The Mysterious, Mellifluous Opal

Opal Irene Whiteley (14)

In introducing Opal Irene Whiteley, I'd like to  propose that people--all of us--are complex.

We have--as Shrek the Ogre emphatically stated--layers.  Yes, like an onion.

We have our public selves and our private selves.  Our younger selves and our adult selves.  Our strong selves and our vulnerable selves.

With this in mind, let's consider the controversial Opal Whiteley.

Opal and her sisters. (6)

Opal (1)

Opal was born on December 11, 1897 in Washington state. (5)  Her father worked in the lumber mills of the Pacific Northwest--a hard, back-breaking and seasonal job that required he and his family to move when the layoffs inevitably occurred. (5).

Opal (the oldest of five children) (4)  and her family moved to Oregon in 1902, and thus the heart of her story begins.

(9)

The story goes that at the age of six Opal began writing her thoughts down on scraps of paper.  Her verses--a combination of invented spelling and her own creative voice-- gradually grew into a diary.

The diary was filled with descriptions of the people and events in Opal's small, young life.  And running through every aspect of her writings was her fascination with nature.   Trees, flowers, birds, insects, stars--all of it delighted her and she collected innumerable specimens to explore and study (4).   As she grew older her natural affinity for nature was bolstered by her rumored photographic memory and her reading of numerous books about  nature and science.

Opal became somewhat of a local celebrity--the poor but brilliant young girl with the  photographic memory and encyclopedic knowledge of natural science.  Newspaper reporters seized upon the idea of Opal being a kind of fairy-like genius in the rough.  She began giving nature lectures and eventually found her way into attending the University of Oregon. (5)

And here is where Opal's story begins to take on a kind of strange Alice in Wonderland feel.

One of Opal's staged photos. (10)

It is also where my heart goes out to her.

From the University of Oregon, Opal set out for Los Angeles, CA, in hopes of becoming a movie actress.  She even went so far as to stage promotional photos--perhaps an early form of today's "head shots"--which she brought with her to show  movie studio executives.

When her efforts at becoming a movie star failed, she turned back to giving nature lectures and  writing  in her efforts to not only support herself, but to also try to find a direction for her life. (4)

(11)

It was during these years that various sources point to the accelerating decline of Opal's mental health. (8)

Opal brought her work to Ellery Sedgewick at the Atlantic. (5)   Sedgewick was more interested in her chance mentioning of her childhood diary than in her current work.  Believing he had a potential blockbuster on his hands, Sedgewick sponsored Opal in exchange for her to put back together the pieces of her diary (which she claimed had been ripped to pieces by her younger sister).


The transformation of her diary into a published book highlighted some interesting--or perhaps disturbing--facts.

Opal's diary not only contained charming tales of her childhood and nature, but also snippets of French--a language she could not speak and had never studied--and an underlying suggestion that she was not just a young girl from the lumber camps of Oregon, but actually the daughter of French aristocrat Henri d'Orleans, sent forth for her own safety after her royal French family had been deposed. (4)

And thus began the whispers that Opal's diary was nothing more than a desperate creation to save her floundering writing career.   Hints that perhaps she was suffering from a mental collapse.

The public became divided into two camps when it came to Opal and her story:  either they believed her with frantic devotion, or they decried her a charlatan.

In the face of all the tumult and controversy, Opal tried to defend herself, spinning even more fantastic tales about international intrigue, kidnapping, and finally her adoption into a poor family in Oregon. (5)

She finally fled to India and onward to London, where she continued to wrestle with failing mental health.  Various theories have been raised as to the nature of her illness, but there is general agreement that it must have been some form of schizophrenia (5, 8), although how far back into her life her mental illness stretched is not known.   Researchers far more wise and proficient than I point to evidence that Opal suffered a mental breakdown in early adulthood, and point to the possibility that her mother also suffered from delusions not unlike Opal's claims to be the daughter of a French aristocrat. (8)

(4)

Still other researchers  believe that Opal may have had Autism or Asperger's Syndrome (12),  both of which I believe would've been treated at the time in the same way as schizophrenia--with the sufferer committed to a mental institution.

