Great for research! This biographical book features resource material for anyone seeking to understand the plight of women in the 1940s.
The author highlights the life of his stepfather, Herman, a shy WWII veteran who responds to the personal ad of a New York pianist with four children. In 1949, Barbara moves to his rural Minnesota farm with her young children, including the author.
Part II of this short book includes a rare 52-page Lonely Hearts Catalogue from 1945. This book is a great resource for those researching family history and would make an intriguing text for Women’s Studies programs.
The Chickenhouse Chronicles is a series of cross-genre, standalone books that do not need to be read in any order.
“Herman” is FREE with purchase of “Pawns” (when purchased on author’s website.)
About the Chickenhouse Chronicles Series
Wendell Affield’s mother, Barbara, lived an unusual life. He began a series of interviews with her, hoping to tell her story, never suspecting that the key to it lay decomposing in the chickenhouse, seventy feet from where they sat visiting in the old farmhouse. After she died in 2010, Affield and his sister salvaged the chickenhouse treasures, documents dated from 1822-1984. He has spent countless hours over the past several years studying, scanning, and transcribing the documents, turning his family history into the narratives that make up the Chickenhouse Chronicles series.
Affield’s stories are about family history shaded by world events. They take the reader from fortunes built by 19th century timber barons to lost wealth of the Great Depression. From the Carpathian Mountains of southern Poland to the terrors of World War Two. From concert halls of New York and Paris to the back roads of northern Minnesota. In the chickenhouse, Affield discovered the stories behind his mother’s suicide attempts, violence, rage, and eventual commitment to a mental hospital.