Kathleen Thompson Norris.
On Friday, I stopped in at my local library's annual book sale to "book up" for winter. It was my kind of event - tables and tables and tables of used books, semi-organized by category and all of them priced at $1. You can read about my method for choosing used books here.
I passed over the scores of cheap paperbacks and headed for the "Old Books" table. I found two that I'm really happy with:
A hardback copy of Halldor Laxness' Independent People published in English, by Knopf, with a copyright date of 1946. The original owner made a note that it was "published last week" and it's trade label indicates that it was purchased at The Personal Book Shop in Boston. (You can see a photo of the original trade label on this page.) I believe this copy is the "Book of the Month" that I have since learned, via Google, was wildly popular in the United States. The main character is a man who wants live indpeendently, in debt to no one; but the choices he makes come at a price. Laxness was the Nobel prize winner for literature in 1955, for this book. I'm saving this one for snow.
My second great find is "Beauty's Daughter," by Kathleen Thompson Norris. This book is a can't-put-it-down novel about a beautiful, ambivalent woman and her less attractive, more ambitious daughter. I read that Norris began her career as a newspaper writer and then started publishing stories. She wrote popular romance novels and was the most highly paid female writer of her time. Very well written; totally engaging. Worth it just for the descriptions of the clothes, the homes, and the travel. I loved TIME magazine's obituary for her. This copy was purchased for .44 cents at Triangle Books and it has the most interesting handwritten notes inside the front cover:
"This book belongs to Miss Marilyn Carlson.
43 Harding Avenue
Bradford, PA
Phone 23327
Age - 17
Hair - Blond
Weight - 125."
Probably a teenage girl - who else would write their weight inside the cover of a romance novel? Most of Norris' books are out of print, but it looks as if you can download some of them from the ebooklibrary.
The other books I purchased at the library sale are on the Nightstand list - in the column bordering this page.
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