Two's Company (1951)

Two's Company

Betty Cavanna, il. Edward J. Smith

1951, The Westminster Press

Along the flat, straight road to Williamsburg the slender branches of Scotch broom were strung with flowers, but Claire Farrell, driving her new convertible slightly faster than the speed limit, saw only a blur of yellow.

18-year-old New Yorker Claire Farrell chases her winter boyfriend, actor Whit Bowden, south for the summer. He's appearing in a summer theatre near Williamsburg, and Claire has hastily invited herself to stay with her grandparents, who live in the town. Also living in their old Virginia home is summer boarder Philip Young, an architect working on the restoration, who Claire understandably dislikes from the moment he virtually carjacks her on the road to town. Over the course of the summer, Claire learns to slow down and appreciate more than her beautiful boyfriend.

Claire, a headstrong and somewhat bullying personality, isn't exactly appealing, but her struggles make her sympathetic. Her patrician old grandfather's opinion puts the reader firmly on her side.

"She's selfish," Claire's grandfather's heavy voice boomed. "Takes after me, takes after Gregory. The Farrells are all selfish. They want what they want when they want it. But it isn't becoming in a woman. She ought to be taught."

The other women in the book are, basically, women who have learned to appear unselfish. Grandmother, after a lifetime in Virginia, still retires to her bedroom to nap with a hanky over her face when it's hot - selfish, posing as delicate. Aunt Rosemary is sweet and quiet and retiring - and manages to attract and land a famous, wealthy movie director by book's end. Lida Belle, the Southern vixen and rival for Whit's affections, purrs like a kitten and bravely - if pointlessly - neglects to ask for assistance when she's hurt in a car accident.

Claire's a very strong, real character, unlike most of the others in the book, who tend to serve only as tests for the heroine. Claire draws enormous strength from her surroundings - her smart convertible, her good clothes, her own physical beauty - and is deflated when deprived of any of them. She consciously carries her own story around with her - Sophisticated New Yorker - and is very unhappy when anything disturbs her sense of that story. She's very realistic, if not always very pleasant.

But to chug out the Jamestown Road in Philip's decrepit automobile destroyed something of the effect she had planned. She couldn't conjure up the feeling which usually sustained her - that she was a sophisicated young New Yorker down here on holiday. For all anyone could tell she might be just another Williamsburg girl out with her beau. The convertible had been desirable. Without it, Claire felt uncomfortable and even chagrined.

As usual, Cavanna's sense of place is strong. She paints a vivid portrait of a southern summer before air-conditioning:

All over the house blinds were drawn against the heat, which nevertheless lay like a blanket over each and every room, smothering the house as it did the town.

And she evokes a sense of the old Colonial village at the heart of Williamsburg, an atmosphere of brick sidewalks shaded by old trees that lies at the heart of many East Coast towns and cities.

Pulling the car off the road to a stretch of grass which bordered the worn brick sidewalk, Claire parked close to the gnarled paper mulberry which was one of her earliest recollections of Williamsburg. The mimosa and the paper mulberry - these two - spelled the house off Prince George Street to her. They had always stood sentinel in her mind to a quaint, out-of-this-world existence which brushed her life only briefly at irregular intervals.

Anachronisms

Apart from the gender issues and pre-central air era mentioned above, there is a black maid/cook given the standard servant treatment, and a fairly scary car accident in which it is all too obvious that this is an era before seat belts.

Claire realized that her head had hit the windshield with a thud, but for the first few instants she was too dazed to feel anything but relief that none of the three of them had been thrown completely out.

Links

William & Mary Lake Matoaka Amphitheatr

Colonial Williamsburg

Sorority Girl

Sorority Girl
Anne Emery
1952, The Westminster Press

She had always been aware of the Nightingales. The Nightingales and the Amigas were two highly exclusive girls' organizations whose membership comprised about ten per cent of the girls in the school, by special and coveted invitation. The "best girls" belonged to one or the other, the girls with the pretty complexions, the smart clothes, the lovely hair - the successfully glamorous girls who dated the outstanding boys. Jean had always been aware of them, with the resentment of the outsider toward the clique, mixed with a kind of helpless envy.