Opal, found starving and living in squalor in London, eventually was admitted to the Napsbury Mental Hospital in 1948. (13)

She spent the next 50 years of her life within the walls of that mental institution until her death in 1992. (13)

And so here we are.

Still asking questions about the little girl with the muddy feet who sang hymns to worms, collected butterflies and named the trees.

Was she real?
Did she really write a diary?

Who was Opal Whiteley really?

Most of us, in our sage wisdom and skeptical 21st century self-assurance would decry Opal a charlatan at worst, and a pitiable spinner of tales at best--a woman suffering from life-long mental illness that led to delusions and finally a tragic death within the walls of a mental asylum.

But I have to ask:  must we pigeonhole Opal Whiteley into either of these prisons?

Whether or not Opal's childhood diary is real matters less to me than the charming story it told about a fanciful, imaginative, wise-beyond-her years child for whom the world was both magical and cruel.  Whether Opal wrote it at the age of six or the age of twenty pales against the fact that Opal gave us a unique and charming world into which we could disappear.

And I take Opal's story as a heartbreaking warning:  she lived in a world that understood mental illness even less than we do today--and this is not saying much.  Today people still harbor prejudice against those who suffer from mental illness.  People still reduce mental illness into either a joke or criminality.  Our health care and health insurance  system still, for the most part,  punishes those least able to defend themselves.

When I read Opal's words, I wonder what other incredible stories  she might have been able to give us if she had received proper treatment for her mental challenges.  If she had been guided towards the beauty of creating stories that did not have to be real to be real to the reader.

(9)

I don't have to believe that "Opal: The Journey of an Understanding Heart" is a true story for me to
offer Opal my own understanding heart.

She left behind a beautiful gift and legacy.

Her story.


































Sources:

1.https://www.opb.org/television/programs/oregonexperience/segment/opal-whiteley/

2. http://www.opalonline.org/

3. http://www.ochcom.org/whiteley/

4. http://www.intangible.org/Features/Opal/OpalHome.html

5. http://www.oregonquarterly.com/curiouser-and-curiouser-embracing-opal-whiteley

6. http://dorenahistoricalsociety.com/tag/opal-whiteley/

7. http://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Sp-Z/Whiteley-Opal.html

8. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/opal-whiteleys-riddles

9. "Opal-The Journal of an Understanding Heart" by Oapl Whiteley, Adapted by Jane Boulton. Tioga Publishing Company, Palo Alto. CA. 1984.

10. http://moonshinejunkyard.blogspot.com/2010/07/opal-whiteley-and-singing-creek-where.html 

11. http://egajd.blogspot.com/2012/09/20120922-opal-whitelely-and-kyra.html

12. http://members.efn.org/~opal/mental.htm

13. https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/whiteley_opal/#.WnnTf5OpnEY

14. https://beta.prx.org/stories/48389

(3)

Once upon a time our planetary neighbors--and the rest of the cosmos--were still a huge, imagination-tweaking mystery.  We had not yet landed on the moon.  Sputnik 1 was still a few years away.

We only knew what we could see and what we could imagine.

And as so often happens with humans, our imaginings, fears and guesses became muddled up with bits of science and a lot of theory and boom--you have books like these written by hopeful people yearning for that GREAT CONNECTION.

I discovered this treasure where I discover so many of my vintage book treasures--at a Half Price Books Store.

You'l find no sketches of space people here.  No faux luxurious binding.  Just a simple book, inexpensively printed, documenting a collection of quasi-scientific, undoubtedly earnest explorations into the existence of intelligent  extraterrestrial life.

Enter the authors.

(4)

Chicago born George Hunt Williamson began his fascination with mystic phenomena as a teenager, shifting it into the field of archaeology as an adult (2).   He studied archaeology at the University of Arizona, centering his interest on Native American  history (2).   In "The Saucers Speak!" he delves into  Native American folklore and tales across a variety of tribes that describe  "flying boats" and  "little wise people". George was convinced that these tales served as a  kind of  proof of early extraterrestrial visits (3).

George's fascination with extraterrestrial life, mysticism and the occult grew rather than diminished.   He became a devotee of cult leaders William Dudley Pelley and George Adamski, using supposed telepathic communication via a homemade Ouija board to contact what they came to call the "space brothers"--an interplanetary group of space beings who evidently had learned enough English to engage in telepathic chats. (2,3)

(1) George H. Williamson (left)

Unlike George Hunt Williamson, Alfred C. Bailey was a bit more difficult to research.   George seems to have been the front man in this extraterrestrial-searching duo, with Railroad conductor Alfred Bailey (as well as his wife)  serving as George's main partner in Ouija-informed communications (2,3).

It should come as no surprise then that "The Saucers Speak!" is a "documentary" primarily relying on George and Alfred's copious Ouija-board sessions detailing repeated and at times lengthy "conversations" with "space intelligences" from our neighboring planets  as well as from  distant planets (Andromeda, Planet 15 of Solar System 22, the Toresoton Solar System, among many others*). (3)  Tucked in here and there amid the Ouija-based findings are tales of interstellar contact made by  ham radio operators, space being visitations made to remote  areas, often at night, and  reports of saucer sightings from around the globe.

However it is the transcripts of the Ouija-style "contacts" that are the most engaging--and there are plenty of them.

"Good and evil forces are working now.  Organization is important for the salvation of your world.  Contact us as soon as you can."  (Message from Masar (Mars) to Saras (Earth))  (Pg. 44)(3)

"'To apples we salt, we return.'  You may not understand this strange saying now, but someday you will.  It is from one of our old prophecy legends." (From Zo on Neptune to Earth. Pg. 50)(3)

"Kadar Lacu, my brothers.  I am several hundred years old.  A mere youth.  The time has come to reveal these things to you. If man would only realize that he should love his brother." (Pg. 75)(3)

Here and there George and Alfred also share various radio contacts made with our space brethren, mostly comprised of strings of numbers or letters with jumbled messages tossed in the middle:


"450 TE SA AFFA SWAP YOUR R 450 K SWAP T I ARE YOU APPEAR TO YOU LATER WHEN AS OR SHIP COMPREHEND DA DA K SE WID26 EE WID26 Q QRA WID26." (PG. 68)(3)

So what exactly is "The Saucers Speak!"?  A documentary as the authors claim?  A sci-fi spoof like "War of the Worlds"?  The obsessed fantasies of grown dreamers who are convinced that correlation really is causation?

I don't know.

As I read this book I realized how easily intelligent, well-meaning people can be led astray--led astray by a charismatic leader, or an engaging idea, or by their own minds.   Even now, over 60 years after this book was first published, we have a sizable swath of people who view scientific fact as optional--people who believe that   climate change is a hoax and that evolution is a theory.

Now, I'm not saying that I believe we are entirely alone in the universe with our big brains and opposable thumbs.   I think it is only a matter of time before SETI stumbles upon something mind-blowingly real that will put us in our place.

However I highly doubt that life forms living in distant galaxies would choose to communicate with us via Ouija board or  ham radio.

But you know what?  I may be wrong.

And that's the beauty of the unknown--you never know.

















*Don't bother looking up the names of these distant planets.  They resided exclusively in the head of George H. Williamson, Alfred C. Bailey and all their fellow Ouija-board loving interstellar enthusiasts. 

Sources

1. http://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/ufo-history6.htm
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hunt_Williamson
3. "The Saucers Speak!" by George H. Williamson and Alfred C. Bailey. New Age Publishing Co. 1954. 
4. http://rr0.org/people/h/HuntWilliamsonGeorge/

Between the United Nations and Conspiracy: Unexpected Discoveries on William G. Carr

One World in the Making by William G. Carr. Ginn and Company. 1946.

In  One World in the Making, author William G. Carr states the purpose for this book in no uncertain terms, right there in the Foreword.


"THIS BOOK HAS BEEN WRITTEN WITH JUST ONE SIMPLE PURPOSE: to make it as easy as possible for anyone, young or old, to understand the United Nations Charter."

And as you can see, William G. Carr added the capitalization himself--today's textual equivalent of screaming.

William G. Carr is listed on the title page as a United Nations consultant and Deputy Secretary-General for the educational and cultural arm of the United Nations Conference

(2) William Guy Carr  R.D. Commander R.C.N

In photos of Mr. Carr, he looks  every bit the part of a United Nations expert.  And so he should.

Born in England and educated in Scotland, Mr. Carr chose the seafaring and military life at the young age of fourteen. (1)  He served as a navigating officer in the British Navy, seeing extensive combat action serving aboard submarines.(2)  During World War II he worked for the Canadian Intelligence Service, afterward retiring from the Navy in 1950. (1)

Amid and between his active service Mr. Carr wrote and published books about his battle experiences, including By Guess and By God  (1930), Hell's Angels of the Deep (1932) and Checkmate in the North  (1944). (1)  

So One World in the Making  would seem to fit in neatly with Mr. Carr's military experience. 

I'll return to the story of William Guy Carr shortly--and believe me there is much more story to tell--but let's turn to One World in the Making  first.

This book starts off well in fulfilling its goals of making the United Nations understandable for anyone.

The front end paper features a bold red and black diagram of the main historic events leading to the formation of the UN.   It's eye-catching, simply labeled and festooned with adorable little icons for each geographic place listed.

 The first 14 pages are equally effective, including illustrations, photographs and explanations written in a conversational style  using easily accessible language.

On the 14th page is a tidy paragraph that neatly lays out who would be eligible to belong to the United Nations.  It is written in almost a storybook style, with repetitive phrases and easy descriptions.

Most unfortunately, this is also where nearly all the clarity of this book ends.

 Starting on page 15 and continuing on for the next 75 pages, Mr. Carr introduces a complex series of charts, analogies and icons that had me flipping back and forth repeatedly as I tried to make sense of them.   After 3 or 4 head-scratching tries I found the logic within the seeming madness, and while it was ultimately rather elegant, it did nothing to fulfill the goals of the book to make the UN accessible to anyone and everyone.


 The last approximately 50 pages consist of seemingly cut-and-pasted mock ups of the actual UN charter, the contents of which are explained and discussed using little pull out boxes, much like side bar editing features in today's word processing programs.

The descriptions themselves are clear, but the design of the pages, coupled with the presence of icons designed to refer back to branches of government, created an overwhelming whole on which I eventually gave up.

At the end, right before a section entitled "Study Helps", are two pages of signatures of the fifty nations that signed the UN Charter in San Francisco on April 25th, 1945.  These two pages of signatures had greater impact on me than the previous seventy five.  As my eyes scanned down the list of countries and signatures, noting countries that were included and those that were not,  I was able to clearly reflect on the history of the time, the complexities of politics and geography and war.   These signatures added a human stamp to a book that, for all it's hopes, made the creation of the United Nations seem dry, distant and impossibly complex. 

And at least one young reader seems to have agreed with me, for on the last end paper was this editorial remark:










But wait!  We must return to William Guy Carr.  After writing this very proper book about the United Nations and subsequently retiring from active military service, Mr. Carr abandoned his writings of war memoirs and delved deeply and permanently into the world of conspiracy theories.

And he didn't just dabble in conspiracy theories.  As quoted on Goodreads and other websites, William Carr was  "the most influential source in creating the American Illuminati demonology", (American folklorist Bill Ellis) (3)

Mr. Carr's books began to take a decidedly different turn.  He churned out multiple books detailing an Illuminati conspiracy: Pawns in the Game (1955),  Red Fog over America (1955),  Satan Prince of this World (1959)  and published posthumously, The Conspiracy to Destroy All Existing Governments and Religions (approx. 1960).  (1).  In addition he published numerous papers and articles, all focusing, laser-like, on a vast conspiracy in which Christianity, the Illuminati, our country's founding fathers, countless nations around the world, money, war and power are all tied up in a vast and terrifying racist/anti-semitic bundle in which Mr. Carr passionately believed until his death in 1959. (1)(4)

To say I was shocked to discover this hidden truth behind the author of my $5 vintage book discovery would be an understatement.  However as I have discovered time and again in my vintage book quests, you really can't judge a book--or an author or an illustrator--by the cover.  Sometimes the most unremarkable book can hold secrets--either divine or diabolical--which we least expect.

