Brushwood 1919-1940 on Kindle

I have recently been talking with a 92-year-old Columbian named Mack Brushwood about what the town was like when he was growing up. These were the days when automobiles were novelties, electricity was available only in the downtown area, and a front porch with a battery-powered radio could attract a clutch of neighbors on a Saturday night. Mr. Brushwood is such a good talker that I decided to rework the interview material into a memoir and post it as a short Kindle book. It's nothing fancy: just a "being there" picture of the prohibition and Great Depression eras.

The Perils and Pleasures of Writing Local History

I answered the phone yesterday and got the voice of a woman who started right in. "I read your book. Liked it. I have a couple of questions. How did Regina Almstedt pronounce her name? Which house did she lived in? Are you sure she was raped? I hated your cover. You should have had a picture of the bridge. Why would you use that picture on the cover? What does it have to do with anything?" She paused for a breath, and something that resembled a normal conversation followed. She told me that she believed that she was living in the house the Almstedts lived in back in 1923. She said she would be at a talk I am giving next week, but that she didn't want me to mention that she lived in the old Almstedt place. That was between us, a secret.

No problem, since she hung up without mentioning her name.

Names, another Kindle booklet

I just posted "Names," a new Kindle booklet. It tells a story I have been researching and mulling over for several years, the miraculous escape from slavery of a young man here in Columbia in 1833. I won't spoil the story by giving away the plot, but I will say that the circumstances of Sant's winning his freedom include something that must have looked to him and to others like divine intervention. The booklet also gives what I think is a useful overview of the status of the slave under Missouri law before the horrible Dred Scott decision. 99 cents. Go ahead, make my day!