Category: The House on Tenafly Road
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Stop Crying
Do you cry too much? My father used to reward me for staying in and being safe. As a police officer he coolly handled blood, insanity and anger, but he could not handle threats to his children. He could not handle the idea of them making mistakes or being shamed. His heart was in the…
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“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.” Carl Gustav Jung
I had no story before addiction. I’ve never been addicted to heroin or drink. My habit has been idealism. I’ve ridden on high horses more times than I care to admit. I’ve been quixotic and delusional. The other day I remembered a student of mine that I had tried to fix. His parents (from where…
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America’s First Addiction Crisis
LINK: America’s First Addiction Crisis Had Some Striking Parallels To Today
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Can You Write Stories for These Pictures?
Under the Lilacs book illustration. I’d never heard the term domestic genre stories but I LOVE it. These are the great stories of the late 19th century that spoke to the trials and travails of ordinary life and often with beautiful illustrations. I assume they’re the works that some people deem “of no literary merit”…
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Books I’ve Known and Loved
Can we all agree that men polish up quite nicely in uniform? Why else would we have cop groupies? My father had a charming charisma, but the uniform brought the groupies. Anyway, men look good in uniform–especially late 19th century military uniform–I happened to notice this at all the Civil war re-enactments–when the weekend was…
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Books I’ve Known and Loved (2)
Just because you’re nice doesn’t mean you’re going to be popular. This is what General Ben Grierson must have said to console himself. A hero of the Civil War, Grierson commanded the Buffalo Soldiers out West against Victorio and his Apache warriors after the war, but do you think that would have gotten him some…
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Books I’ve Known and Loved
Okay, don’t be disturbed by the man’s weird stare and ugly hat. While On the Border with Crook is about the Indian fighter General Crook it’s more about the erudite and humorous John Gregory Bourke— the dashing military man and entertaining writer. Invariably the military men of the late 19th century had such enthusiasm, intellectual…
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Books I’ve Known and Loved
My heart beats a little quicker for this extremely fun and informative gem, The Look of the Old West Lieutenant John Weldon in The House on Tenafly Road took his family to a western military outpost after the Civil War and this book helped make that possible. Scholarly research is a great thing but Foster…
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Books I’ve Known And Loved
When you write about post-Civil War America it’s impossible not to bump up against war wounds. John Weldon in The House on Tenafly Road is addicted to morphine, given his first dose in a Civil War hospital by well-meaning doctors trying to keep him comfortable before his eventual death–which never happens. He escapes in his…
Author Adrienne Morris 