If I Did It

ELLA C. KING: 1884 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT DIARY HANDWRITTEN BY A PENNSYLVANIA WOMAN WHO IS FALLING IN LOVE WITH DENVER, PITTSBURG PENNSYLVANIA DENVER COLORADO 1884 ; sig.
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On offer is an original, charmingly intimate, manuscript diary dated 1884 handwritten by Ella C. King from Pittsburg Pennsylvania but as the diary opens up on July 28th, 1884, we find Ella in Denver Colorado. While one would classify this as a travel diary in many ways it is more of an homage to the 'Mile-High City' as Ella is in love with the Rocky Mountains and on numerous occasions she mentions how she feels as though she might never visit this beautiful place again and becomes rather depressed at the thought. In fact at one point she is talking about how she is so in love with the mountains and says before she dies she will see them up close and follows that passage with ."If I only had one of the children and a horse of my own I would be so happy." In all she spends a little over 2 months in Denver. However while the 170 page narrative begins in the 5 ½" x 7 ½" notebook style journal a few days after her arrival later on the reader will realize this diary is very interesting on yet another level this being a sociological study: Ella is without her husband and children as she talks about them being back in Pittsburg. Why? Intriguing clues may make for an interesting research project into her motives. Here is an example in the last entry: "December 31st, The last day of the old year and I am all alone and in going over the past there is one little part I would clearly love to undo but as that is impossible it will be something for me to regret ..Good bye old year! I wonder where one year hence will find me." After her extended stay in Colorado, in the fall, she travels back home to Pittsburg. There she's a very busy socialite going to the opera, hospital fairs, democratic conventions, taking her children to dancing school and other social engagements. Historians and researchers of the era in Women's Studies will have an interesting time with Ms. King. The journal was kept in a beautiful marble covered journal which is now falling apart and needs some archival repair. Both the front and back covers have fallen off but are accounted for. But the inside pages are securely attached to the binding and it rather large for its size as diaries are concerned. Here are some snippets: 1884 "July 28th, Still very warm but breezy. I did little or nothing till morning. Indeed this is a very lazy life. In the afternoon I went to call on Mrs. Cinnamond, an aunt of Alex Morris. She is a widow and keeps boarders. In the evening Harry took us the loveliest drive and we saw the prettiest part of Denver. Beautiful residences and the sweetest cottages covered with vines. From Capital Hill we had a magnificent view of the mountains. They looked so grand and majestic with the snow on them and the sunlight too. Looked as though they were almost at our feet when they are more tan fifty miles away." "August 1st, I can write nothing but beautiful weather all the time. Jennie is something better, though very sick yet. Harry and I have been with her almost all day. The Dr. has prescribed pretty severe treatment and if carried out I know will prove very beneficial. The fever is broken and she feels better though she would rest tonight." "August 26th, Jennie has been more or less amused today watching young Stanchfield who is to be married this evening. I baked and was busy all morning. In the evening me and Mrs. Butler came and took me a lovely drive all over Denver. It looked so pretty with the electric lights all burning. We had the benefit of a sand blow coming up the hill. Mr. and Mrs. Yankee here in the evening." "August 7th, Jennie's birthday! I had just finished cleaning up the room when who should arrive but the Dr. He was perfectly furious at finding her in bed but she feels so weak and easily tired. She don't like to make an effort to get up. How ever she will have to rouse herself from this time but .Harry is putting up a tent for her to stay in during the day. Mrs. Kent here this afternoon killing herself over the Kennedy's having nothing to eat at the meeting." "September 1st, What a lovely day this will be at home. The children all getting ready for school with the first stroke of the bell they will be off. I am so glad they have all had such a nice summer. Letters will come telling us all about them. This is a big day here the exposition opens with a grand parade. All the neighbors have gone and we were congratulating ourselves that we wouldn't have any callers when Mrs. Jenkin's and Eva appeared ." "September 3rd, Still very warm. No change in the weather. Jennie wakened this morning with a very sore eye so painful she could not bear the light. It seemed too bad. She is getting stronger and able to go out. Harry took her a little ride this morning and it did her good. In the afternoon she with me and a guide took a little turn around the yard and sat in the tent for a few minutes .." "September 5th, Was more beautiful than yesterday. Jennie rested better last night than normal and got off without a chill but as soon as she was dressed and ready to go out the old chill came on and lasted until dinner time. In the afternoon we went out and sat in the tent and as usual had one visitor, Mrs. Kent Yankee and others. Jennie walked around several times and seemed very lively. A large drive of horses passed here today. Harry went to town and got some marketing and coming home finished the stable .." "September 18th, & 19th, Nothing in the world to write about. No one here. Jennie about the same ..A long letter from Maude with a full account of all their proceedings at home. That is all I have to look forward to, my letters." "September 22nd, Mrs. Kent called and gossiped for awhile. Made Jennie very angry repeating something she ought to have kept to herself " "September 23rd, Busy all day. Jennie rode over to the Dr.'s but as usual he was not there. Went to the occultist to see about her eye. Oh, these grand mountains! And I cannot see them only at a distance and I do not suppose I shall get to see them. This time but if I live and prosper, I am determined to see more of this beautiful country before I die. If I only had one of the children and a horse of my own I would be so happy." "September 25th, Little Jim's birthday, seven years old. I got up this morning and did a bathing before getting ready for the exposition and had to hurry like everything as I must be ready by twelve o'clock. I went out and Mrs. Stachfield was not quite ready so I came back and got a little lunch and then we started in Mrs. Stachfield's buggy. Stopped at the store for her husband and then proceeded on our way. I had ever such a nice time. The building is very good built of brick and much after the plan of the old Pittsburg building. The display of ore and minerals were very fine but unfortunately I did not understand them. The prettiest thing I saw was the representation of a ranch at Palmer Lake close to the foothills and the scenery was very natural and pretty. It being pioneer day there was a wedding of an old pair of _____ who wanted to make themselves very conspicuous The ball in the evening took the cake." "October 5th, I went to church and walked home with Mr. and Mrs. Mueller. They like myself are going back east. I hope to start the middle of the week. How I do long to see the children." "October 10th, A beautiful day. Mrs. Finney and I did up all the work and made our arrangements to go to town. We got all ready and waited on the "Herdic" but it came not, so we started and walked all the way to the Union Depot and from there to the "American House" where we dined and afterwards walked all over the principal streets going in any number of stores and made some few purchases and came home in the Herdic, very tired." "October 12th, Mrs. Finney wrote some letters and afterwards went with me for a drive. We drove to Wolff Lake where we sat in the buggy and watched the sun go down behind the Rocky Mountains. My last view. I ponder if I ever will see them again. When, where and with w...

