Paperback, 360 pages with photos and other illustrations. Letters American History Family History Women's Studies Popular Culture Gender Studies Non-fiction Customs and Manners History of Private Life Genealogy

Mama had guarded the contents of the old family home like a Gorgon. Mamie, her mother, had also forbidden us all from looking through the house during her lifetime. When the gates finally fell, we were blown away by what we found. Boxes and boxes of dusty letters and photographs, piles of books and magazines, pamphlets, postcards and ticket stubs. Plenty of unfinished art projects, too. It seems that this family left us the whole record of their lives, a complete picture of life as it was for a comfortable middle-class family at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. They were of the tradespeople and craftsmen, their wives and children, and their lives were like those of millions of Americans of that era. ~ The letters transcribed here are interesting and funny, and show not only the basics of day-to-day life, but also the wit and humor of courtship by mail. “Dearest Shortness” is a love story, and in telling it, we show our love for Red Top and Shorty, my dear old grandparents. Who Knew? ~Susan Lilly~

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