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.
“If we had behaved like humane and generous people instead of complacent, cowardly ones, millions of Jews lying in Hitler’s crowded graveyards would be alive and safe” (Freda Kirchwey, Editor-in-Chief, The Nation). History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
American Jews feared that if they urged the United States government to save more of their people during WW2, they would jeopardize their own already precarious place in society. History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Automobile pioneer Henry Ford blamed an international Jewish conspiracy for the world’s financial woes (as well as Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and making candy bars less tasty). He held Jews responsible for WW1 and WW2, both of which he opposed. Yet, Ford built the Willow Run bomber plant that made B-24s for the Allies. History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Prejudice against Jews was widespread among leading Americans, including aviation hero Charles Lindbergh. In 1941, after his notorious “Who are the war agitators?” speech, which echoed Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda and accused Jews of conspiring to force America into WW2, he was branded a Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite. History shows America failed to end the war sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Even though the U.S. let in more refugees during WW2 than any other sovereign nation, it set strict quotas. In the midst of the Depression, Americans feared they’d take already scarce jobs. History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those escaping Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to flee to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
The U.S. debated, but rejected, the idea of bombing Auschwitz, where a million people were put to death. Some worried a bomb would miss, since only one in five aerial bombs hit within five miles of its target. History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
The Wizard of Oz officially opened 83 years ago today, on August 25, 1939. MGM previewed the movie in Wisconsin two weeks earlier to test its popularity in the Midwest. Viewers were wowed by Technicolor, a film first. Still, production was marred by mishaps and it was a decade before MGM recouped its $3 million investment. Read more about the making of The Wizard of Oz and its “big” and “little” stars in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve., a fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner (see NOVELS).
A character in my novel-in-progress collects old issues of National Geographic. When I was growing up in the 1950s, the iconic yellow-and-oak-leaf-bordered magazine took pride of place alongside the World Book Encyclopedia and Reader’s Digest Condensed Books in the Bronx apartment of our aspirational working class family. The magazine began in 1888 as a scholarly journal sent to 165 members of the National Geographic Society. In 1905, under the direction of Society President Alexander Graham Bell, it shifted to what he called “dynamical pictures.” The Board of Managers censured Bell for making the magazine “unscientific” but its popularity took off. The border was introduced in 1910 as an early attempt at branding. Color photos appeared in the 1930s. Today National Geographic has 40 million subscribers.
Upton Sinclair, author of the 1905 novel The Jungle which exposed the horrors of the meat-packing industry, was inspired by his friendship with Mother Jones, namesake of the magazine founded in 1976. Born in 1837, Mary Harris Jones was jailed for organizing workers and spurred tens of thousands to join labor unions. Her famous war cry was, “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.” Read about an Italian immigrant women who works in a Chicago meat-packing plant in the early 1900s in the novel Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
Until the early 1900s, physicians practiced without degrees or regulations. Before science knew about germs, doctors moved between anatomy labs, medical wards, and operating rooms without washing their hands. As a result, women delivered by doctors were more likely to die of infection than those tended by midwives, who remained by each mother’s bedside. Read more about pregnancy and childbirth a century ago in the novel Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
