Purchase
Reclaiming a Life through the Pages of a Lost Journal
Harper
April 2008
On Sale: April 8, 2008
Featuring: Florence Wolfson
336 pages
ISBN: 0061256773
EAN: 9780061256776
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Memoir
Rescued from a Dumpster on the Upper West Side of Manhattan,
a discarded diary brings to life the glamorous, forgotten
world of an extraordinary young woman. For more than half a century, the red leather diary lay
silent, languishing inside a steamer trunk, its worn cover
crumbling into little flakes. When a cleaning sweep of a New
York City apartment building brings this lost treasure to
light, both the diary and its owner are given a second life. Recovered by Lily Koppel, a young writer working at the New
York Times, the journal paints a vivid picture of 1930s New
York--horseback riding in Central Park, summer excursions to
the Catskills, and an obsession with a famous avant-garde
actress. From 1929 to 1934, not a single day's entry is skipped. Opening the tarnished brass lock, Koppel embarks on a
journey into the past, traveling to a New York in which
women of privilege meet for tea at Schrafft's, dance at the
Hotel Pennsylvania, and toast the night at El Morocco. As
she turns the diary's brittle pages, Koppel is captivated by
the headstrong young woman whose intimate thoughts and
emotions fill the pale blue lines. Who was this lovely
ingénue who adored the works of Baudelaire and Jane Austen,
who was sexually curious beyond her years, who traveled to
Rome, Paris, and London? Compelled by the hopes and heartaches captured in the pages,
Koppel sets out to find the diary's owner, her only clue the
inscription on the frontispiece--"This book belongs to . . .
Florence Wolfson." A chance phone call from a private
investigator leads Koppel to Florence, a ninety-year-old
woman living with her husband of sixty-seven years. Reunited
with her diary, Florence ventures back to the girl she once
was, rediscovering a lost self that burned with artistic fervor. Joining intimate interviews with original diary entries,
Koppel reveals the world of a New York teenager obsessed
with the state of her soul and her appearance, and muses on
the serendipitous chain of events that returned the lost
journal to its owner. Evocative and entrancing, The Red
Leather Diary re-creates the romance and glitter,
sophistication and promise, of 1930s New York, bringing to
life the true story of a precocious young woman who dared to
follow her dreams.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy