[Rarebooks] FS: New Hampshire woman's turn-of-the-century, five-year, handwritten diary

[Bob Petrilla]

Epps, Alice M. Dearborn Stevens. HANDWRITTEN 5-YEAR DIARY KEPT AT
FRANCESTOWN, NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900-1904: Comprising five annual diaries.
Original manuscript. Each of the 365 calendar pages in this "A Line A Day"
diary is divided into fifths to accommodate five years of entries. Written
in ink in a legible hand, Alice fits 8 to 10 lines of writing into each day
over the five-year span. At the end of the book are 10 pages of
"memoranda," similarly divided into five sections per page, where the
writer details local and family weddings, births, deaths (including
children, one of whom died from eating "parlor matches"), family landmarks,
etc. On the final leaf and inside the rear cover are handwritten recipes,
remedies, and household tips. Laid into the book are a pressed flower, news
clips, a hand-drawn blueprint of "The Elms," a two-page account of Baby
Franklin's achievements in his first few years of life, &c. Binding worn at
spine ends. 7.75" x 5" Good . Original Cloth.
The diary of Alice M. Dearborn Stevens Epps gives us a
close-up-and-personal view of a woman's daily life in small-town New
Hampshire at the turn of the 20th century. She includes all the minutiae of
daily feminine tasks, the pregnancy/childbirth and baby-rearing practices
of the time, daily dealings with (ubiquitous) family members and friends,
and short glimpses into the larger world of politics and the arts. There
are local doings that punctuate her days--Old Home Week, the Greenfield
Fair, Harvest Supper, graduation ceremonies, &c.--in addition to almost
daily social calls and frequent extended visits. There are also dramatic
happenings, including a catastrophic fire--apparently an act of arson--that
claims the writer's barn and part of her house, the disappearance of a
neighbor and the resulting search party, &c. We also follow husband
Bertram's daily goings and comings--at the sawmill, haying, planting apple
trees, selling apples, work at the sap house for maple syrup, buying and
selling horses, &c. Alice was a graduate of Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham,
Massachusetts, the first co-ed boarding school in the US. When we meet
Alice through her diary, she is a spinster living in Francestown, NH, &c.,
&c. [This diary, comprising a sort of turn-of-the-century New England soap
opera, will be accompanied by 6-1/2 pages of typewritten, single-spaced
reading notes,]   $350.00


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R & A  Petrilla, Booksellers   PO Box 306   Roosevelt, NJ 08555   (609)
426-4999