Other People's Letters

Each weekend, I try to visit a fleamarket near my apartment called "The Garage."  On weekdays, it's a parking garage.  On weekends, it is transformed into a multi-tiered fleamarket with vendors who never fail to amaze me at what different things they can bring each week.

I have 2 huge (as in book-like) research projects that have been keeping me really busy.  One is generally about the homefront during World War II, and the other focuses on NYC history during the 1800s.  Not much overlap.  But, anyway, I've been using my visits to the Garage to look for source material or stuff (I try to be open-minded since you never know what you might see) that might be useful to better understand each of these time periods.

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite vendors promised to bring a box of letters from WWII that he had found at an estate sale in upstate New York.  As soon as I saw the heaping box of unorganized letters, I knew I had to buy it.  After several hours of organizing and cataloging them by date, I can now read through them in the order they were written.

The box of letters after I organized them

It seems a little sad to me that I, a stranger, now have the personal letters of this couple.  I can't help but wonder if they had children who didn't care to keep the letters, or perhaps it was their grandchildren who were willing to part with them?  As I organized the box, I felt even sadder, since I discovered that there are photographs, and even Mr. Allan W. Ames's Navy id card mixed in.

A photo of Mr. Ames--I assume with his wife and mother--either as he was about to leave for service, or perhaps while on a furlough:

And these just scratch the surface....  I have an entire envelope of photographs (here are just a few):

As well as notepads that Mr. Ames carried with him during the war, jotting down notes along the way...

I know not everyone feels the same way about old letters as I do, but my plan is to share parts of the story behind Mr. Ames' war service on this blog, and also what his wife was up to with her War Bond work and adjusting to the homefront as rationing took effect and other wartime measures were taken that made life very different from what it had been.

I wonder what happens to other boxes of old letters--whether some are just thrown away and lost forever.  Wouldn't it be incredible if there were a Museum of Abandoned Letters, a repository for boxes like the one I just bought, where letters too precious to throw away (and perhaps too precious to even sell) could be stored and read by curious visitors wondering what life was like at some other point in time?

Abraham Lincoln Signature Sighting

A couple weeks ago, I learned that the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was in town.  Being a HUGE Abraham Lincoln fan (in a nutshell: I think he was the most forward-thinking President in American history, and was incredibly brave in following what he believed was right rather than what was popular), I had to see it.  It was part of an exhibit called ""The First Step to Freedom: Abraham Lincoln's Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation," which also happened to display Martin Luther King Jr's Centennial Address.  What more could a historian want? 

(The documents were housed in glass cases, and there were lights directly above them, so please excuse the poor photography).

As we waited in line, we read facts about the documents we were about to see.  The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued in September 1862, after the Union's victory in the battle of Antietam, and it ordered that in 100 days, the federal government would deem all slaves free in the Confederate states.  The entire document was written by Abraham Lincoln.  In fact, there is even a fingerprint on one page of the document, which is said to be Lincoln's.

page 1, in Lincoln's handwriting!

Here's a photo of the page bearing the fingerprint that is believed to be Lincoln's (I obviously added the red circle):

As for the type-written language you see above Lincoln's fingerprint, it is thought that Lincoln probably glued this language (which is from the Congressional Confiscation Act) onto his Proclamation in order to save time. 

As for the signature that I was especially excited to see, here it is:

I am going to write a separate blog post covering MLK's Centennial speech. 

What Would You Ask Eleanor Roosevelt If Given the Chance?

My latest project involves the World War II era--particularly what was going on at the home front.  It seems to me that the battles of the war have been studied to no end, but not a lot has been written on the home front and all of the incredible organizations that were developed by those left at home--principally women.

In order to do justice to the subject, I thought it would be important and interesting to submerge myself into that time period by reading periodicals and books actually reporting on the war (I even purchased a cd with old radio programs from WWII, which have been interesting in a propaganda-ish sort of way).
Thus, my weekends and weeknights have been spent reading periodicals and books from the 1940s.  Perhaps through serendipity, my parents happened to have a TON of National Geographic magazines from the 1939-1944 period, so I have been working my way through them (the ones on the right have been read, the ones on the left will be):

I love the picture below-- women delighted to volunteer for the Red Cross, and a group of enlisted men far from home and very happy to see them.  These Red Cross volunteers had just arrived in Britain at the time this photo was taken.

Besides National Geographics, I've been buying magazines at some of the flea markets near my apartment.  I bought a few Reader's Digests from the 1940s, which give a nice sampling of magazine articles, books, and all manner of reading material that was published during that time.

