The Boston Girl Diaries: December 1888 - May 1889

By Russel Alan Considine

"The Boston Girl Diaries" Volume 1 - December 25, 1888 - May 1889. This (and all future volumes of "The Boston Girl Diaries") is the first of many personal diaries of 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 at: 320 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Katharine loves to write in great detail about clothing that she both observes and wears, and books and magazine articles that she has read. Art works and plays that she has seen also receive wonderful commentary. Refreshingly, in my opinion, communication in 1888/89 was by written letter and by also making frequent visits with friends and relatives. Telephone conversation was not even a reality... No television, no internet, no cell phones... 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. A very interesting, almost verbatim account, is Katharine's re-telling of a Harper's Magazine article (May, 1889) by Vicomte Eugene Melchior De Vogue called: " A Social Life in Russia" in which she transcribes the author's first-hand account of horse-drawn sleds and "Winter Palace" Balls in 1888. The cover sketch of a girl holding a book, is an actual sketch by Katharine of herself in full length dress, holding her favorite book: her new Diary, which you are now viewing. In trying to preserve as much authenticity of that by-gone era, the current day owner and editor of Katharine's diaries has presented Katharine's exact spelling of words, some of which are no longer spoken in today's modern day English, as well as the same punctuation marks, spaces, and cross-throughs - all are as actually depicted in Katharine's original hand-written diary.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1512076139
• ISBN13: 9781512076134
• Release Date: May 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 138 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.5" x 11.0"