No Ordinary Lives
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Watch a video about
No Ordinary Lives here.
No Ordinary Lives here.
Four 19th century teenage diaries
The diaries in this collection include the writings of four young people between
the ages of twelve and twenty—a boy growing up near a lake in Maine, a sea
captain’s daughter, a Shaker farm boy, and a daughter raised by a single mom.
What can we discover from these diaries? Readers may be surprised, for
example, by the technology available to Delmer Wilson in the Shaker community
in 1887. Because all these diaries were produced during the writers’
developmental years, teachers and young readers may find comments about
school and growing-up issues to be of some interest. Young readers will also
want to compare teenage life today with that of the past. Some teenage girls
of today may find that their pastimes don’t differ all that much from those of
Ethel Godfrey in 1894. And, like Augusta Skolfield, how many of us have gazed
up at a bright moon and thought about that same light shining on loved ones
far away? Readers will find the personalities themselves of great interest. Nat
Hawthorne, for example, can be seen to be a great wit and a fine storyteller as
a lad, if the diary presented here is authentic. Rich and varied, each of these
diaries contributes something different to young people’s understanding of our
American story.
These diaries are interesting because they allow us to eavesdrop on the lives
and times of those we can never know in any other way. Some of their lives
were exciting and fast paced—others quite ordinary. But even the driest
factual record can be poignant as it records the everyday stuff of a life. The
extraordinary may be hidden by the ordinary record. Stories may be hidden or
painful crises omitted. But there are no ordinary days. No ordinary lives.
Branden Publishing Company
www.brandenbooks.com
ISBN 0828321582
$14.95
the ages of twelve and twenty—a boy growing up near a lake in Maine, a sea
captain’s daughter, a Shaker farm boy, and a daughter raised by a single mom.
What can we discover from these diaries? Readers may be surprised, for
example, by the technology available to Delmer Wilson in the Shaker community
in 1887. Because all these diaries were produced during the writers’
developmental years, teachers and young readers may find comments about
school and growing-up issues to be of some interest. Young readers will also
want to compare teenage life today with that of the past. Some teenage girls
of today may find that their pastimes don’t differ all that much from those of
Ethel Godfrey in 1894. And, like Augusta Skolfield, how many of us have gazed
up at a bright moon and thought about that same light shining on loved ones
far away? Readers will find the personalities themselves of great interest. Nat
Hawthorne, for example, can be seen to be a great wit and a fine storyteller as
a lad, if the diary presented here is authentic. Rich and varied, each of these
diaries contributes something different to young people’s understanding of our
American story.
These diaries are interesting because they allow us to eavesdrop on the lives
and times of those we can never know in any other way. Some of their lives
were exciting and fast paced—others quite ordinary. But even the driest
factual record can be poignant as it records the everyday stuff of a life. The
extraordinary may be hidden by the ordinary record. Stories may be hidden or
painful crises omitted. But there are no ordinary days. No ordinary lives.
Branden Publishing Company
www.brandenbooks.com
ISBN 0828321582
$14.95
e-mail: mseguin@kent.edu tel: (330) 928-6907