The red Reader's Digest on the bottom right has one of Eleanor Roosevelt's columns, "If You Ask Me," which I thought would have been pretty interesting.  But, then I read the first question: "Does your husband notice a new dress or hat when you wear one, or is he like so many other men who never see a wife's new clothes?"

If you must know the answer, Eleanor responded: "I think my husband is too preoccupied, usually, to notice my clothes, but sometimes he will look up and say he likes something I have been wearing for two or three years!"

Another question: "Do you think women have as much sense of humor as men?"

I don't understand why anyone would ask the First Lady such questions.  But, it does seem that my magazine reading is paying off, since I am able to see what a different time it was, and be able to incorporate that into my writing.

A final source that I have been working through is this box of 200+ letters, between a husband and wife, who had lived in Staten Island, New York, before the husband was drafted into the air force:

During World War II, there was concern that letters could fall into enemy hands, so letters from servicemen were censored.  This is apparent, as the husband's letters include few details about his experience, where he was (he could say what country, but that's about it), or what he was doing (or how much danger he was in).  But, his letters are really heartwarming, and you can feel how much he loved his wife and son and how much he missed them by reading his words.  To give you an example, here are a couple excerpts that you can read:

It reads:  Betty Darling a short letter to let you know I am well and thinking of you and Vic and to keep you from worrying too much about me.  I hope this letter finds you both in the best of health and happy.

The end of the letter:

It reads:

Betty Dear I see you so many times in my dreams waiting at the door for me to come home for dinner or supper as you used to, or waiting in the sunlight on the porch to get that last goodbye wave in when I was leaving for work.  Honey when those days return that will be heaven enough for me. 

So Sweets with all the love and kisses to you and Vic I will say so long till my next letter.

Your Loving Husband Always,
Vic

Friday's Photo: Fun With Crosswalks

The latest rage in Manhattan--crosswalks with a message.  They're not just stripes anymore....

A substantive post is coming this weekend, so stay tuned!

The Best Tribute

Simple and poignant.  

Lying About Dylan

In case you didn't hear about the latest literary fraud, last week, Jonah Lehrer admitted that he had invented quotes that he attributed to Bob Dylan in his book Imagine: How Creativity Works  Until this literary mischief, he seemed to have a lot going for him--he's a Rhodes scholar, a neuroscientist, and was a staff writer for "The New Yorker."  For whatever reason, he decided his book wouldn't be good enough with manufacturing the quotes he wanted Dylan to have said.

Now, he's resigned from "The New Yorker" and has issued a public apology.  According to the New York Times, Lehrer stated "The lies are over now. . . .  I understand the gravity of my position.  I want to apologize to everyone I have let down, especially my editors and readers."  In my opinion, he should have stopped there.  However, he added: "I will do my best to correct the record and ensure that my misquotations and mistakes are fixed."  Really?  Misquotations?  He makes it sound like he made an innocent mistake, as if the whole thing were a misunderstanding or an innocent accident.

The man who exposed the fraud was a Dylan aficionado, Michael Moynihan; he read Imagine, searched for the source of one of Lehrer's Dylan quotes, and after Lehrer responded to Moynihan's inquiries with several lies, Lehrer ultimately confessed "that he had made it up."  According to Moynihan, "Lehrer had spliced together Dylan quotes from separate published interviews, [and] when the quotes were accurate, he took them well out of context."  Sounds intentional, not a case of mere "misquotation."

An apology from a hoaxer doesn't seem to cut it these days.  Already, Lehrer's publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, has announced that it would recall printed copies of Imagine.  If this hoax becomes anything like James Frey's, it wouldn't be surprising if it results in the issuance of refunds to readers who had bought Imagine thinking if was non-fiction, only to find it was not all it is supposed to be.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out.  His book sales are likely to dwindle (people tend to be less interested in reading non-fiction when it actually isn't true), and it is unclear if he will be able to salvage his writing career.  

The tradition of the literary hoax is alive and well.  And once again, a hoaxer has fooled his publisher, reviewers, and readers before the hoax was revealed.

Works consulted:
"Jonah Lehrer Resigned From New Yorker After Making Up Dylan Quotes for His Book," by Julie Bosman, New York Times, July 30, 2012 (appearing on Media Decoder Blog).

"Due Diligence on Dylan: Writer Found Fraud in First Chapter," by Christine Kearney, Chicago Tribune, Aug. 1, 2012.

Friday's Photo

I want to try something new for the blog.  Every Friday (or so), I'll post a photo (or more) with little explanation, of something from my daily life.  This week, the Freedom Tower.  I work about 2 blocks from it and have watched it go up slowly for the last couple years.