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V.C. Andrews. April Shadows (Shadows). Pocket Star, 20050901
0743493869 Product Description <CENTER> <Font size="+1">APRIL HAD ALWAYS FELT LIKE AN OUTSIDER.</Font></CENTER> Her older sister Brenda was tall, athletic, competitive, and sure of herself. But April Taylor was short, sensitive, and overweight -- and she couldn't bounce back from their father's cutting criticisms the way Brenda did. April didn't know why their once-loving dad had become a coldhearted monster, but she was sure it had something to do with her. And she could see how his cruel behavior was tearing away at her gentle mother. But a glimmer of happiness returns when Brenda brings home her college roommate: beautiful, bewitching Celia. And April wonders if she might not be so different from Brenda after all.... Excerpt. ? Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. <Font size="+1">Prologue</Font> About six months or so after my thirteenth birthday, my daddy changed into a monster. It was truly as if he woke up one morning with someone else in his body. We didn't take note of the actual day, because we all thought he was just in a bad mood, and everyone, especially someone who worked as hard as he did, deserved the right to have what Mama calls "a bad hair day." If my sister, Brenda, had one or Mama had one, or even I had one, the best advice was to steer clear, nod, walk away, or change the subject. The only thing was, we couldn't do any of that to Daddy. He had a way of focusing his eyes like tiny laser beams, and he always demanded complete attention. He wasn't to be ignored, and attempting to change the subject with him was like trying to step out of a speeding automobile. Anyway, about this time, he stopped doing any fun things with us and started complaining daily about everything in sight. He never seemed to be able to get out of a bad mood or throw off this shroud of grouchiness. According to him, neither my older sister, Brenda, nor I could ever do anything right anymore, whether it was the way we made our beds, cleaned up our rooms, or helped Mama with her house chores. Mama started to call him Mr. Hyde from the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. No matter how she protested, it didn't seem to bother him, which disappointed and surprised my sister and me. Up until then, when Mama complained about something Daddy did, especially in relation to us, he softened. He would rather walk barefoot over hot coals than see her unhappy. She was always our savior, but now she was like a fairy godmother who had lost her powers and her wings. She fell back to earth to wallow in the real world with the two of us. "It's like water off a duck's back," she muttered when he turned abruptly away from her or just left the room after she had protested about something he had said or done. "I might as well have addressed the wall. He was never like this, never," she said, wagging her head like someone who wanted to shake out what she had heard and what she had seen. It became worse than that for her, however. Eventually, Mama cried a lot over Daddy's new ways and words when she thought we weren't looking. As a result of all this, the three of us changed. Brenda became Miss Angry Face, leaving her smile outside the front door whenever she came home from after-school activities, and I felt too numb and frightened most of the time, never knowing when Daddy would explode with another burst of complaints. That was the year Daddy started to criticize my weight, too. He looked at me with such displeasure in his eyes that I felt my insides twist, turn, and shrivel. I tried to turn away, but then came his words, which were like tiny knives poking at my heart. "Your face looks like a balloon about to explode. Maybe we'll have to have your mouth sewn shut for a month and feed you through a straw like someone with a broken jaw," he said, bringing the blood so quickly into my cheeks I'm sure I looked as if I had a high fever. It got so I was afraid to put my fork into anything on my plate. My hand actually shook, and my stomach tightened until I could barely breathe. A few times, I actually threw up everything I had eaten. Mama got very.

