The Boston Girl Diaries: 1888-89 & 1891: Russel Alan Considine &

Book Synopsis: This book of “The Boston Girl Diaries” is Owned, Co-written and Edited by Russel Alan Considine. The first diary commences with Katharine Camilla Buchanan who, in December of 1888, is 13 years old and living a very privileged life with her parents and three younger brothers on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Katharine loves to write in great detail about clothing that she both observes and wears, and the numerous books and magazine articles that she has read. Art works and plays that she has viewed in person also receive wonderful commentary and description. Refreshingly, in my opinion, communication in 1888/89 was mostly by written letter and frequent visits with friends and relatives. Telephone conversation was not even a reality, and travel was by horse, horse carriages and trains. January 1, 1889 saw the dawn of the first “electric horse” cars in Boston and Katharine was one of the first patrons to ride on them, an experience that she also writes about with amusing anecdotes. In trying to preserve as much authenticity of that by-gone era, I have presented Katharine’s “diary” with exact spelling of words, some of which are rarely ever spoken in today’s modern day English. I have also used the same punctuation marks and cross-throughs as they are actually depicted in Katharine’s personal hand-written diary. The second diary of Katharine takes place in her family’s Summer home in Newbury port (Katharine’s spelling), Massachusetts during the Summer of 1891, commencing on July 1, 1891 and ending on August 31st (“the last day of Summer” according to Katharine). Katharine will be 16 in a few days, and she continues to write about her friends and family. Katharine is still very self-absorbed and opinionated, and she continues to love reading and writing, but many new interests have been added from her first diary written two years earlier. Poetry, cooking, recipes, clothes, boys and dating now appear to be Katharine’s priorities in life… And not necessarily in that order! Katharine also includes her interesting travels to Bar Harbor, Maine and Beacon Hill, Massachusetts. Katharine reads, with great interest and enthusiasm, the 1878 European travel diary of her New York cousin Margaret Buchanan Considine. I hope you will enjoy this book! Russel Alan Considine Read more