This book, clearly the result of excellent research and a lot of intuition, has a long title: Let Freedom Sing: of 19th Century Americans – An Historical Novel or Could It Be a Musical? Vivian B. Kline, a well-known Cincinnati artist and creator of wonderful enamels, wrote the book. Prior to this one, she had written a family biography – beginning with her mother, herself, her daughter and granddaughter. Keeping history so close to us.
This book covers a sweeping period of history – starting soon after the Civil War, and heading toward the 20th century. In this tumultuous time, African Americans began the historical black colleges and universities we support today, the feminists made their first entrance on to the scene, and public entertainments were widely available – since there was no TV to keep us home.
Vivian, who lives a couple of neighborhoods away from me, has done really good work in her research. I also like the way she has tied it all together, as a class project of some of today’s kids learning about the past. And she has brought out really great characters, folk like us who simply did not give up, who knew what they had to do and just continued each day to try to make the next step of their dream come true.
Hurray for everyday heroes. And hurray for Vivian. And thanks to friend Carolyn, who gave me the book for my birthday!