Ruth Tenzer Feldman's Blog, page 27

Suffering Suffrage!

(Oregon Historical Society, Mss1534) The wall hanging reads: "What is a suffragette without a suffering household?"

Welcome to 2012.

Another presidential election in the U.S.

Big deal.

No really—it is a big deal.

I won't go all mushy and patriotic on you, but the right to vote didn't come easy in this country unless you were a white male with property. It's still not easy for some citizens. Think about it!

This year marks the centennial celebration of Oregon men giving Oregon women—some of...

Treasures in a 1910 Typography Book

For some reason I cannot explain, Miriam Josefsohn, the main character in Blue Thread, is totally ga-ga over printing and graphic design. That's fine for Miriam, but what about me? I knew next to nothing about typography in the 21st century, let alone in 1912. But Miriam was insistent (some characters are like that). A century-old book came to my rescue and found its way into the story.

Once we were back home, I went up to my room and put the design on paper. I copied ideas from the...

Viva Vaudeville!

Back about a hundred years ago, vaudeville was the most popular entertainment in America. This family-friendly type of variety show employed about 25,000 performers. Blue Thread's Miriam Josefsohn was definitely a fan.

I kept thinking about the strange girl… From the back seat of our Oldsmobile, I saw a sign on the Orpheum Theatre advertising a vaudeville show featuring ragtime piano. Perhaps she was a performer—there were plenty of Jews in vaudeville. I dubbed her Fantastical Fannie from...

Hooking an Acquisitions Editor

So, as I was saying, Blue Thread used to be way different. After major deconstruction and reconstruction, the new Blue Thread underwent polishing, polishing, polishing, polishing, and…polishing. And still the acquisitions editors at Ooligan Press wanted more. Sylvia Spratt and her co-editor Leah Brown at Ooligan went through the final rounds. Here's Sylvia's version of the process:

Ruth:What did you think of Blue Thread the first time you read the draft? Sylvia: Honestly? I thought, "Wow...

Miriam's Temple Beth Israel

By the time Blue Thread's Miriam Josefsohn set foot in Temple Beth Israel that night in September, 1912, there had been a Jewish community in Portland for more than sixty years.

In 1858, a group of Jewish men formally resolved to form a congregation in the city, which boasted about 100 stores and 2,000 residents. Oregon was still a territory then—it entered the Union in 1859. The first Sabbath services—held Friday nights and Saturday mornings—took place in a loft over a blacksmith shop on...

Blue Thread: Separated at Birth

Once upon a time there was a draft manuscript on the corner of my desk, and its name was Blue Thread. One day I took that manuscript, so complete and neat, so very "done," and tore it limb from limb, right down the middle.  Here's why.

The spark for my original Blue Thread, as some of you know, was this image I found on the Internet—a close-up of a photograph from a suffrage parade in Boone, Iowa, in 1908. The banner reads LIKE THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELOPHEHAD WE ASK FOR OUR INHERITANCE. I knew...

Those Amazing Hats!

Mrs. Steinbacher was easy to spot, owing to an eruption of ostrich plumes and felted roses spewing from her head.

Welcome to Miriam's world of hats. Hats were still big in the Edwardian era in more ways than one. This period covers the reign of England's King Edward VII, from 1900 to 1910, and spills over to the start of World War I in 1914.

Edwardian hats for women were often wide, and high, and overflowing. The one shown in this picture is relatively tame, but I couldn't resist showing it to ...

The Real "Josefsohn House"

The first time I walked past it, I knew the massive building on the corner of 19th and Johnson in northwest Portland would be the perfect model for Miriam's home.  Blue Thread describes the house this way:

"This part of Johnson is quite lovely," Charity said as we crossed the front porch. "Your rhododendrons and rose bushes are gorgeous. And your house is so…spacious."

Spacious is the word, I thought. Not charming. Unlike the other homes in the neighborhood, ours is a box of a house, all...

Let Us Begin with Buddha on the Fire Hydrant

Welcome to my first blog post on this Blue Thread site. It's been 99 years since women got the right to vote in Oregon—well before the national victory in 1920. It's about two months before the release of Blue Thread, my bit of historical fiction/fantasy that takes you back to Portland in 1912 and entwines you in a struggle for women's rights said to have happened thousands of years earlier.

I took years—somewhat fewer than 99—to bring Blue Thread this far. Why did I bother? The short answer: ...