Now when I see One World in the Making on my shelf, I won't see a mild-mannered history book, but the conspiratorial madness behind the eyes of an unassuming retired military man for whom the brutal impacts of battle and world politics may have left too deep of a mark.  











Sources

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Guy_Carr

2. http://educate-yourself.org/cn/carrglobalistsaresatanists27feb13.shtml

3. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/238948.William_Guy_Carr

4. http://www.michaeljournal.org/pawns.asp

From the PurpleBookCart: Sleuthing out Syllables

History of Illinois in Words of One Syllable by Thomas W. Handford
1888. Belford, Clarke & Co. New York, Chicago, San Francisco

I have known my dear friend and fellow book blogger Sue Conolly over at  www.purplebookcart.com/ for nigh on 20 years.  Usually her passion is for splendid, fairly current children's books, while my guilty pleasure tends more towards a kind of "book archaeology"--and the older the book, the better.

Recently, however, our interests crossed over this book.   We were together at a certain utterly mesmerizing little bookshop in Evanston, Illinois when our greedy little eyeballs simultaneously fixed upon this confusing treasure of a tome that (a) was written for children as well as English language learners and (b) was very old.



We wrangled over it a bit, did some "Jan-Ken-Pon" (Japanese "rock paper scissors), and she won the honor of the purchase.

Over at her blog, Sue dug into the subject matter of this book:  the mind-boggling way it is written entirely in syllables-that-don't-always-seem-like-syllables, the vicious discussion of Native Americans, the baffling--and often conflicting--presentation of women.

And then she loaned it to me.

It is a beautiful book, with its brilliantly hued cover, large, precise print and, as it advertises on the title page, the way it is "profusely illustrated".   Handling this book is rather like handling an ancient eggshell--it feels both impossibly strong, yet delicate as well, the paper soft and the stitched binding loosening to the point that individual pages seem to be held in by nothing more than  a stubborn sort of determination.

Yet, as much as I admired this book as a piece of history, and as fascinating as I found the subject matter, my curiosity was piqued by the author, Thomas W. Handford.  I wanted to know more about the man behind the at times oddly  selected bits of Illinois history that rested between the covers of this book.

Frustratingly enough (and as I have run into with other books I have written about here), while Thomas W. Handford was clearly a prolific writer and editor, (4)  I was unable to find any details about the man himself.  None.  Zilch.

Possibly Thomas W. Handford's grave...possibly not.

(5)

The most I could find was a cryptic reference to the dates of  his birth and death at the librarything.com/ website, which I then plugged into the findagrave website (5), which yielded me a photo of a gravestone that may or may not be the final resting place of Thomas W. Handford.



And so, deprived of any satisfactory epiphanies about author Thomas W. Handford, I turned to the publishers--Belford, Clarke & Co.


Bingo.  I hit the motherlode of intrigue.


Belford, Clarke & Co. had a convoluted history.  Alexander Belford, originally from Canada, started publishing books at the tender age of 13 using a nifty method referred to, by a number of accounts, as "pirating"--printing editions of books without permission from the authors themselves. (1)   This apparently laid the foundation for his future as a publisher.  He was joined in the publishing business by his brother Robert, and later by his brother George.  Eventually they were partnered by James Clarke.  (I admit I am brazenly simplifying this history--there were many nuanced shiftings of power between the Belford brothers and James Clarke before  Alexander Belford and Clarke finally teamed up).

Back cover of History of Illinois--including persistent advertising

Alexander Belford and Clarke moved their business from Toronto to Chicago and then started poking holes in the existing publishing methods of the time. (1)   They printed cheap versions of existing books and magazines, which often resulted in lawsuits.   When established bookstores wouldn't sell their questionable books, they would set up displays of books to be sold on consignment at any store that would accept them, from hardware stores to department stores    They even set up temporary stores to sell backlogs of books--a nifty little method that earned its own name:  "hippodroming"(1), evidently in reference to the constructed racing, entertainment and gambling venues in which fraud played no small part. (6)

Belford and Clarke also came up with various marketing strategies that shot their business into the publishing stratosphere financially.  They reprinted the Encyclopedia Britannica in an American version that they could sell to  great demand at a cheaper price.  They came up with ways to use payment plans, aggressive advertising and subscription services.   They were riding a wave that kept going.  And going.

