Wednesday, September 9, 2015

A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness - and a Trove of Letters - Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression

A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness - and a Trove of Letters - Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression
By Ted Gup
Penguin Press, 2010.  365 pgs. Nonfiction

Finding an old suitcase full of letters addressed to B. Virdot in his grandfather Sam Stone's attic, Ted Gup embarks on a quest to discover the fates of those who sent them. In the depths of the Great Depression, using the pseudonym B. Virdot, Sam Stone ran a newspaper ad offering Christmas cash to needy families in Canton, Ohio. The author searches newspapers, birth and death records, prison records, all in an attempt to learn what happened to the people his grandfather helped.  Discovering their fates, he also learned about the intense suffering people experienced during the Depression and the secrets of his grandfather's past. SH

No comments: