 children, homemaker, patriotic defender of the household. Her love, courage, and self-reliance were constant virtues among the many hearty women of frontier New England's 18th century towns. This strength and devotion to husband, home and family were virtues that sustained her, as well as so many women and their families
during those times when husbands were called to duty for their country in the constant French and Indian Wars and the American Revolution. Molly Stark was General Stark's inspiration in his victory over the forces of Great Britain in the Battle of Bennington on August 16, 1777, when he announced to his men, "The enemy are ours or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow."
General Stark's victory march from Bennington to his home, his beloved Molly, and their family in New Hampshire is thought to be the same path of Vermont's Route 9, which was recognized in 1936 as "The Molly Stark Trail" and was officially named as such by the State of Vermont in 1967.

Wilmington, VT: Betty Wolf's black marble Bench
Inscription with laser engraved picture of Wolf on the bench reads:
Betty Wolf In honor of your 56 years of service to the Deerfield Valley.
Nurse Extraordinaire, School Board Chairman, Founder and Trustee of the Deerfield Valley Health Center. Trustee of the Southwestern Vermont Health Care. We thank you and applaud your dedication. Deerfield Valley Health Center Trustees September, 2005

We ate at Dot's Restaurant, really owned by Dot, nothing glamous, but good food.
Spent the night in Brattleboro where in the mid-1800s, Clarina Howard Nichols, with her husband, ran a newspaper, the "Windham County Democrat." She wrote editorials and petitions urging rights for women, including property rights for married women and the right for women to vote in school elections. She addressed the state legislature in 1850.
(In retrospect, I'm amazed at how much we did on the 31st! Here's how my partner explains our pace: "We were still revved up on NYC time!"

June 1 Route 91 North (VT) to Route 11 east (NH) to Route 4 south to Route 93 north to Route 112(Kancamagus Highway) to North Conway, NH

Newport, NH: Sarah Josepha Hale Room in Richards Public Library (and a special thank you to the terrific director Andrea Thorpe)
House
Plaque (in Guild section of Newport) reads:
SARAH JOSEPHA BUELL HALE
1788-1879
Prominent humanitarian, poet and
author was born and taught school
in Guild section of Newport, Wid-
owed mother of five, she edited
"Godey's Lady's Book", 1837-1877;
composed poem now called "Mary
Had A Little Lamb"; advocated
proclamation of Thanksgiving Day
as national festival; and appealed
donstantly for higher education
for women.

Boscawen, NH: Hannah Dustin's statue (also spelled Duston)
Historical marker at entrance reads:
Hannah Dustin
1657-1737
Famous symbol of frontier heroism.
A victim of an Indian raid in 1697,
on Haverhill, Massachusetts, whence
she had been taken to a camp site
on the nearby island in the river.
After killing and later scalping
ten Indians, she and the two other
captives, Mary Neff and Samuel
Lennardson, escaped down the river
to safety.

The towering statue of Hannah holding a tomahawk in her right hand and ten scalps in her left
hand was erected in 1874, perhaps the first statue to a woman in America. Another statue to Hannah was erected in Haverhill, MA. Hannah's story became widely known through the writings of the famous minister Cotton Mather. Other writers, including Henry David Thoreau continued to tell her story in the 19th century. In the late 20th century, some people have raised objections to the statue.

June 2 Route 16 north (NH) to 302 north to Cog Railroad up Mount Washington back to North Conway for night
I spent many summers in New Hampshire and remembered taking the cog railroad up Mount Washington. It was too overcast to be worth the trip to the summit, but interesting to explore the area--although the sight of the coal smoke pouring out of the train's smokestack was sobering--and the museum. Stopped at the magnificent Mount Washington Hotel, site of the 1944 Bretton Woods International Monetary Conference that set up the post-World War II system to stabilize the international economy and national currency. The Gold Room where the documents were signed is a museum. As always, we looked for women in the photographs of the delegates (730 attended from 44 countries). We found one woman.

Stopped at the Willey House Historical Site in Crawford Notch State Park to hike. Who was Willey (there's also Mt. Willey, and Willey Range Trail)? Willey was Samuel, who in 1825 moved his wife and five children to Crawford Notch. A year later, Samuel, his wife and two children were killed by a landslide. From the perspective of women's history, I noted that all the Willey references were to Samuel--his wife and children aren't named, just subsumed under his name.

Stopped at Sisters' Restaurant, 1950s vintage and food not much but we liked supporting a restaurant owned by two sisters

June 3 Route 16 North, to Route 2 to 115 to 302/10 to 93 North, to Route 14 to Barre, VT

White Mountains National Forest, near Gorman, NH: Dolly Copp Campground National Forest Campground.
Copp settled in area in 1831, raised four children and housed overnight guest, made jams and cheese that she sold from a roadside stand. According to a local biographer, Dolly left her husband shortly after celebrating their fifieth wedding anniversary. "Fifty years is plenty long for any woman to live with any man," she told her husband. Then she packed her things and moved to Maine to live with her daughter. Dolly and her husband divided their life savings equally.

Littleton NH: Statue on the library lawn in honor of Eleanor Hodgman Porter, the author of the classic book, Pollyanna. This popular book was made into several movies, a board game, and coined the term "pollyanna" to describe a cheerfull optimistic, naively trusting person. The statue depicts an exuberant Pollyanna, the fictional "glad girl" Pollyanna Whittier.

Village Bookstore, fabulous independent bookstore well worth a trip

June 4 89 south to 50 to 12 north to 107 West
Barnard: Dorothy Thompson Memorial Commons
Historical marker reads:
The Dorothy Thompson Memorial Common was established in 2001 by the Barnard Silver Lake Association, a non-profit organization in memory of the reowned (sic) journalist and one of Barnard's outstanding citizens in the years 1928-1962. The Common offers an open space in the center of Barnard where residents and visitors can stroll, relax and enjoy the view of the lake. During the winter, the Common is used for sledding and tobogganing and affords snowmobilers access to the lake. The Barnard Silver Lake Association maintains the Common.

Plaque on a granite slab reads:
Dorothy Thompson
Memorial Common
Dedicated to the Enjoyment to All
The Barnard Silver Lake Association July 14, 2001
Dorothy Thompson world famous journalist was married to
Sinclair Lewis and later to artist Maxim Kopf 1926 She became
the first female internationally syndicated journalist 1934
Based in Berlin she was the first foreign correspondent to be
expelled from Nazi Germany. 1928 She established Twin Farms
as her summer residence which later became the center for her
successful column "On the Record" and a haven for political
refugees, many of whom established homes in this area.
Dorothy loved Barnard and was an active community leader
1894-1961

June 5, Route 7 to 7A to Route 7 to Route 84, to Saw River Parkway, to GW Bridge and home

Manchester Center, VT: Northshire Bookstore, fabulous independent bookstore, well worth a trip

Arlington, VT: Martha Canfield Library
The prominent writer and one of the founders of the Book of the Month Club, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, lived in Arlington. Fisher's favorite Aunt Mabel lived in this house and maintained an informal library. After Mabel died, Fisher donated the building to the town. Fisher wrote nonfiction and fiction for adults and books for children. She criticized the idea that it was beneath a man to do "woman's work" in her novel, The Home Maker. Fisher introduced Montessori Teaching Method in America and helped found the Adult Education Association.

New York City Women's History Tour

In an early entry I wrote about Mollie Hoben bringing a group of "bookwomen" to New York City for a week-long tour, "Books Afoot," based on the campus of Columbia University. I met them on June 17th. What a great group of women! After talking about my books, I lead them on a virtual tour of women's history in New York City, by that I mean I "walked" them through a a 2-page list of sites that I had keyed to a map. Then we set off on a walking tour. The first stop via the subway was 633 W. 155th Street, the location of the American Academy of Arts and Letters with its bronze doors that are dedicated to "The memory of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and women writers of America." From there we visited a statue to Eleanor Roosevelt by Penelope Jencks; a plaque to Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Joan of Arc Island and Statue by Anne Vaughn Hyatt, and we talked and walked and talked--what a special group of women and what an interesting and fun time!

bookWomen
This summer I was delighted to finally meet Mollie Hoben, co-founder with Glenda Martin, of the Minnesota Women's Press that organizes terrific Reading Retreats and Book Groups on the Road excursions and publishes bookWomen, a magazine about books written by women and for readers "who love women's words." I love bookWomen and eagerly read it cover-to-cover, unlike other magazines that end up in my when-I-have-time-I'll-read-this pile.
In 2002, Mollie and I had talked by phone for her piece about my book Girls: A History of Growing Up Female in America. Last year she wrote a profile of me and Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made a Difference ("Real Women, Real Stories." bookWomen, June-July 2005: 3-4) Along the way, Mollie told me that she was a fan of my daughter-in-law Sarah Jones, the Tony-award-winning star of her one-woman hit Broadway show, "Bridge and Tunnel." Come to New York, I told Mollie, you can stay with us.
Mollie came. During Mollie's visit, I had fun driving her here and there as she scouted the possibilities of bringing one of their Book Groups on the Road to New York City & holding a retreat on the coast of NJ. We talked and talked about books, etc. etc.

Happily Mollie got everything arranged. "The Seaside Reading Retreat, New Jersey" is Sept 7-9 at Stella Maris, near Long Beach, NJ. "Books Afoot, New York City" is scheduled for June 14-20, based on the campus of Columbia University. Mollie is the facilitator and here's what she wrote about "Books Afoot" : "Highlights will include meetings with authors; visiting famed libraries and bookstores; a night at the theater; a women's history walking tour;* trying a variety of NY cuisine; exploring sites related to our reading, walking; and taking in the vibrancy of this storied city. Each day we’ll have book-group discussions of one of the books we all will have read. This is not a traditional New York City sightseeing trip; there will, however, be free time for readers to take in sights of personal interest."

*I'll be leading the women's history walking tour, with a focus on literary women.
For information about bookWomen and all of the 2007 Reading Retreats and Book Groups on the Road check: www.womenspress.com or call 651 646-3968

On Opera (and football)

For many years, I've listen to the Saturday Metropolitan Opera International Radio Broadcast. Today it's La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini. (Check the terrific web site http://operainfo.org that includes material for teachers.)
The following is an essay I wrote in 1986(a brief excerpt was published in Opera News).

My love affair with opera started with a bribe--50 cents to be exact. That's what my mother would give me and my three close-in-age brothers to entice us to ride in the car for three hours on a Saturday afternoon and listen to the radio broadcast of the live performance from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

This arrangement resulted from my father's insistence that he listen to the broadcasts at home in peace and quiet, and my mother's desire to keep him and us (very rambunctious kids) happy and hear the broadcasts herself. So, a half hour before the broadcast began my mother herded us into the car, drove to our regular gas station with the huge neon sign of the flying red horse, and gave each of us 50 cents--a lot of money when I was a kid. She got gas: we got what is now called junk food. I always got a bottle of cherry soda. (I loved the bright red color.) The rest of my purchase I negotiated with my brothers--bites, sips, and licks if you get that and I get this. Then, to get the best radio reception, my mother drove to a road that meandered along the top of the high hills that surrounded our small community situated in a river valley.

We crunched and munched and gurgled while Mom drove and described the action and characters on a stage 500 miles away. We "saw" Floria in Tosca jump off the fortress parapet to her death and waited for her final lyrics (with Mom translating the Italian) to the villain: "We will meet before God, Scarpia!" We blew pretend trumpets during the "Triumphal March" (with Mom enumerating the animals and characters in the parade) in Aida as the Egyptians celebrated their victory over the Ethopians. We recoiled from the witch(vividly depicted by Mom) when we heard Hansel and Gretel. The shouts of "bravo. . . brava" and the cheers and clapping from the audience in New York City thrilled us and we frequently exuberantly joined in.

Recently I was listening to a Saturday opera radio broadcast while my three sons and husband were watching a televised football game. All afternoon cheers reverberated in our house; theirs and the football crowd from the basement and mine and the opera audience from the second floor. They yelled for nimble runners zigzagging their way for long yardage. For an adroit quarterback throwing precision passes to sticky-fingered, fleet-footed receivers. And for mistakes--"Yeah, a fumble . . . we got it!" And triumphs--"Touchdown!" The opera audience and I cheered for skillful singers--sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses. Perfect control, pure and even tones, amazingly high and low notes, emotional expressiveness. The shape of the music, gorgeous music that took my breath away. The varieties and intricacies of rhythm. "Oh, yes!" I shouted when the soloists finished singing a lovely melody with beautiful harmonies; the parts moving smoothly and intricately like the parts in a fine watch.

Suddenly in the midst of our back-and-forth cheering, I wondering: Opera and football and we're all cheering?

But then again, why not--a high note, a completed pass; a duet, a first down; an aria, a touchdown--we're all celebrating the same thing: a wonderful performance!

Finally tackling my next book projects: one dealing with the last ten years of women's fight for the vote, the other a biography of the friendship between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. By tackling I mean I spent the day sifting through the mounds of material I've been gathering and organizing it. Yes, I'm an organized writer, at least when I commit myself to a writing project. I've got to be or I'd be so overwhelmed that I'd never get anything done.

Tomorrow I'm doing a radio interview with Katherine Lanpher, the host of "More Time' on XM Satellite Radio. She's a terrific journalist/columnist and former co-host on "The Al Franken Show" on Air America Radio. We'll be taking about Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made a Difference.

On Daily Scrabble

Today I received a letter from a friend in which she made interesting reflections about my comment in my holiday letter that I play Scrabble every night: "That sounds like a worthy practice, like playing the piano, or practicing plies at the barre. Aside from getting better at something and exercising the mind, practice is meditative. When I heard about the plan for daily practice I wondered what I did that was daily. I prepare for my teaching. I used to do yoga everyday, write in my journal, walk in the neighborhood, and now I go to the gym several times a week, and keep lists in my journal. In the summer, plant watering is a daily practice but not so much in the winter. Although watching Jim Lehrer news and Gwen Ifil are on the agenda, I don't watch the news daily. You inspire me to think about practice I can keep daily."
And my friend's letter prompted me to think about practice as "meditative"; a new thought for me. And, so, on this last day of January, do we still play Scrabble every night? Yes, even though, given our schedules, we often don't start until 11 pm. As some of you know, we don't keep score, so our play is companionable, not competitive, and, yes, we are getting better and exercising our minds, and yes, upon reflection, our daily Scrabble is "meditative."

On Women's History

Several weeks ago, I gave a speech at the annual meeting of the Alice Paul Institute about the amazing women in my recent book, Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made a Difference. In talking about Peggy Hull, the first woman to become an accredited war correspondent, I mentioned that she got her start covering General John Pershing’s pursuit of Pancho Villa into Mexico in 1916. "My great aunt rode with Pershing," a woman in the audience, named Ann Van Hise, said. Wow! I replied, tell me about her.

Recently Ann sent me a package of material about her amazing great aunt, Linda Konover Meirs, including a wonderful biography by Ann's mother, Ruth Holmes Honadle(Linda Meirs' niece). Ann's mother also kept the actual awards and medals earned by her aunt. I'll be writing about Linda Konover Meirs in another blog, but now I want to write about Ann and honor her for cherishing her great aunt's memory and for speaking out about her female relative in a public place. And honor Ruth Holmes Honadle for writing the biography of her aunt and preserving the historical records and objects.

On Writing

Tomorrow classes start at Queens College, the City University of New York, where I have an appointment as a Distinguished Lecturer. My writing class meets on Mondays and I am starting the class with a discussion of the concept of good writing, or writing that is Clear, Coherent, and Compelling, what I abbreviate as the 3Cs of good writing.
During the class, I am going to read examples of good writing, including Alice Steinbach's introduction to her book, Without Reservation, that includes this sentence: Life's like that, I told myself on a sad plane trip back to Italy: with awesome impersonality it ambushes us, changing our lives and the lives of those we love in an instant. Also this lead from Laurie Lynn Drummond's essay, Girl, Fighting (Creative Nonfiction 22, 2004, p. 30):
The first time I got punched in the face--punched, not slapped or shoved or struck or thumped by a flying elbow gone astray, but punched as in a fist landing squarely on the lower quadrant of my right cheek--it was delivered just after midnight in an apartment parking lot off Airline Highway in south Baton Rouge by a man at least 5 inches taller and a good 70 pounds heavier than I was. I was not his intended target. He intended to hit his wife. She ducked. I didn't. And I'm going to read Michael Winerip's recent essays on parenting in the Sunday New York Times. Also the Author's Note in my book Adventurous Women.

If you are interested in reading interviews with writers, check out http://www.identitytheory.com and click on interviews for Robert Birnbaum's intriguing interviews with authors, including Dorothy Allison, Gretel Ehrlich, Richard Ford, Allan Gurganus, Samantha Power, Howard Zinn, etc.

Nonfiction Book Recommendations

For five days over the New Year holiday, I was in Bermuda. I saw, learned, experienced many interesting things that I will write about in another post. In this one, I want to write about books because that is one of the things I do when I travel-- I buy books, in particular books that are shelved in the local section and unique books for young readers.

In the local section I found: Rogues and Runners; Bermuda and the American Civil War by Catherine Lynch Deichmann published by the Bermuda National Trust that describes how Bermuda became a bustling, brawling commercial centre smuggling aid to beleaguered Confederate rebels in their war with the North.

I bought the following books for young readers. I have not read them to any youngster yet, but I will and post their responses:

Caribbean Alphabet illustrated and written by Frane Lessac. A wonderfully illustrated alphabet book with more than one word on a page, e.g., I is island iguanas inlet and Z is zoo zebra zookeeper zzzz. The book ends with a section with the words for each letter written in sentences. The words are in bold face, e.g., I This little island is inhabited by iguanas which are large lizards with long tails. Fish swim into a tiny inlet. Z The zoo, the wonderful zoo, with zebras and zany animals. The zookeeper is fast asleep. ZZZzzzzzzz

My Bermuda ABC illustrated and written by Dana Cooper, a native Bermudian. Both the upper case and lower case of a letter are shown. Lovely illustrations and interesting text that will prompt readers to do research, e.g., Gg is for Gaff rig, Gates Fort, Government House, Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, the Grace, Goat and Goose Island and Gombeys who come out to dance on special holidays. And Yy is for Yellowtail fish, Yucca plant, the Yellow-wood and Yew trees, York Street, Yellow-Crowned Night heron, Yawning Road and Yachts, which dot the bays and harbours throughout the year.

Sea Turtles Hatching written and illustrated by Katherine Orr. Orr is a marine biologist who has worked to conserve sea turtles. The 32 page book is clearly written and conveys interesting information about sea turtles. I classify it as a hybrid book--nonfiction books that contain made-up material--because it includes two made-up characters: a boy who finds a hatchling and a park ranger.

Black History Month and National Women's History Month

Terrific information and resources are available at:

National Women's History Project www.nwhp.org In addition to useful online resources, check out their terrific catalogue.