cacakerbamakhlukpolitik

My earliest memory is learning to read. I was three years old. One of my sisters was seven, and learning phonics in school. We were lying on the hardwood floor in the foyer of our drafty old house in western Pennsylvania, and she was reading Dr. Seuss books to me. I already knew the alphabet, but she explained all about how letters made sounds, and those sounds formed words. Eureka! A lightbulb went on over my head, just like in a Warner Brothers cartoon. I read my first book right there on the floor. I think it was Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop . Another early favorite was The Little Engine that Could ( I think I can, I think I can... ). I read everything I could get my hands on. There was no shortage of books in the house, but I'd read anything — cereal boxes, milk cartons, shampoo bottles. When I was eight, my older brother went to college, and he sent me a lot of books that were inappropriate for my age. I remember reading Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon when I was about ...

William Sharkofsky 1935-1947(?) After the Eiden family moved out of the Bechstein house, it was rented to a 49-year-old railroad engineer named William Sharkofsky. He was born on May 21, 1886 in Hamtramck, Michigan to Russian immigrants John Sharkofsky and Minnie Salmonkat Sharkofsky. He was employed by the Michigan Central Railroad around 1907. The 1910 Census noted that he worked as a fireman , which was the term once used for the engineers who controlled the fires in steam engines. He later rose to the position of conductor. Michigan Central Rail Road yard, circa 1940. William Sharkofsky was a conductor for MCRR when this photo was taken. ( Source ) William Sharkofsky and his second wife, Lillian Persian Ruggles Sharkofsky, lived in the Bechstein house from 1935 until at least 1941, when both of their names were still listed in the city directory. They moved out at some point before the Eidens sold the house in 1948. It’s not known whether they or other renters lived there ...

It all comes around to Jane Eyre, perhaps -- or to those lovely posters that I've been seeing in the train stations, of the beautiful young actress Mia Wasikowska as Jane, in the forthcoming movie. Prompting me to take a smart and lovely book off my shelf: Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres , by Ruth Brandon. Brandon writes eloquently about the embarrassments and discomforts of the governess life -- the loneliness of this particular state of upper servanthood, of being in the family but not of it, denied even the dow nstairs camaraderie and shared resentments of the servants' hall. The loneliness and the anger, expressed so passionately in Jane Eyre and lived by the real-life governesses, Mary Wollstonecraft, Anne Bronte, Claire Clairmont, and others. All of which, of course, takes place in the context of family life among the upper classes of a society where status and much of wealth was based upon the transfer of land, title and inheritance to an eldest so...

On Thursday, the auction house of Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury England will auction off a piece of romantic, nautical, a nd historic memorabilia (expected hammer price of up to £5,000 -- which sounds low to me). It's a 3" gold locket decorated with pearls and containing locks of hair purportedly belonging both to Admiral Nelson and Emma Hamilton, his future lover, made shortly after Nelson's illustrious victory over Napoleon's fleet at the Nile on August 1, 1798. Nelson's ship was severely destroyed during the battle and Nelson himself was injured during the fighting. He put into port in Naples where Sir William Hamilton was Britain's ambassador to the Court of the Two Sicilies. Hamilton's much younger, luscious wife Emma was a confidante of the queen. She had been corresponding with the admiral since 1793 when Nelson had come to Naples to request their military and financial aid: Napoleon had blockaded Toulouse and England was desperately in need of al...

 The "mill" that started it all  A few weeks ago, near the beginning of the the first of several posts dealing with the Eastburn-Jeanes Lime Kilns , I mentioned that I had found a little bit about the earlier history of the property. I'd like to take this chance now not only to share with you what I found, but also the process by which I found the information. I think it's a good example of what I think is one of the most enjoyable aspects of researching history -- uncovering interesting things that you didn't even know existed before you started digging. In this case, I only went looking for the previous owner of a property, and ended up finding a man who was an early leader in the area, and who even played a part in the establishment of Delaware and the United States. This particular journey began while I was looking into the history of the Eastburn-Jeanes Lime Kiln Historic District. Everywhere I looked, the history began with Abel Jeanes' purchase of the...

I found out some exciting news just this week. My lovely Uncle David, a charming and funny man, who passed away some twenty years ago, was a member of MI5 during World War II and his papers were released for public viewing at the UK Archives (although not online) a few years ago. I'd grown up hearing about how Uncle David did intelligence work--or something--during the war, but it wasn't a big deal in the family; probably partly because of English reticence about the war but also because he knew the information would be classified for sixty years. And a good spymaster knows how to keep a secret! He was stationed on Gibraltar, that British-owned rock hanging off the edge of Spain. Spain was officially neutral, but Franco's regime was sympathetic to Nazi Germany. Of great strategic importance as a gateway to the Mediterranean, Gibraltar was coveted by the Axis powers and Spanish intelligence worked closely with the Nazis. The whole place was a minefield of intelligence, co...

