STL Scavenger

 Shirley J                         Adult Non-Fiction                  Scavenger Hunt/St. Louis

STL Scavenger: The Ultimate Search for St. Louis' Hidden Treasures by Dea Hoover  184 pages

All 366 clues in this book are written in rhyme they take you through 17 neighborhoods in St. Louis (Soulard, Beov, the Hill, Downtown, Forest Park, etc.)and to some of its surrounding cities, Ferguson, Edwardsville, St. Charles sharing clues to uniques sites in all of the areas covered to delight and surprise readers.   The bonus here is that the book is actually a real scavenger hunt and anyone solving all 366 of the clues can submit their findings to:  www.stlscavenger.com between May 1 and December 1, 2021.   All of the correct submissions will be put in a hat and a name will be drawn for the 1st prize - $500   2nd prize is a goodie bag from STL Made full of local fun stuff and 3rd prize will also be StL memorabilia.  So making a present of this book to someone is truly the gift that keeps on giving whether you win the prize or not you get the fun of  learning more about the area and seeing things you might never have known existed.   Kudos to Dea who is both a local tour guide, a state of Missouri tour guide and an international tour guide owning her own businesses scheduling each.  Kudos to Dea Hoover for making good use of her pandemic downtime! 

Hemingway’s Saint Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy

Hemingway’s Saint Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy by Andrew J. Theising 158 pages

Readers and scholars are aware of Ernest Hemingway’s connection to St. Louis. He was great friend with the Smiths, a high-profile St. Louis family and three of his four wives hailed from the Gateway City. This book is not about St. Louis’ connection to the writer but about those people who influenced him. If anyone is looking for a guide to visit Hemingway attractions, well, there aren’t any.

I lied. There is probably one: The house at 4748 Westminster Place. That was the home of Laura Charles, the woman who raised Katy Smith, Hadley Richardson’s friend, who introduced the two. There’s nothing to see except the house’s exterior.

The chapter on the Smith Family is confusing and seems to be all over the place. I kept having to reread paragraphs to really know who author Theising was discussing.

The rest of the book was a little better. Each chapter focused on an important St. Louis family who touched Hemingway in some remote way. However, this scholarly work is written in the style that I don’t like about reading some biographies---it’s a list of what happened when, and sometimes not in chronological order. I was never able to get to know these people. They are abstract versions of anyone, anywhere.

The most interesting part of the book is the list of “Untimely Ends.”  I knew that Ernest’s father had committed suicide, but I was unaware that his brother and sister also met the same fate. In addition, there were many (12 in all) people in Ernest’s wide circle who died before the age of 70. That could make an interesting book, how all those young deaths attributed to his suicide.

I learned of this book when the author did a segment of KETC’s “Living St. Louis” show.  It was much more fascinating hearing Andrew Theising talk about the Hemingway’s St. Louis connection than it was to read the book. Therefore, “Hemingway’s Saint Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy,” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Candy Men:The Story of Switzer's Licorice

Candy Men:The Story of Switzer's Licorice by Patrick Murphy    182 pages 

Summary (from Library catalog): The sweet smell of licorice and the giant candy bar painted on the factory wall at the Eads Bridge remain locked into the collective memory of generations of St. Louisans. Candymen: The History of Switzers Licorice tells the story of how two Irish-American families began a candy company in the kitchen of a tenement in St. Louis' Irish slum and showed the world how the American Dream can be built upon a foundation of candy. In a story that passes through three generations, two World Wars, economic depressions, and labor unrest, the Murphys and the Switzers dedicated their lives to keeping the dream alive until it was put to an end by forces beyond their control. And yet, in an unlikely turn of events, the story continues today with a fresh twist and a renewed life of its own.

And here's what I thought:

I had seen a segment on Living St. Louis about this book and it sounded really interesting. Because I'm not from St. Louis, I'm still learning a lot about the City and its history --- and while I didn't have memories of Switzer's Licorice to draw upon, the book was still really interesting. Learning about these two families was interesting, especially because a few of the really influential people weren't actually men, but women (which makes me think that the title should be Candy Men (and the incredibly savvy and strong women who helped them)....).  It's fun to learn about this company and think about where their buildings were located, as well as the candies they made. I found myself wondering how some of them tasted, too --- Buttermellos sound pretty good!

This is a good book to read in tandem with Candy Freak by Steve Almond.

Gateway to Equality

Gateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis by Keona K.Ervin, 269 pages

Ervin frames the book with two national protests in which black women in St. Louis organized an effective worker strike in 1933 and a renters strike in 1969. Before and between those major successes, Gateway to Equality identifies the backgrounds and passions of about a dozen major female organizers in St. Louis who had national experience and impact. The book highlights major justice work in the twentieth century and the central roles of female St. Louis activists during this time. 

Before cell phones and text messages, hundreds of women organized a strike across different plants because their wages were unlivable at $4.60 per week and had been lowered six times. Despite the general conceptual and organizational divide between church and communist perspectives, the women combined insights, organizing and emotions in their leadership. They organized to focus on issues of survival and justice, and to include rather than isolate different perspectives. 

Gateway reviews movements where women led in CORE and Southern Tenant Farmers Union; organized strikes for garment workers; organized boycotts and strikes for jobs against a defense contractor, banks, drug stores and neighborhood shops; ran effective campaigns for city and state political positions; created fair housing legislation; wrote reports on Missouri prisons; and organized unions.

In 1969 black working-class women led thousands of public-housing tenants from Pruitt-Igoe, Carr Square, Vaughn and Cochran developments in a strike against St. Louis Housing Authority (SLHA). The substance of their strike was an expression of dignity and a public demand for respect: the public needed to know that working women who made $75 a month in wages could not afford to pay $55 per month to house, feed, clothe and transport themselves and their children. They and their supporters carried signs that read “Sure Fire Riot Control—Lower Rent,” “March Now—Eat Later,” “Make the Roaches Pay Rent Too!” They demanded lower rents, increased representation on housing board commissions, improved maintenance, better pest control and police protection, improved utility services and financial transparency of the SLHA. Their protest was covered by national news, drew from a rich history of organizing by black women, gained almost all of its objectives, and influenced local, state and national housing policies.

Keona Ervin’s Gateway to Equality is important justice history, women’s history, and St. Louis history.

The Color of Law

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein, 345 pages


Rothstein sets the stage for his argument in the introduction. First, he establishes the difference between de jure and de facto segregation. De jure segregation is segregation by law and public policy while de facto segregation is segregation by private practices. Rothstein invokes legal theory set forth by Supreme Court Justice Roberts that the government should be obligated to remedy segregation that is sponsored by the government. Roberts says that most segregation doesn't fall into that category. Rothstein sets out to refute that assertion.

He spends most of the book showing how Federal, State and local government was involved in segregation through either laws, ignoring laws or court decisions, through policy or by being complicit in allowing segregation. Some policies weren't explicitly stated as for segregation but their effect clearly was. In some cases, their stated policy wasn't for segregation but their words and actions were towards segregation. There is documentation to show that government increased the level of segregation. There are actually several examples from St. Louis or nearby.

Rothstein does a good job of making his case. There are a few instances where some examples can be disputed but they don't take away from his overall case. He admits that some scholars would argue that we don't need to distinguish between public and private segregation and that government should have to fix it regardless of if the government caused it but he sticks to his narrow argument.

His fixes mostly involve different methods to integrate society. He admits it would be difficult to get them implemented.

There is so much of history that is never taught in school. I am glad I read this book because I was completely unaware of most of the information presented in this book.

I would especially recommend this to those interested in history or social justice or anybody with an open mind who likes non-fiction.

The Campbell Quest: A Saga of Family and Fortune

The Campbell Quest: A Saga of Family and Fortune by Patrick Campbell MacCulloch   352 pages

The Campbell House Museum and the St. Louis Public Library are teaming up for an exhibit called The Grand Tour. It will run from June 11-August 22, 2015. The exhibit features the 11-month Grand Tour the Campbell’s and their three sons to Europe and Africa.

In anticipation of this joint venture, I decided to read a book I bought several years ago when the author was visiting St. Louis.

The book gives an overall history of the Campbell family from the time Robert and his older brother Hugh left Ireland bound for America in 1822.  Hugh stayed behind in Philadelphia, but Robert went west. Using St. Louis as his home base, he went further west and became a “mountain man,” a fur trader. Robert was skillful in the art of negotiation and soon, with his partner William Sublette, established a trading company and eventually built the Fort Laramie (yes, that one).

After his trapper days were over, Robert returned to St. Louis where he married Virginia Kyle. He became an increasing influence in the St. Louis financial and political world. Among the frequent dinner guests at the couple’s home were Chief Red Cloud and President U. S. Grant.

The Campbell Quest: A Saga of Family and Fortune is filled with letter from Robert and Hugh to each, to their family back in Ireland, and between Robert and Sublette. They provide a window into that world.

However, one thing that I was particularly interested in was Robert’s estate. When he died in 1879, he left (in 2009 terms) $69 million dollars. At that time, it seemed simple to settle. Virginia was still alive as were three of their thirteen children. The youngest son died young in 1890; the oldest son died in 1931, and the middle son died in 1938. However, none of the sons had produced off-spring, legitimate or otherwise. So began a massive undertaking of locating direct heirs with whom the remaining $21 million estate (in 1937 dollars) should be divided. However, the middle son had made a bequest to Yale University. There ensued a fight a fight to determine how much of the remaining fortune should go to Yale and to the heirs, if and when they could be determined and found. The law was quite complicated on how heirs were determined.

The Campbell story is quiet interesting. I was annoyed by the author’s remarks with the family letters. That why I give The Campbell Quest: A Saga of Family and Fortune three out of five stars.