MM, Very Good

[SW: andrews, vc andrews, andrew neiderman, bad writing, contemporary, family saga, kindling, suspense,]

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Leonard, Elmore: Pagan Babies, HarperTorch January 8, 2002 ISBN: 0060008776
,,Father Terry Dunn doesn't have qualms about substituting punishment for penance. If that means killing four Hutu murderers who slaughtered his Tutsi congregation, so be it. Being an instrument of divine wrath has certain disadvantages, however, so Dunn breaks camp and heads for Detroit, where he's welcomed by family, a five-year-old federal indictment for tax fraud, and a fast-talking fireball named Debbie Dewey. Fresh from a stint in prison for assaulting her former fiance, Randy, with a Ford Escort, Debbie is out for revenge: "I still can't believe I fell for it. He tells me he's retired from Merrill Lynch, one of their top traders, and I believed him. Did I check? No, not till it was too late. But you know what did me in, besides the hair and the tan? Greed. He said if I had a savings account that wasn't doing much and would like to put it to work... He shows me his phony portfolio, stock worth millions, and like a dummy I said, 'Well, I've got fifty grand not doing too much.' I signed it over and that's the last I saw of my money." It's only a matter of time before Debbie's desire for cold, hard cash and Dunn's fundraising for Rwandan orphans join forces in a carefully plotted financial assault on Randy's benefactor, Tony Amilia, who just happens to be the last of the old-school Detroit Mafia. Throw in a couple of hit men to whom loyalty is a foreign word, and you've got vintage Leonard: a fast-paced, roller-coaster ride of a novel where deceiver and deceived are gloriously shifty signifiers. --Kelly Flynn

