I Curley
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
I have written this book not because I make any pretensions as an author or writer, although I always said, “someday I am going to write a book of my life just as I lived it.” My second husband said, “start a book, you can do it.” I had too many responsibilities, my husband’s disability, business and home to take care of. Any one writing a book would have to be alone so we could concentrate on what we want to write. My husband had so much faith in my ability that I regret he is not here to read my book. But I really believe if we do things to please our departed loved ones it means something in our natural life. But the point that I want to bring out is the difference in the way we lived in the year 1876. We got the kerosene lamp and a lantern to carry outside at night. Then we did not have to go to bed so early. Our garbage was buried in the garden to fertilize the ground. Now, everything is run down the sewer or burned in an incinerator, that robs the ground of its natural fertilizer. We were more satisfied those days than they are now with all of our wonderful inventions.
I have no special characters or chapters in my book.
A.M.F.S.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Alda M. Figel-Sallier was an ordinary woman who lived an ordinary life, but that doesn’t mean her life was unimportant.
Known as “Curley” to her family for her curly hair, she wrote her life story of stream-of-consciousness reflections, which has been left unedited in this book with an introduction by her great-great granddaughter.
Sallier recalls growing up in rural Indiana in the 1870s and 1880s, becoming a railway man’s wife, and then a mother. Through her eyes, we’re shown flawed men and women, tiny triumphs and crushing losses, and what life was like for everyday people during a booming time in the United States of America.
I Curley is a detailed look at what life was like at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century as told through an account of a life well lived.
About the Author
Alda M. Figel-Sallier was born and raised in Leo, Indiana, in 1872. She was a homemaker for much of her life, but she was also a seamstress, mother, pianist, and a landlord. She never intended to write a great literary work with her autobiography, I Curley, but she wanted to put her life down on paper as she remembered it. Figel-Sallier died in Warren, Indiana, in 1960.
Gwendolyn Ash is the author’s great-great-granddaughter. She earned a degree from Indiana University in English and works in publishing. She resides in Bloomington, Indiana.