At one point Alexander Belford even earned the dubious honor of being considered a vile enemy to no lesser a writer than Mark Twain. (3)   Living up to his reputation as a publishing "pirate",  Belford and his Canadian publishing company reprinted Tom Sawyer without regard for American copyright or royalties. (3)  Belford then flooded the American market with 100,000 copies of Tom Sawyer. (3)  Mark Twain--Samuel Clemens then--filed a lawsuit against Belford, Clarke & Co. for violation of his works and "nom de plume".  Clemens lost, adding more fuel to the fire of his animosity against Belford.


Eventually, however, Belford, Clarke & Co. fell off their wave of success, starting with a fire  that wiped out their inventory.   They were  then beaten down further by the financial panic of 1893. (1) By 1900 Belford, Clarke & Co. was divvied up and consigned to history. (1)


Not for the first time I  find myself considering  the fleeting nature of the process of being a writer, and the seemingly (hopefully) permanent nature of the product of being a writer.


It's a dangerous sort of unspoken deal that writers make, isn't it? --balancing their need to tell their stories against the possibility that their stories will someday perhaps be all that is known or left of them.   Who they were and why they wrote will vanish, leaving behind an equally delicate legacy--a book--that is just as fragile and potentially short-lived as a human body.

Unless someone somewhere keeps that book safe.

Which points to the realization that libraries are much more than places where books live--they are places where writers and illustrators never really die.







Sources
1. http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/lucile/publishers/belford/BELFORD.HTM

2. https://www.librarything.com/author/handfordthomasw

3. http://www.twainquotes.com/TWW/TWW.html

4. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Handford%2C%20Thomas%20W.

5. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=149564514#.Vr-w1vIvd-Y.email

6. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-hip1.htm

A Casserole of History and Mystery

The American Woman's COOK BOOK
Edited by Ruth Berolzheimer
Published for Culinary Arts Institute
by
Consolidated Book Publishers Inc.
Chicago 1942 (1) 

It started with a close friend and a three hour mini-road trip that took the two of us from where we lived in Illinois, just outside Chicago, to Kalamazoo, Michigan.

My friend and I share lives lived between countries and cultures, a hobbit-like appreciation for eating multiple meals, and a nearly dysfunctional love of books.

So of course on this mini-road trip, we stuffed in as many explorations of bookstores and libraries as we could.  

Just before we left Kalamazoo to rejoin the monotony of the highway back to Illinois, we went to one last book store.

My idea of a morning well-spent.
Bicentennial Bookshop
Kalamazoo, MI

My friend poked her head into the doorway that was rendered less like a door and more like a cave entrance from the mountainous piles of books on either side as well as from shelves above.

From behind a tall counter, nearly hidden from view entirely by more tottering piles of books, was the owner, who beckoned us into his shop.

What we at first meant to be a quick look turned into a nearly two-hour, gape-mouthed wander through a treasure-trove of books that easily spanned 200 years and almost every genre possible.

It was dusty and moldy and we had to slither past piles of not-yet-shelved books, shift around half-filled cardboard boxes and hop over small chairs and ladders. 

As we got ready to pay for our armloads of purchases, we walked down one more aisle and perused a floor-to-ceiling shelf of cookbooks.  I set aside my small pile of selected books and ran a finger along the spines of old cookbooks, randomly selecting a thick,  dark green  book entitled "The American Woman's COOK BOOK".   It felt good in my hand, it's spine and cover were only slightly chafed away by time and whoever had previously owned it.  The copyright date was 1942, and, as I flipped randomly through it, I noted, with some surprise,  a selection of color photos of prepared foods. 

I rested the book on my left hand then, and let it fall open randomly, just to see what would be revealed. 