Condition;Good ,Paperback ,Father Terry Dunn doesn't have qualms about substituting punishment for penance. If that means killing four Hutu murderers who slaughtered his Tutsi congregation, so be it. Being an instrument of divine wrath has certain disadvantages, however, so Dunn breaks camp and heads for Detroit, where he's welcomed by family, a five-year-old federal indictment for tax fraud, and a fast-talking fireball named Debbie Dewey. Fresh from a stint in prison for assaulting her former fiance, Randy, with a Ford Escort, Debbie is out for revenge: "I still can't believe I fell for it. He tells me he's retired from Merrill Lynch, one of their top traders, and I believed him. Did I check? No, not till it was too late. But you know what did me in, besides the hair and the tan? Greed. He said if I had a savings account that wasn't doing much and would like to put it to work... He shows me his phony portfolio, stock worth millions, and like a dummy I said, 'Well, I've got fifty grand not doing too much.' I signed it over and that's the last I saw of my money." It's only a matter of time before Debbie's desire for cold, hard cash and Dunn's fundraising for Rwandan orphans join forces in a carefully plotted financial assault on Randy's benefactor, Tony Amilia, who just happens to be the last of the old-school Detroit Mafia. Throw in a couple of hit men to whom loyalty is a foreign word, and you've got vintage Leonard: a fast-paced, roller-coaster ride of a novel where deceiver and deceived are gloriously shifty signifiers. --Kelly Flynn

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Leonard, Elmore: Pagan Babies, HarperTorch January 8, 2002 ISBN: 0060008776
,,Father Terry Dunn doesn't have qualms about substituting punishment for penance. If that means killing four Hutu murderers who slaughtered his Tutsi congregation, so be it. Being an instrument of divine wrath has certain disadvantages, however, so Dunn breaks camp and heads for Detroit, where he's welcomed by family, a five-year-old federal indictment for tax fraud, and a fast-talking fireball named Debbie Dewey. Fresh from a stint in prison for assaulting her former fiance, Randy, with a Ford Escort, Debbie is out for revenge: "I still can't believe I fell for it. He tells me he's retired from Merrill Lynch, one of their top traders, and I believed him. Did I check? No, not till it was too late. But you know what did me in, besides the hair and the tan? Greed. He said if I had a savings account that wasn't doing much and would like to put it to work... He shows me his phony portfolio, stock worth millions, and like a dummy I said, 'Well, I've got fifty grand not doing too much.' I signed it over and that's the last I saw of my money." It's only a matter of time before Debbie's desire for cold, hard cash and Dunn's fundraising for Rwandan orphans join forces in a carefully plotted financial assault on Randy's benefactor, Tony Amilia, who just happens to be the last of the old-school Detroit Mafia. Throw in a couple of hit men to whom loyalty is a foreign word, and you've got vintage Leonard: a fast-paced, roller-coaster ride of a novel where deceiver and deceived are gloriously shifty signifiers. --Kelly Flynn

Condition;Like New ,Paperback ,Father Terry Dunn doesn't have qualms about substituting punishment for penance. If that means killing four Hutu murderers who slaughtered his Tutsi congregation, so be it. Being an instrument of divine wrath has certain disadvantages, however, so Dunn breaks camp and heads for Detroit, where he's welcomed by family, a five-year-old federal indictment for tax fraud, and a fast-talking fireball named Debbie Dewey. Fresh from a stint in prison for assaulting her former fiance, Randy, with a Ford Escort, Debbie is out for revenge: "I still can't believe I fell for it. He tells me he's retired from Merrill Lynch, one of their top traders, and I believed him. Did I check? No, not till it was too late. But you know what did me in, besides the hair and the tan? Greed. He said if I had a savings account that wasn't doing much and would like to put it to work... He shows me his phony portfolio, stock worth millions, and like a dummy I said, 'Well, I've got fifty grand not doing too much.' I signed it over and that's the last I saw of my money." It's only a matter of time before Debbie's desire for cold, hard cash and Dunn's fundraising for Rwandan orphans join forces in a carefully plotted financial assault on Randy's benefactor, Tony Amilia, who just happens to be the last of the old-school Detroit Mafia. Throw in a couple of hit men to whom loyalty is a foreign word, and you've got vintage Leonard: a fast-paced, roller-coaster ride of a novel where deceiver and deceived are gloriously shifty signifiers. --Kelly Flynn

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