Still really enjoying this book of letters by American women, but I've finally found the right inspiration for Genie's diary entries (for my Henry V book.)
I started looking only at women either 10 years older or younger than Genie (born in 1900) and whose letter sounded distinguished enough that I could lift some expressions and language from it, and give Genie's entries a distinctive feel. Sometimes I come across great lines, but no one will believe they're from the early 1900s... they'll think I haven't done my research! The best was: "That's the dope!"
Finally I came across the poet Edna St Vincent Millay, born 1892, and she's hilarious. She's sitting bored on a train, and writes out the interchange she had with room service at the last hotel she stayed in: "it advertises itself as Chicago's Most Home-like Hotel. Well, that's it. It's so... home-like that if you want a cup of coffee you have to go down to the kitchen and make it yourself."
(To read the exciting exchange between Millay and Room Service, click here!)
There's a book of Millay's letters that's out of print, and I was going to order it online; but then I read reviews of her biography, and they all same the same thing--"It's just an infodump of Millay's journals and letters! No editing! Journal entries and letters! This sucks!" So it sounds like the bio will be perfect for me.
And so an Unprecedented Winter Trip to the Library is called for. Wish me luck.
In other news: I once again tried a recipe from Robin Robertson's slow cooker cookbook, and it was, as usual, completely lacking in flavor. It had 8 spices, and yet zero flavor--like the other things I've tried from this book. And this is a woman who writes international cookbooks! I have her "meat and potatoes" book and it's just fine. I guess crockpots are her weakness. If you read the reviews of it on her web site, it doesn't sound like anyone actually cooked from it before reviewing.
Oh well, I'll pack them into lunch tupperwares and eat it at work.