The book dropped open to the exact center to reveal a small stack of what looked like old photographs, clearly not part of the cookbook itself.  I nudged my friend to take a look and together we sifted through the discovered photos, our eyebrows sliding up to our hairlines as we turned over each photo to reveal the name "Adolf Hitler".  There were 8 of them in all, printed on slick, shiny paper.  Some were black and white photos of people and events, others were photo duplications of paintings and drawings.  All were the same size, about 5x7 inches, and all had the similar descriptions on the back, in German. 

I closed the book, feeling the familiar stirrings of a nagging, troubled curiosity.  

And  of course I bought it for $8. 

On our drive back to Illinois my friend and I talked for many miles about the mysterious cookbook with the troubling pictures hidden away inside.    As usual, our discussion created more questions than answers, and I was determined to try to bring together the pieces of this random little mystery.

The next morning I opened my computer and typed in the name of the editor:  Ruth Berolzheimer.  Multiple photos of the same cookbook popped up on my computer screen, as well as the covers of old cooking magazines and other culinary works edited by Ruth.  But there was essentially nothing about Ruth herself.  

I began typing in variations on her name, on the name of the cookbook--anything I could think of to try to tease out some information about a woman who was quickly becoming a bit of an obsession with me.  

Finally, I stumbled across a 2008 article from The Chicago Reader entitled "Omnivorous: The Cookbook Queen"written by Mike Sula. (2) 

According to the article (for which Mr. Sula had tracked down Berolzheimer's nephew who, weirdly enough, at the time of the article still lived in the Chicago area, not too far from where I now live), Ruth was a fiercely independent woman, very active in her local Jewish community, the founder of a Hebrew school and a dedicated social worker.  She was the second woman ever to graduate from the University of Illinois in Champaign with a degree in Chemical Engineering.   Her path from Chemical Engineering to Social work to cook book editing was unclear, especially since, in the article, her nephew divulged that she wasn't a terribly good cook--at least in his opinion.  

I sat back and pondered the cookbook, edited  by such a talented and clearly complex woman who happened to be  Jewish, and the strange German pictures that had been hidden inside it for who knows how long.

I turned then to the pictures themselves.  After similar sleuthing I discovered that they were German cigarette cards. (4)   These collectible "cards" were collectible photos sold with products--usually cigarettes-- in the 1920's to 1930's.  Collectors would build albums of these collected cards that spanned not only German history, but also geography and various other events.   Cigarette cards (called "Tobacco cards" in the U.S.) not only spurred sales of cigarettes and other items, but also were a way for people to explore and imagine places and persons they otherwise would never have the money, opportunity or education to encounter. (5)

Cigarette card of a painting by Adolf Hitler entitled The Courtyard of
 the Old Residency in Munich 1914.(3)

Piecing together what I could, I guessed that the particular set of cigarette cards stashed inside the cookbook were from a collection printed probably in the mid 1930's from the set entitled "Adolf Hitler", distributed at that time  to coincide with his rise to power.  

And so here I am.  On one hand what is shaping up to be the story of  a Jewish Renaissance woman, a talented cookbook editor who couldn't really cook, but who could do a LOT of other things very, very well......and a set of Nazi Germany cigarette cards found hidden inside one of her cookbooks.  

This is where my trail runs out and my questions rise.  Who owned this cookbook before me?  Who put the cigarette cards inside it and why?  Was it coincidence that the editor was Jewish and the cards were from Nazi Germany?   

For now the cookbook--and the hidden cigarette cards--sit on my shelf, my questions as unanswerable and immobile as the last little mystery hidden inside this cookbook--one tiny, trapped spider who was just not quite quick enough. 

*All photos property of Christina Moorehead

(1) The American Woman's Cookbook Edited by Ruth Berolzheimer. 1942

Consolidated Book Publishers, Inc. Chicago. 

(2) http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-cookbook-queen/Content?oid=1106100

(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paintings_by_Adolf_Hitler

(4) http://www.csogb.co.uk/GeneralStuff/germancards.htm

(5) http://www.collectorsweekly.com/tobacciana/tobacco-cards