“I am probably one of the most excited old women in the world.” So says Florence Wolfson Howitt in the foreword to The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel. The book’s subtitle is “reclaiming a life through the pages of a lost journal.” The life reclaimed is that of a highly intelligent, adventurous, thoughtful and beautiful teenager in 1930s Manhattan. Koppel, a New York Times reporter, found the forgotten diary and traced the owner, now in her nineties, to Westport. The book weaves quotations from Florence’s diary into lush descriptions of her privileged life and transports the reader to a very different time and place, where music, art, reading and theater as well as
the latest fashions filled the time and attention of this young woman. Here is a preview of the wonderful pictures in the book which attest to the beauty and vitality of the young journal writer.
Lily Koppel and Florence Howitt will be speaking at the Library on Wednesday April 9 at noon in the McManus Room.
Newly released copies of The Red Leather Diary will be available for sale and signing.