Jean Burnaby is a junior in Sherwood High School now, and determined to make a mark. She starts the school year intending to 'have lots of activities, make many new friends and gain recognition for achievement.' Instead, she loses herself in a sorority. At Sherwood, secret societies are banned - but the Nightingales and the Amigas fly under the radar by posing as charitable organizations. Of course, they are anything but - they're exclusive private clubs that exist for the joy of separating the sheep from the goats. Jean soon discovers that the privilege of being a sheep and included in the realm of the popular girls comes at a price - she's shunned from other organizations, loses a class election, and is treated with wary dislike by her fellow classmates. Isolated from non-sorority members, she finds the Nightingales increasingly annoying as well. And the boy she truly likes, Jeff, isn't a member of the corresponding fraternity. But to be in this group is to be branded "the best" and how can she give that up?

Another tale of a sensible girl having her head turned by sudden popularity, and the price of that popularity. Interestingly, although there are a few things Jean dislikes about the sorority - the girls will drink beer, their parties can be a little too much for her, their casual dismissal of others - the book doesn't really make a case that the sorority sisters are themselves bad or behaving very badly, but that the sorority system is simply flawed. Over the course of the year, Jean just becomes too uncomfortable with the calculated hypocrisy of a service organization ostrasizing people, and the level of artifice.

The writing is very strong, with excellent descriptions, powerful characters and sense of place.

Before the hall mirror she brushed her hair again and arranged her lipstick with critical fingers. She found her notebook and pencil and pen, looked down at her plaid gingham dres, wishing it were cool enough to wear a new fall outfit, and let herself out the big front door.

Jean makes a heroine who's appealing and yet realistically somewhat unlikeable at times.

Other

I didn't realize there were high school frats and sororities, but apparently...

Wiki

Available New
Image Cascade

Author Bio
1907-1987
Anne Eleanor McGuigan was the eldest of five children with a father who was a professor. She graduated from Northwestern University in 1928, spent a year travellign with her family, and then began teaching. She married John Emery in 1933, and had five children. The Illinois town of Evanston appears to be the model for Sherwood; she lived in Evanston most of her life.

Other Books

About the Burnabys
Senior Year - about Sally
Going Steady - about Sally
High Note, Low Note
Campus Melody

Dinny Gordon Series:
Dinny Gordon, Freshman
Dinny Gordon, Sophomore
Dinny Gordon, Junior
Dinny Gordon, Senior

Jane Ellison 4-H
County Fair
Hickory Hill
Sweet Sixteen

Pat Marlowe
First Love True Love
First Orchid for Pat
First Love Farewell

Sue Morgan
The Popular Crowd
The Losing Game

Other Books
Scarlet Royal
Vagabond Summer
That Archer Girl
Married on Wednesday
A Dream to Touch
Tradition
Bright Horizons
Mountain Laurel
Jennie Lee, Patriot
American Friend: Herbert Hoover
Mystery of the Opal Ring
Danger in a Smiling Mask
Carey's Fortune
The Sky Is Falling
Free Not to Love
Stepfamily

Spy books
A Spy in Old Philadelphia
A Spy in Old Detroit
A Spy in Old New Orleans
A Spy in Old West Point

Winter's Answer

Winter's Answer
Lucile McDonald and Zola H. Ross
1961, Thomas Nelson and Sons

"You're so poised, so sure of yourself," one of her sorority sisters had told her admiringly.

Would-be journalist Kit Langford is confident and ambitious, but her first taste of failure hits her badly when she transfers from a small college to a larger one and her writing and managerial talents aren't instantly recognized. Angry and humiliated, Kit takes comfort in winning a short internship at a New York magazine over the Christmas break, vowing to win a job there and never return to college. When that plan fails horribly, Kit runs again, joining her cousin Diane on a trip to Florida, where Diane is to rejoin her new husband, Jack.

But things don't go as planned in Florida either. Jack is in a coma after a car accident. Diane, frantic, spends every moment at his bedside while Kit hunts for a job to support them and the elderly boat Jack had bought as a re-sale project and temporary home. Kit is rejected over and over, first from the newspaper jobs she covets and then, lacking experience, even from menial labor positions. Desperate, she becomes the world's least apt waitress as a greasy spoon, on her feet from 7 AM to 1PM every day.

Kit grinned. She had left Northern expecting to conquer the world. Now she was afraid she could not even keep a menial job.

A depressed Kit bounces back quickly with attention from Paul, the handsome rich boy on the next boat over, and his low-key pal Red. She also finds satisfaction in refitting the Matilda, scrubbing, refurbishing and decorating the old boat in hopes of finding a buyer.

The book lacks a strong sense of place; Florida and New York both get the most cursory treatments, although New York fares slightly better. But the character of Kit is very strong and vivid. Her flaws are as compelling as her strengths, and she's a very appealingly resourceful protagonist, navigating her way around a strange place and reluctantly taking charge of the practical problems of Jack's illness. Her youthful encounter with reality is as painfully realistic today, in essence, though the details have changed (she limits her newspaper search to the women's page, after all). And in some ways, she's more realistic than a modern heroine would likely be - her worries about her clothes and their suitability would not occur to most modern YA heroines - yet is realistic. And yes, there is some clothing porn here:

The two-piece shantung ensemble was a gay print of blurred rose. It was perfect with Kit's dark hair and gray eyes. She could see herself marching confidently into a newspaper office. Wearing the jacket, she would look business-like; on removing it,she had a dine-and-dance dress

Paul's discomfort with working sounds odd, and the near-universal dismissal of Kit's efforts with the boat seem harsh. Red distinguishes himself (and feeds my old theory about boys named Red in fiction) by being the only one who mentions that it was pretty lucky for Diane that Kit came to Florida, and by admiring her work on the Matilda.

She thought back to the moment when she had dressed for her first day at Young Modern. Her confidence of two weeks ago was gone. It had been peeled from her by the failure of her New York dream, the shock of Jack's accident, Mr. Forbes' attitude, the rejection by the employment agency, the realization of her own shortcomings.

Kit loses her boundless confidence and discovers how hard it is to even just earn a living, let alone succeed. It's implied that this will make her a better person and more successful, that a knowledge of her own flaws will strengthen her for the career ahead. I have my doubts. True, Paul's example is convincing - a well-off boy who's never had to struggle and doesn't accept that he ever should have to work hard - but there's such a thing as having the confidence dented, not knocked back a few steps. Kit's so arrogant at the start that she can stand some knocks; others might have folded tents and been destroyed by what only serves to strengthen her. While the moral to this story might be similar to a fairy tale - be humble and work hard - I take from it that it's all luck. The right temperament in the right place at the right time...

About the Authors
Helen Girdey Ross aka Zola H. Ross
1912-
Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Washington 1948-1955
Teacher in Kirkland, Washington
Pseudonyms included Z.H. Ross, Helen Arre, and Bert Lles

Lucile Saunders McDonald
1898-1992
Graduated from the University of Oregon in 1923
Freelance journalist who worked for the Seattle Times Magazine
Lived in Washington State most of her life, and was very interested in its history
Wrote or co-wrote nearly 30 books

Zola Ross and Lucile McDonald wrote several juvenile novels, including
The Mystery of Catesby Island (1950)
Stormy year (1952)
Friday's Child (1954)
Mystery of the Long House (1956)
Pigtail Pioneer (1956)
Wing Harbor (1957)
The Courting of Ann Maria (1958)
Assignment in Ankar (1959)
The Sunken Forest (1968)
For Glory and the King (1969)

Links
Obituary for Lucile Saunders McDonald
University of Washing Special Collections - Lucile Saunders McDonald

Designed By Suzanne (1968)

Designed By Suzanne
Kathleen Robinson, il. Evaline Ness (jacket)
1968, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Inc.

Personality clothes. Would you like to have some especially designed for YOU? Expertly made to fit YOU? Satisfaction guaranteed.

St. Louis high school senior Suzanne Bishop dreams of attending fashion school in New York City and, in a moment of boldness, decides to place the above ad, hoping to start her chosen career and earn money toward school at the same time. She's disappointed when the local matrons hire her only to design clothes for their children, but finds she has a knack for handling kids. As she struggles to cope with the extra work and her sister's wedding plans, her comfortable long-time relationship with Barry Castleton suffers, and she's attracted to the wealthy New Yorker who's acting as best man to her maid of honor.

Well-written and engrossing. Suzanne's an appealing heroine, and although her decisions at the book's end seem surprising, it's consistent with her character. Other characters are less well-defined; Barry feels like a generic steady boyfriend, rich boy Ralph seems to exist mostly as a plot device, rival Desiree is a series of flirtatious tics, and only Suzanne's elder sister, Louise comes across as a real person.

There are several unusual features. First, although the action apparently begins only halfway through Suzanne's final year of high school, and ends before the fall, there are no actual school scenes. Friends, outings, etc., yes, but no mention made of Suzanne attending classes. Barry is apparently a graduate working at an architectural firm, and mention is made of Suzanne being rather mature and sophisticated for her age due to her chic grandmother, but it seems strange. As does the chic grandmother's current whereabouts - it's never made clear if she's deceased or simply living in another state.

Vanished Worlds
The Bishop home and furnishings are described by some characters, including Suzanne sometimes, as old-fashioned and antique - and undesirable.

Other Books
When Debbie Dared
When Sara Smiled
Manon's Daughter: The Love Story Of An Outcast In Early St. Louis

About the Illustrator
(1911-1986) Ness won a Caldecott Medal in 1967 for Sam, Bangs And Moonshine. She was married to Elliot Ness, the Treasury agent made famous as the head of Chicago's 'Untouchables,' from 1938-1946.

Julie With Wings (Laura Kerr, 1960)

Laura Kerr, il. Stan Campbell (cover)
1960, Funk & Wagnalls Company

"I love flying," she began, "and looking down on the world below all spread out like a beautiful, animated map. Somehow up there I have such a feeling of strength - strength and humility all in one. It's unbelievably thrilling to me that men can fly like birds."

Julie Jordan graduates from State University and enters stewardess school for Nationwide Airlines. Her parents aren't thrilled, particularly after she turns down a marriage proposal from lifelong boyfriend, Tug Simpson.

"Tug - Tug-" Julie chose her words carefully, stringing them together slowly. "You don't understand. I'm not ready to be a wife and mother. I've only begun to live! When I was a child, Tug, I used to sit on the porch of our cottage on Lake Michigan, watching the full moon rise over the water. Even then I wished I might follow its silver path on and on beyond the horizon. What was there, far from the city in which I was born? Were there mountains and valleys, mansions or hovels? What sort of people lived in them? What did they think about? Tug, there's a whole world for me to discover before I marry..."

Tug throws a fit and stalks out, but Julie's grief over the end of their relationship is tempered by excitement when she begins to travel. First to Arizona for 'stew school,' then to Los Angeles for her first posting and her exciting first year working as a stewardess. She and fellow stewardess Jane Ferris room together and spend their spare time exploring the western United States, from San Diego to Hawaii. In Waikiki, she's romanced by handsome U.S. Marine Brad Minton, but when he proposes to her in the romantic beauty of the islands, she hesitates and realizes she's still not over Tug.

A very well-written book with interesting characters and enjoyable action, far above the standard of many young adult series and career romances. Julie's an appealing heroine, and quite strong, even in decisions the reader may dislike.

Vanished Worlds - and not so much, sadly

When Julie tells her parents that she and Tug have quarreled, she says it was her fault. This is less likely today, given that his attitude that she owes him a marriage at 21 is completely out of date. Her father's reaction, however, still unfortunately rings true:

"Your fault? In what way, Julie?" asked her father impatiently. "Tug isn't a child anymore, you know. It isn't kind to play games with his affections."

What is it with men that so many of them will automatically feel the brotherly love even when the female side of the equation is their daughter, sister, wife or mother? I've had the same 'don't hurt the boy' stuff from male relatives, and I find it creepy.

Other Books by Author
Doctor Elizabeth (1946)
The Girl Who Ran For President (1947)
Lady In The Pulpit (1951) (bio of Antoinette Brown Blackwell)
Scarf Dance: The Story of Cecile Chaminade (1953)
Footlights To Fame: The Life Of Fanny Kemble (1962)
Louisa: The Life of Mrs. John Quincy Adams (1964)
Wonder Of His World: Charles Wilson Peale (1968)

About the Author
1904-
Laura Nowak Kerr was from Chicago, and the author of several biographies and books for teens.

Young And Fair

Rosamund du Jardin
1963, J.B. Lippincott Company

Chicago, 1883: 16-year-old Lissa Powell, newly orphaned when her adoptive mother dies, finds a job at high-end department store Colby's. She finds new friends at her boarding house and at work, particulary the vivacious Effie Cunningham. But her biggest conquest is the handsome heir to the store, Greg.

Lissa's an appealing heroine, the setting interesting, the plot is predictable but agreeable. But somehow, there's something missing. There's an abruptness to the conclusion which could be due to the author's death - it was published posthumously, so perhaps there was a missing connection. She makes a good effort to bring a sense of late 19th century America to the book, and succeeds. And there is clothing talk.

Lissa lost no time in changing from her best dress into a white shirtwaist and blue cotton skirt.

But I think the writing is just about adequate. There's no spark, no sparkle to the lines, and no quickness or depth to the action. It moves dully.

She was looking for a room to rent and this familiar neighborhood was as good a place to start as any. In such a shabby, run-down area she should be able to find something cheap.

And there are such hackneyed character descriptions:

... tears filled her greenish-hazel eyes despite her effort to stop them, and the elfin triangular face beneath the curly brown fringe of bangs grew sad.

