Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
In the early 1900s, the most popular contraceptive douche was Lysol, formulated with cresol, a compound that caused inflammation, burning, even death. It was nevertheless aggressively marketed to women as safe and gentle for maintaining “dainty feminine allure.” By 1911 doctors had recorded 193 Lysol poisonings and five deaths from uterine irrigation. Read more about the hazards of women’s health care 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
“Spinning” is the title of a short story in progress, about Bartlett Yarns, the last commercially operated spinning mule in the United States. Located in Harmony, Maine, the mill was established in 1821, then burned down and was rebuilt in the early 1920s. Today it is committed to sustainable practices, including the use of organic products to wash, card, spin, and skein wool from local farmers. My story, inspired by an article about the company in one of my fiber art magazines, imagines the lives of three young women working at the mill roughly one hundred years apart: 1821, 1920, and present day. Read more about the mill and spinning mule in BEHIND THE STORY and learn about my other tales in SHORT STORIES.
During WWI, a prominent place for Navy recruitment posters was United Drugs (forerunner of Rexall). Here are two notable ones. See more posters in BEHIND THE STORY and read how they figure as an important plot element in On the Shore (NOVELS).
My short story “The Mask” is about the heyday of the silent film era (with an unusual twist, i.e., a stage actor with a terrible voice finds salvation in silents, unlike silent actors with bad voices who were later ruined by the talkies.) The early 1910s to late 1920s were an artistically and technically fruitful period, ushering in three point lighting; close-up, long shot, and panning shots; and advances in editing. Color was more prevalent in silent than sound films for decades, usually in the form of tinting (colorization) but also with real color processes such as Kinemacolor & Technicolor. Discover more interesting facts about popular culture and the arts in BEHIND THE STORY.
The 1911 Triangle Waist Company fire spread quickly, 18 minutes from start to finish. Flames were fueled by hundreds of pounds of cotton scraps, tissue paper patterns, and wooden work tables. Smoking was prohibited, but workers hid matches and cigarettes in wicker bins along with leftover material, a likely source of the fire. Smelling smoke, they turned on the hose valves but no water came out. Read about one survivor of the fire in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
Olive trees are gnarled and twisted, and often kept small to facilitate harvesting on the ground. The trees can live for hundreds of years but, depending on the variety, they don’t start to bear fruit until they are 3 to 12 years old. Yield depends on a tree’s size, age, variety, and growing conditions. Mature trees which have not been pruned can reach 40-60 feet in height and produce up to 800 kilos of olives while others only produce 50. Read more about olives and olive farming 100 years ago and today in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
In 1929 in San Diego, the 2,400-seat Fox Theatre opened during the heyday of the silver screen era, at a cost of $1.8 million (worth $25.5 million today). The theater, now called Copley Symphony Hall, is the home of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Discover more San Diego history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
Four actors who played Munchkins in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz held commemorative placards after receiving a star on the Walk of Fame in 2007 in front of Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater. From the left they are Meinhardt Raabe, Clarence Swensen, Jerry Maren, and Karl Stover. Jerry Maren, the last surviving Munchkin, died in June 2018. Read more about Meinhardt Raabe, the other Munchkins, and the making of the movie in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
The Commission on Industrial Relations (a.k.a. the Walsh Commission) was created by the U.S. Congress on 08/23/1912 to scrutinize labor laws. The final report, published in eleven volumes in 1916, contain tens of thousands of pages of testimony from a wide range of witnesses, including Clarence Darrow, Louis Brandeis, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, scores of workers, and industry titans such as Henry Ford, and Andrew Carnegie. Read more about labor laws over the last century in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
The gradual segregation of schools in Topeka began in the early 1900s, despite protests by Negro parents against the doctrine of “separate but equal.” The School Board did not rule for segregation outright but instead selectively closed schools, using housing boundaries. As the city thrived and the population grew, new schools with better facilities were constructed in white neighborhoods. Read more about race relations in Topeka 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
