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Learn History Through Fiction: Sweating for Every Dollar

In the early 1900s, garment sweatshops on New York’s Lower East Side had no ventilation and poor lighting. Immigrant laborers worked 12-16 hours a day, 6 days a week. Weekly sweatshop wages were $6-10 for men; $4-5 for women, and less than $1 for children. Minimum age for workers was 14 years old, but this law was routinely violated. Read more about the Lower East Side at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: The Making of Gotham

New York City’s Central Park was the first landscaped city park in America. It opened to the public in 1858. The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883. The Statue of Liberty, across the East River, was dedicated in 1886. Not until twelve years later (1898) were the five boroughs — Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Kings (Brooklyn), and Richmond (Staten Island) — consolidated into one municipality. Read more about New York City history and the immigrants who were welcomed by the Statue of Liberty in On the Shore. To learn why NYC is called “Gotham” see BEHIND THE STORY.

The Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island, New York, New York, 1898. (Photo by Geo. P. Hall & Son/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images)

Learn History Through Fiction: The First Penicillin Factory in the World

Researching my novel-in-progress, One Person’s Loss, set during World War Two in New York City, I learned that the first penicillin factory in the world was opened by Charles Pfizer and Company in Brooklyn in 1943. The factory made 90 percent of the antibiotics carried by Allied forces on D-Day. Are you curious about what else was manufactured in New York City to support the war effort? See BEHIND THE STORY.

What I’m Reading: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

My Amazon review of Sing, Unburied, Sing (Rated 4): A Presence in the Hole of Absence – Jesmyn Ward mesmerizes readers with a haunting story about a black boy whose mother’s love for his white father, and for drugs, leaves no room for him. The novel is rich with the details of poverty and race in the Mississippi Delta, yet universal in its pain and compassion. Fortunately for JoJo, his grandparents sustain him through Leonie’s emotional and physical absence. This is the book’s reality. The book also veers into magic realism, as foreshadowed by the title. While I’m not a fan of this device, it works here … until it doesn’t, and the “undead” overwhelm the living heart of the story. Moreover, JoJo’s baby sister, who ultimately unites the two worlds, is too weakly and repetitively drawn to bear the burden. The book is rewarding, but reviews led me to expect more.

Learn History Through Fiction: A Flu Pandemic More Deadly Than WWI

In the 1918-1920 Spanish flu epidemic, there were 50-130 million deaths; 500 million people were infected (one-third of the world’s population), 10-20% of whom died. Of U.S. soldier deaths in Europe in WWI, over half (43,000) were killed by the Spanish flu rather than by enemy fire. Read more about the 1918-1920 Spanish flu epidemic and WWI in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Book Review Accepted by Wilderness House Literary Review

I’m pleased to announce that “A Poli-Sci-Fi Whiff of Skullduggery,” my review of the satirical novel Mr. Neutron by Joe Ponepinto (7.13 Books, March 2018) has been accepted by Wilderness House Literary Review for publication in its Spring 2018 issue. Check out WHLR’s stories, poems, articles, and art work at http://www.whlreview.com/. And if you need a reason to laugh in the current political climate, read Mr. Neutron when it comes out this spring.

Learn History Through Fiction: U.S. Immigration a Century Ago

Following a wave of xenophobia, the U.S. began to restrict immigration in 1917. The annual rate peaked in 1921 (800,000) until the Immigration Act that year limited new arrivals to 3% of the country of origin’s population. After that, the annual rate swung widely. It fell during the 1922 Depression (300,000), rose in 1923 (500,000), and again in 1924 (700,000), until the 1924 Immigration Act, which favored northern Europe, imposed severe restrictions on central, southern, and eastern Europeans (mainly Jews and Catholics). As a result, immigration dropped once more in 1925 (300,000), until the limits were relaxed in 1929. Read more about the immigrants who made it to America at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

What I’m Reading: Just Kids by Patti Smith

My Amazon review of Just Kids (Rated 5): Exhilarating and Heartbreaking – Patti Smith’s dual portrait of the twining and twinning between herself and Robert Maplethorpe is at once exhilarating and heartbreaking. Exhilarating because of its energetic insights into how creative ideas take material form; heartbreaking because one laments the talented artists who remain unsung and, in this story, those whose songs the AIDS epidemic silenced too soon. Smith has written a treatise on art and love, how soul mates spur each other’s creativity and caring. She paints a detailed portrait of an era, late 1960s and 1970s NYC, years of grunge and glitter, and the germination of hybrid art forms. Readers will emerge with an understanding of the importance of belief in oneself and in those we love to develop and share their talent, and to achieve the recognition we and they are worthy of. So shed a tear for Robert’s death, then pick up a brush, pen, or microphone like Patti.

Learn History Through Fiction: Escape to Walhalla Hall

In the early 1900s, New York City’s Walhalla Hall, in the Lower East Side’s 10th ward, was the community’s main civic center and the site of weddings, dances, and union meetings. Residents of this teeming, destitute neighborhood, were glad to escape from daily poverty into the hall’s ornate interior for a few hours of animated talk, diverting entertainment, and lively company. Read more about the Lower East Side at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Take advantage of the paperback sale of On the Shore at Amazon this holiday season: Discounted price $3.96 (usually $14.99); also available on Kindle for $2.99. Support Vine Leaves Press, a small independent publisher. Purchase the book at: https://www.amazon.com/Shore-Ann-S-Epstein/dp/1925417328/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=jessbell-20&linkId=8928bf4e3b131ae3b26d33f37ceec101

Learn history through fiction: Broken Heart or Welcoming Kiss at Ellis Island?

Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island were asked 29 questions including the following: Are you a polygamist? Are you an anarchist? Were you ever in an almshouse? After their arduous journey, 2% of the arrivals were not admitted, for medical, moral, political, economic, or other reasons and were deported back to their country of origin, earning it the nickname “Heartbreak Island.” For those immigrants fortunate to be admitted, a wooden column outside the Registry where they met their relatives was called the Kissing Post. Read more about immigrants to America at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).