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Description edit
For more than half a century, the red leather diary languished inside a steamer trunk. Rescued from a Dumpster on Manhattan's Upper West Side, it found its way to Lily Koppel, a young writer, who opened its tarnished brass lock and journeyed into an enthralling past. The diary painted a... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Florence Wolfson: Main Character. It is her diary began in 1929 that Lily Koppel finds.
- George Kinzler: Florence's first love.
- Filippo Canaletti Gaudenti da Sirolo: A count, poet, pilot, and medical student that fell in love with Florence in Italy.
- Eva Le Gallienne: Actress that Florence adores and a "Shadow Player"
- Frances: An Aunt of Florence's that lives in Massachusetts
- Evelyn Pober: A 19 year old student at Hunter. Very observant.
- Manny Lipman: A young man that Florence had met on the beach when she was 14. They had an on/off romance.
- Rebecca Wolfson: Florence's mother. She is a dress maker and owns her own shop.
- Natalie: Florence's traveling companion to Europe. They part ways in England.
- Delmore Schwartz: Marries Florence's friend Gertie. He is a member of Florence's salon.
- Charles Eric Gordon: A private investigator fascinated with the 1920s and 1930s. He helps Lily find Florence.
- Mackie Hurwitz: Nat's brother. They are fairly close in age.
- Marjorie Failes: British lover of Florence.
- Caryl Weissman: A friend from her Wadleigh days. A pretty blonde wtih alabaster white skin who was Florence's first model.
- Gertrude "Gertie" Buckman: A childhood friend of Florence's.
- Nathan "Nat" Hurwitz Howitt: Florence's husband.
- Kuciel Hurwitz: Nat's father. He is also a Rabbi and owner of the Spring Lake resort in the Catskill Mountains.
- Pearl Siegelstein: The first woman that Florence loved.
- Francis M. Howitt: Nat's brother and the first to change the last name from the Jewish Hurwitz to Howitt. He also owned the South Wind resort in the Catskills.
- Julian Sawyer: An open homosexual. A member of Florence's salon.
- John Berryman: A member of Florence's salon. he later wins a Pulitzer in poetry for Dream Songs.
- Hippocrates Apostle: A member of Florence's salon. He later becomes the leading translator of Aristotle.
- William Barrett: A Ph.D. that is a member of Florence's salon. he mentions her in a book he wrote titled Truants: Adventures Amon the Intellectuals.
- John Latouche: A member of Florence's salon and playwrite.
- Peter Anderton: An Australian doctor Florence met on the Georgic
- Walter: A member of Mussolini's elite troops. He fell in love with Florence and wanted her to marry him.
- Daniel Wolfson: Florence's father. A doctor.
- Irving Wolfson: Florence's younger brother.
- Joy Davidman: A classmate at Hunter that tried to remove Florence as editor of Echo. She married C.S. Lewis and the movie Shadowland is about their marriage.
Quotes edit
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“This will be your room,' announced Peggy, showing me into a large bedroom with two windows hung with filmy curtains billowing out, ushering in a warm breeze off the Hudson...It was everything Virginia Woolf had ordered in 'A Room of One's Own,' for the young woman writer. The lavender walls gave it a Bloomsbury charm.”
Lily Koppel -
“referring to a shopping trip to Bergdorf's-"on the top floor,the Writing Room,for women patrons only,was outfitted with graceful secretaries holding engraved stationery to meet the most exacting requests of the shopper who needed to post a letter or jot down a thought."”
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“Florence had a passion for books.When she saw the book she was seeking,she would recognize it,as if the volume had belonged to her in a previous life.”
Florence's escapes to a bookseller -
“She was supposed to be a good daughter.Her mission in life was to get married and repay her parents for their suffering.”
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“She evokes another age, Far removed from our restless today,a time when Leonardo lay for hours watching a tiny flower unfold,when living itself was a fine art.”
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“I think I respect him more than anyone else in the world - and what does it mean?”
Florence Wolfson Howitt -
“Where did all of that creativity go? If I was true to myself, would I have ended up living this ordinary life?”
Florence Wolfson Howitt -
“Well, I'm happy to hear you say that, because i don't feeling like a heroine in my own life. But I have to tell you, I've come to terms with myself, and I'm much happier now that I was a few years ago when I wasn't very true to myself. I had a country-club mentality, I really did, and I'm through with that now. I am what I am, who I am, what I was when i wrote this.”
Florence Wolfson Howitt
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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“Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn,” quoted Florence. “Socrates.”
Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers -
When she saw Frances, she hugged and kissed her, letting out her need for affection. Florence never remembered Mother or Father kissing her.
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The People, a play by Susan Glaspell. “We are living now. We shall not live long. No one should tell us we shall live again. This is our little while. This is our chance.”
Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers -
Am on the lookout for a really satisfied person—and so far I’ve discovered that happiness is an alien blessing to those who are true to themselves.
Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers -
Serena Blandish; or, The Difficulty of Getting Married by A Lady of Quality, which Florence had read.
Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers -
They meditated on Socrates’s famous line, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
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mind revolving around one thought: What makes a person great? What makes a life significant?
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Florence’s colleague on Echo, Joy Davidman, went on to marry C. S. Lewis after a troubled first marriage to William Lindsay Gresham, author of the noir Nightmare Alley. Joy’s marriage to Lewis, shortly before her death, was the basis of the film
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers -
her to the book Against the Grain, the ultimate example of decadent literature, and possibly an inspiration for Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray, about
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers -
Am reading the life of Mozart and cannot help thinking that one’s capacity for suffering is in direct proportion to one’s greatness.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
- Pompano Beach: Where Florence resides in the winter - snow bird.
- New York City: The story takes place in this city.
- Europe: Florence travels there when she is 19.
- Manhattan: Part of New York City where Florence lives.
- Central Park: Area of New York City where Florence loves to spend her time.
- London, England: First European city that Florence visits.
- Rome: A city in Europe that Florence visits and meets Fillipe.
- Spring Lake: A Catskills resort that Nat's father owned.
First Sentence edit
Once upon a time the diary had a tiny key.
Table of Contents edit
Foreward
Chapter 1
The Discovery
Chapter 2
The Diary
Chapter 3
Modern Mercury
Chapter 4
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman
Chapter 5
The Lavender Remington
Chapter 6
The American Dream
Chapter 7
The Snakeskin Coat
Chapter 8
Eva Le Gallienne
Chapter 9
My First Love Affair
Chapter 10
Spring Lake
Chapter 11
Pearl
Chapter 12
M
Chapter 13
Evelyn
Chapter 14
The Circus
Chapter 15
The Salon of Florence Wolfson
Chapter 16
The Italian Count
Chapter 17
Private Eye
Chapter 18
Speak, Memory
Acknowledgments
Authors & Contributors edit
- Lily Koppel (Author)
Other Contributors:
- Florence Wolfson Howitt - "The Red Leather Diary" was based on her Howitt's lost diary found by Koppel.
First Edition edit
Original Language: Add the language.
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: Add the publication date.
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: Add the publication date.
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 352
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: CT 275 .H65675 A3 2008
- Dewey: 974.71043092
Subjects edit
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