Learn History Through Fiction: The First Sanitary Towels for Women

Part Two of On the Shore (see NOVELS) opens with Dev Levinson, age 12, getting her period for the first time. Researching the book’s era (1917-1925), I discovered that Lister’s Towels were the first feminine sanitary pads, manufactured in 1896 by Johnson & Johnson. Kotex was launched in 1920 by Kimberly-Clark to make use of leftover cellucotton (wood pulp fiber) from World War One bandages. Before commercial sanitary pads were available, women wore and washed rags, which is where the expression “on the rag” comes from. Read more in BEHIND THE STORY.

Learn History Through Fiction: Go (Not Whoa), Nellie

August 26 is Women’s Equality Day, celebrating passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 granting women the right to vote. Suffrage is an ongoing theme for the two generations of women in On the Shore, which ends in 1925. On January 5, 1925 Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming became the first female governor in the U.S. Read more about the role of women during this era in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: Incubator Babies on Display at Coney Island

The novel I’m writing now begins with an uncanny display described in my short story “Shoot the Chute” (Saranac Review, Fall 2017). From 1903 to the 1940s, premature babies in incubators were part of the carnival show at Coney Island, next to Violetta the Armless Legless Wonder, Princess WeeWee, and Ajax the Sword-Swallower. Entry cost a quarter and people flocked to see them. Read more about “Shoot the Shoot” in SHORT STORIES and about incubator babies (including the smallest one who lived) in BEHIND THE STORY.

Learn History Through Fiction: Midgets Helped Make Bombers in World War Two

While writing my novel A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (Alternative Book Press, 2018 in press), I discovered that Henry Ford employed midgets to work in the Willow Run (Michigan) B-24 Bomber Plant during the Second World War because they were small enough to crawl inside the wings and buck rivets from the inside. Midgets were paid less than full-size men but more than Rosie the Riveter. Read more about the book in NOVELS and about a “special doorknob” in BEHIND THE STORY.

What I’m Reading: Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (Rated 5): A Lumpily “Blended” Family – Ann Patchett writes a multi-layered story about a lumpily “blended” family, who inspire a book and movie about them, both with the same title as the author’s ingenious and complex tale. Moving effortlessly through time and seamlessly across characters, the book honestly portrays the frequent challenges and rarer benefits for the six children of two disrupted marriages. Patchett displays strong narrative skills, finding the humor in tragedy and vice versa.

Learn History Through Fiction: Prohibition – A Dry City and a Wet White House

Prohibition features in my story “Blood and Sand” (see STORIES) as well as in a coming-of-age scene in my novel On the Shore (see NOVELS). The Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition), banning the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor, became law in 1920, but many large cities and states were already dry by 1918. Bootlegging grew into a vast illegal empire. Corruption among enforcement agents (with bribes as high as $300,000 a month) was so prevalent that President Warren G. Harding complained about it in his 1922 State of the Union address. Yet Harding kept the White House well stocked with bootleg liquor. Read more about the days of Prohibition in BEHIND THE STORY.

What I’m Reading: A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass

My Amazon review of A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass (Rated 4): A Hidden Public Life – Julia Glass dives beneath the surface of a public figure — a well known author of illustrated children’s books who has died — to unearth the man’s formative influences. The story is told from three perspectives, a device that works well, although some narrators are more satisfying than others. In the end, Glass does not penetrate the life of the artist, which is perhaps her message, although as a reader (and writer and artist), I wished for more. At times, the long digressions into back story overwhelmed the present narrative. However, Glass makes us care about her three living protagonists, all of whom, rather than being left in the late artist’s wake, are ready to create their own futures.

Learn History Through Fiction: Chemical Warfare 100 Years Ago

Two of my NOVELS (On the Shore and A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve.) feature WW I veterans. While researching the books, I was horrified to read about the immediate and lasting effects of mustard gas. The gas is so named because its color and odor resemble mustard. It causes large blisters on the skin or lungs, which fill with yellow-brown liquid, and swells the eyelids, resulting in temporary blindness; The gas vaporizes easily, penetrating clothing even in areas not directly exposed. Mustard gas can also damage DNA and decrease the formation of red blood cells in bone marrow, causing aplastic anemia, the same condition caused by radiation poisoning. Read more about both books and the WW I characters affected in NOVELS. Learn more interesting history in BEHIND THE STORY.

What I’m Reading: Olive Kittridge by Elizabeth Strout

My Amazon review of Olive Kittridge by Elizabeth Strout (Rated 5): A thorny woman who will prick your heart – Elizabeth Strout laces together stories in a rough weave with great tensile strength. Told direct and slant, the interlocked tales introduce readers to Olive, her family and friends, and people she barely knows but whose lives she has touched for better or worse. What emerges is a large, difficult woman determined to live her small life, filled with passions and regrets, until the very end. (See my REFLECTIONS on excerpts from interviews with Elizabeth Stroud published in The New Yorker (posted 05/08/17) and The Writer Magazine (posted 08/14/17).

Learn History Through Fiction: The Deadly Radium Fad

Glow-in-the-dark watches worn by WW I soldiers in the trenches were the rage in the post-war years. U.S. Radium Corporation, a major defense contractor in Orange, NJ, marketed the luminous paint under the brand name “Undark. ” After the war, they hired 70 young women to paint watch dials for popular consumption. Although they knew the radium, the company told workers it was harmless. The women mixed glue, water, and powder made of radium and zinc oxide, then used camel hair brushes to apply paint onto the dial numbers. The brushes lost their shape after a few strokes so supervisors encouraged the women to point the tips with their lips or tongues to keep them sharp. After 3-5 years, the women began to suffer from anemia, bone fractures, and necrosis of the jaw. Known as the “radium girls” in lawsuits, many subsequently died. See “Undark” (winner of the Walter Sullivan Prize) in STORIES to learn more about this tragedy. Also check out BEHIND THE STORY for corollary information on this era.