On January 19th, every year since 1949, a masked fan of Edgar Allan Poe has left three red roses and half a bottle of cognac on the literary great's grave. I'm a big Poe fan and remember reading The Raven and The Cask of Amontillado when I was in grade school truly being scared---but loving every minute of it. This year, I am sad to report, Poe's toaster failed to appear. According to tradition (and Wikipedia), the Poe toaster appeared in the early hours of the morning of January 19, a black-clad figure with a silver-tipped cane, presumed to be male. He would enter the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore. At the site of Poe's original grave, which is marked with a commemorative stone, he would raise a cognac toast and place three red roses on the grave marker in a special configuration, along with the unfinished bottle of Martell cognac. The roses were believed to represent Poe, his wife Virginia, and his mother-in-law Maria Clemm, all three of whom were or...

1897 • On March 30, Henry Eiden applied for a permit to build a 22-foot wide by 12-foot deep addition onto the rear of 195 Wabash. The actual measurements of the addition turned out to be (approximately) 21 feet wide by 13 deep. The result was a new 13' by 14' kitchen, a 4' by 7' pantry, and a 7' by 10' room that is now a bathroom, although it hasn't been determined whether that was the room's original purpose. The baseboard trim in this room matches that of the house's original four rooms, perhaps indicating that the entire house was renovated. After existing as a rental home for over twenty years, such a makeover was probably necessary. This Sanborn map from 1897 shows the addition made to the house. Also shown on the property is a two-story barn adjacent to the alley. Lena Eiden moved into 195 Wabash with her father, her husband, and their three children early enough that the address was listed as their residence in the 1897 city directory. It’s...

 The Aquila Derickson House  As one travels along Limestone Road just south of the Pike Creek Shopping Center, it's hard not to notice the large white house sitting above the road, looking down on the passing travellers as it has for more than 160 years. This is the Aquila Derickson House , and I happen to think it is one of the more beautiful houses in the area. It's not the oldest home that has been featured on this site, but it does have some unique features and associations that make it interesting nonetheless. It is also the most prominent house remaining that was associated with the Derickson family -- a well-known family in this part of Delaware for much of its first few hundred years. The property on which the house sits was owned, like much of the surrounding land, by John Ball early in the 18th Century. (Ball's home was the original section of the McKennan-Klair House , just down the road.) About mid-century this part of Ball's tract was sold to Charles Will...

Before I even attempt to discuss history, I’d like to thank Diane and the Hoydens for hosting me here today. I confess intense intimidation when it comes to these knowledgeable women. Seriously, I know next to nothing about history. I really don’t. I’m a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to history and what I know. I just seem to have this knack for picking up the flavor of a location or time period and making it sound like I know the history. Although my knowledge is fairly limited, I’ve a passion for history just like the Hoydens, and it’s wonderful to visit a blog where other history lovers reside. One of the things I love the most about history is the adventure of it all. By adventure, I mean flushing out new information when writing a book. Almost inevitably when I’m working on a book, I’ll write a line that has me thinking, hmm, better check this out so I don’t wind up with an anachronism in the story. Immediately, I’m off on a new adventure as I search for that tiny little bit o...

I love parties. The picture to the left is from New Years Eve this year, when I spent a lovely evening drinking champagne and watching fireworks with some of my closest friends. But in my writing lately, I've been consumed with a much more more lavish party nearly two hundred years in the past. On 15 June 1815 the Duchess of Richmond gave a ball at the house in the Rue de Blanchiserie that she had her husband had taken in Brussels. Among the guests were many officers in the Allied Army, gathered in Belgium preparing for battle against Napoleon Bonaparte, recently escaped from exile on Elba and restored to power in France. A number of the aristocratic British ex-patriates who had taken up residence in Brussels that spring were present as well. So were a gilded assortment of diplomats, along with Belgian royals and dignitaries. Of course the Duke of Wellington, commander of the Allied Army, was on the guest list for the ball. He was an old friend of the Duke and Duchess of Richmond, ...

On a TI GHT deadline this week finishing the first draft of the second League of Second Sons book, so I’m afraid the blog is getting short shrift today . . . Ripe for Pleasure is up for preorder o n Amazon now, so I thought I’d share a teaser. This scene takes place as my hero, Lord Leonidas, is trying to seduce his way into the home and bed of retired Courtesan, Viola Whedon . . . “So, in exchange for your continued protection, I’m to become your mistress?” Viola smiled in spite of her self. Lord Leonidas had certainly found an original way of framing his proposal. He’d launched into it mere moments after the runner had left them. Her savior shook his head, mad eyes dancing beneath long lashes. “No. In exchange for both continued physical protection, and my letting it be known in certain quarters that you are under such, you’ll become my lover.” “The term you choose makes no difference, my lord. The end result is the same.” “Oh, no, Mrs. Whedon. It’s not the sam...