Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
The Kansas State Capitol Building in Topeka is one of the largest in the U.S. The cornerstone was laid in 1866, and construction was completed 37 years later at cost of $3,200,588.92 ($83 million today). Materials include native Kansas wild cherry wood; marble from Belgium, Italy, France, and Tennessee; Mexican onyx; and local copper hammered by Italian artisans. The 1923 hand-operated elevator is one of the few still in use. Read more Topeka and Kansas history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
Men’s fashion, like women’s, responded to the Depression. Bright colors were replaced by plaids and tweeds in gray, brown, and dark green. Their somberness was partly countered by wide neckties in bold patterns such as stripes, polka dots, and geometric shapes. Male vanity still ruled. A style designed for the Prince of Wales, with padded shoulders and a nipped waist, was adopted by Hollywood stars such as Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, and Gary Cooper, and soon copied by the public. Read more about fashion trends in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
In the late 19th and early 20th century, U.S. laundry labor was heavily identified with Chinese Americans. Discrimination, lack of English, and lack of capital kept them out of other careers. Around 1900, one in four ethnic Chinese men in the U.S. worked in a laundry, typically 10-16 hours a day. Read more about Chinese laundry workers and anti-Chinese discrimination in the early 1900s in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
Adolf Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun (who became his wife less than two days before they committed suicide by cyanide) came from a respectable Bavarian Catholic family, daughter of a school teacher and traditional housewife. She met Hitler when she was 17 and he was 40, and described him to a friend as a “gentleman of a certain age with a funny moustache, light-colored English overcoat, and carrying a big felt hat.” When Braun became Hitler’s companion two years later, she kept up habits he criticized including smoking, sunbathing in the nude, and wearing makeup made of animal products (Hitler was a vegetarian). Disapproving Nazi party officials referred to her as “The Fuhrer’s Whore.” Braun pampered her two Scottish Terriers, named Negus and Stasi, who she featured in home movies. She was an avid photographer who did her own dark room processing, and took many of the pictures and films of Hitler that survived the war. Read more about Nazi Germany and Hitler’s inner circle in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
My Amazon and Goodreads review of Women Talking (Rating 5) – A Hymn to Women’s Wisdom. Women Talking, by Miriam Toew’s, is exactly what it’s title proclaims: Women debating how to respond to the drugging and sexual assaults perpetrated on them by the men in their closed Mennonite community. They argue about forgiveness and faith, fealty and friendship, and the very essence of femaleness. As women living in isolation they are understandably inward looking in how they process the horrific events perpetrated on them by men they have been raised to love, trust, and, of necessity, depend on. Yet the questions they ask are universal, and their answers contain wisdom that belies a need for worldly knowledge. Where one might expect an anti-religious diatribe, the prose is instead a virtual hymn to the introspective and intellectual power of the devout. Women Talking is a revelation about the horrific crime committed by powerful men bent on burying it. The book is also a challenge to religious stereotypes about the ability of the oppressed and conventionally raised to think and act for themselves —- simply, eloquently, bawdily, critically, and compassionately, as the wise talking women in Women Talking do.
In the early 1900s, Chicago was less racially segregated than it is now. However, the first part of Dan Ryan Expressway, built in 1961-62 to make it easier to get downtown, runs between the white west-side “Bridgeport” neighborhood and the “Black Belt” on the east side. Its effect was to divide the city and isolate blacks. Read more Chicago history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
I’m pleased to share that my short story “A Fifth Way” is now online at Spank the Carp, Pond (Issue) 50. Here is the log line: In “A Fifth Way,” set in 1922 West Virginia, a precocious young boy begs adults to help avert a tragedy he sees coming, but only the crazy old lady next door believes he is telling the truth. Sample Spank the Carp and read “A Fifth Way.” Learn more about this tale and others in SHORT STORIES.
As charming as viewers find the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz, filming it was hazardous to the actors. Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West, suffered second degree and third degree burns during the second take of her fiery exit from Munchkinland as her billowing cape trailed behind her broomstick. After recuperating at home for six weeks (during which the star Judy Garland visited her), she insisted a stand-in do all of the fire scenes. Buddy Ebsen, who originally played the Tin Woodsman, had an allergic reaction to the silver paint and was hospitalized with lung problems. He was replaced by Jack Haley and the composition of the paint was changed. Read more about the making of the movie in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
Upton Sinclair, muckraking author of The Jungle, a 1906 novel about the horrors of the Chicago meat-packing industry, later founded the California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He ran unsuccessfully as a Socialist Party candidate for the U.S. Congress in the 1920s and lost a bid for governor in 1934, after founding the End Poverty in California (EPIC) movement. Read more Chicago and California history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
The little people (then called “midgets”) who played Munchkins in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz ranged in age from 20 to 40. They included several married couples, twin brothers, and four members of the Doll Family: Daisy, Gracie, Harry, and Tiny. MGM was determined to use real midgets, not children. The studio advertised all over the country, visited circuses, and sent out talent scouts. As word got out, every little person in the country arrived in Hollywood by bus and train to audition. MGM eventually hired 122 little adult performers to populate Munchkinland, supplemented by ten child actors. Read more about the Munchkins and the movie in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
