Sinclair Lewis and Dorothy Thompson

 This is an article about a book that was coming out that described the relationship between Sinclair Lewis and Dorothy Thompson, his second wife.

The title says, "Frank book about a famous marriage."
  
Sinclair Lewis and Dorothy Thompson's
relationships depicted with perspectives to common problems, artistic and marital.

The picture to the left was taken in 1927 when Sinclair was 42, and  Dorothy was 33. 

Sinclair Lewis was interesting! He ran away when he was 13 wanting to become a drummer in the Spanish-American War. He and his first wife had one son together.  They named him Wells Lewis, after H. G. Wells.

Arrowsmith, published in 1925, about a young doctor's attempt to maintain his integrity in a world of commercialism, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. His next novel, Elmer Gantry, published in 1927, was the story of a revivalist minister. Dodsworth, published in 1929, was an account of a retired automobile manufacturer travelling in Europe. Both books were well-received and in 1930 Lewis became the first American novelist to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. When he received the prize he warned that writers were "still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues."

Sadly, Sinclair was an alcoholic. It eventually killed him.  He died in Rome, January 10, 1951.

Oh, How Sweet He Is, Lord

I found this paper in a French book, Imitation de Jesus Christ. The year on this is 1901, and it's beautiful. It's about 4.5 inches long, by 3.5 inches.  The gold on it is shimmery and looks like it was stamped on.

It's speaking of Easter, and interestingly enough, the parish it's listing is in Rome, close to the Trevi Fountain. I wish objects could speak. I want to know how a card from Rome, written in Latin, ends up in a French book in Denmark.

Country Laundry

I swear that's what LANDVASKERI translates to, Country Laundry.  Must be a brand name. Here is the Motto:

AXbo is no factory business, but laundry, with each Customer's clothes are treated met largest omih?

See that last word?  Somebody scracked with the card and for the life of me I can't get it to translate using every letter feasible.  Told you to get used to my made up vocabulary. Scracked it now a word, as in the fabulous word, scrack. So let it be written, so let it be done.  


The date is August 31, 1940. Germany had invaded Denmark in the spring of that year, so this is full occupation time. I love the WWII time period. So many leaps in technology. The world became a smaller place in WWII. Borders were crossed, the world became a literal melting pot.

 

Bright Flowers

I love finding bookmarks!  And I say that every time I find one, and will continue to do so. It's frustrating because the bold colours aren't fully able to be appreciated in this picture. The black portion is silky smooth, and the flowers are really bright and bold. It's about 6 inches long when you include the thready bottom portion. Yeah, thready. Making up my own words, embrace it people, it's not going away.

Computer Card

Honestly, I have no idea what this card is. It's all full of holes, numbers, and some typed stuff at the top. It totally reminded me of That Touch of Mink. If you don't know what I mean, shame on you! Cary Grant and Doris Day in what has always been one of my favorite Cary Grant movies. Netflix it, search on your Tivo, just find it! I fell in love with Cary Grant a million years ago watching this movie. Mr. Shayne, sigh. Aw, Mr. Grant, you still make me all jello.

Doris Day plays a gal who seems to have trouble finding a job and, through a series of events, Cary Grant gets her hired working at a company on computers. She didn't realize that he had gotten her the job, and when she finds out she is crazy angry and takes it out on the computers. She hits a bunch of buttons on the computers and cards go flying everywhere. They looked like this card to me.

Well, it's just a card, but anything that brings Cary Grant to mind is alright by me.

Leather and Stitched

I never use actual bookmarks any more. I used to get them as gifts and think how cute they are and then I use them and they disappear. Some other soul has likely found them in a library book I returned, or a book I lent out, or a book I have given away. So now I keep my cute bookmarks and use a random piece of paper or something as a bookmark. Thank goodness other people have done that too or I wouldn't have much to post on this blog.

These are pretty big. The leather one is about 7 inches long. Not losing this bookmark, it leaves a big bulge in your book. The other one has been hand stitched and is fraying a bit.

Book and Card 1937

I sometimes, rarely, find books in English while I am unpacking my new shipment. I found this one yesterday. It's Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott. I can't find a print date on the inside, but the inscription from Harry says 1937. There was this little card with the boy and girl on it, which I assume came with flowers or something, and this Christmas and Happy New Year card. It seems to be vellum which is pretty rare these days. As I flip through the book, there is also a little pressed leaf. I can only guess what kind of memories Harry and Karen made together to prompt this gift. My imagination goes to a love story, but Harry's "with best wishes" on the card kind of squashes that theory. Unless they were seeing each other on the sly. Oh, I like that. Why else keep all this stuff and the pressed leaf if it didn't mean something special?