Websites
Fan website
The Malt Shop - du Jardin page
Image Cascade Books (publishers)
About the Author
7/22/1902-3/27/1963
Rosamond Neal was born in Fairland, Illinois. An early job was in a Chicago department store, Charles A. Stevens & Company. As a freelance writer, she published many stories in major women's magazines, including Red Book, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping. She also wrote radio scripts, and cowrote one book with her daughter, Judith Carol. There is a school, the Dujardin Elementary School, named after her in Bloomingdale, Illinois.

An old postcard of Charles A. Stevens & Company, which was clearly a model for Colby's in all its old-fashioned retail palace glory.

Other Books

Practically Seventeen
Class Ring
Boy Trouble
The Real Thing
Wait For Marcy
Marcy Catches Up
A Man For Marcy
Senior Prom
Double Date
Double Feature
Showboat Summer
Double Wedding
Wedding In The Family
One Of The Crowd

The Blue Castle

The Blue Castle
L.M. Montgomery
1926, McClelland and Stewart Limited

Valancy wakened early, in the lifeless, hopeless hour just preceding dawn. She had not slept very well. One does not sleep very well, sometimes, when one is twenty-nine on the morrow, and unmarried, in a community and connection where the unmarried are simply those who have failed to get a man.

Bullied and neglected by her extended family, Valancy Jane Stirling has grown to a miserable, shrinking womanhood, trapped between the conflicting demands of those around her. She listened to their admonitions to be proper, to be quiet, to be well-behaved and somehow all it's done is make her the family disappointment and old maid, ignored unles someone has a slighting remark to make, afraid of everything. Afraid of the one boy who tried to kiss her when she was sixteen. Afraid of being cut out of the will of a wealthy uncle. Afraid of her mother's endless icy silences. But in the privacy of Valancy's own thoughts, where her humor and soul have been hiding since childhood, she inhabits a wonderful fantasy world.

Valancy had two home - the ugly red brick box of a home on Elm Street, and the Blue Castle in Spain. Valancy had lived spiritually in the Blue Castle ever since she could remember... Always, when she shut her eyes, she could see it plainly, with its turrets and banners on the pine-clad mountain height, wrapped in its faint, blue loveliness, against the sunset skies of a fair and unknown land.

Back in cold, proper Deerwood, Valancy has always been plagued by ill health. But when Valancy, dullest and vaguest of old-before-her-time maids, goes to the doctor in secret about her sharpening chest pains, the results electrify her clan and her town.

For Valancy has been handed a death sentence. One year to live. And meek, frightened Valancy suddenly has nothing to lose, and nothing to fear. But her family does. Valancy doesn't tell her smothering, unloving family, who would make her final months as mindlessly painful as her previous 29 years, and they're confused when their humble victim suddenly becomes outspoken and fearless. And they're horrified when Valancy, so dull and proper, first moves into a disreputable household to care for a dying girl who'd been the subject of much gossip after bearing an illegitimate baby, and then marries local scoundrel Barney Snaith.

In that year, Valancy, for the first time in her life, is happy. She adores Barney's snug little cabin in the woods, the beauty of nature all around her a feast for her eyes after living in a cramped and ugly house. Barney makes a good companion, undemanding and comfortable to live with, asking only that Valancy respect his locked study. She agrees wholeheartedly, finding more than enough to do in simply being her own person for once - free to eat when she likes, swim all day in the summer, sleep late or go to bed late, etc.

Holmes speaks of grief 'staining backward' through the pages of life; but Valancy found her happiness had stained backward likewise and flooded with rose-colour her whole previous drab existence.

And then - disaster. Will Valancy and Barney's idyllic existence survive an utterly unexpected piece of news?

About the Author
1874-1942

Books by L.M. Montgomery
Anne Of Green Gables (1908)
Anne Of Avonlea (1909)
Anne Of The Island (1915)
Anne Of Windy Poplars
Anne's House Of Dreams (1917)
Anne Of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley (1919)
Rilla Of Ingleside (1921)
Chronicles Of Avonlea (1912)
Further Chronicles Of Avonlea (1920)
Emily Of New Moon (1923)
Emily Climbs (1925)
Emily's Quest (1927)
The Story Girl (1911)
The Golden Road (1913)
Pat Of Silver Bush (1932)
Mistress Pat (1935)
Kilmeny Of The Orchard (1910)
Magic For Marigold (1929)
A Tangled Web (1931)
Jane Of Lantern Hill (1937)

Anne of Green Gables websites
There are many websites and forums devoted to Anne and her creator. One clearinghouse of them is Tickled Orange

Montgomery's books star Prince Edward Island, which has responded gratefully to the tourism results. Prince Edward Island tourism site