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| Welcome to my Blog! Wander through wonderful worlds real and fictional, meet interesting people, visit exciting places and find a few good books to enjoy along the way! |
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| About the Book |
Can two women get the lowdown on high society?
“Two powerless young women must navigate a soul-crushing class system and find the levers of power they wield when they combine their strengths. These women may have been taught to whisper, but when their time comes, they will roar.”
– 5 Star Amazon Review
Louisa Delafield and Ellen Malloy didn’t ask to be thrown together to bring the truth to light. But after Ellen witnesses the death of a fellow servant during an illegal abortion, Louisa, a society columnist, vows to help her find the truth and turn her journalistic talent to a greater purpose.
Together, these unlikely allies battle to get the truth out, and to avenge the wrongful death of a friend.
What will our heroes do when their closest allies and those they trust turn out to be the very forces working to keep their story in the dark? They’ll face an abortionist, a sex trafficking ring, and a corrupt system determined to keep the truth at bay.
“If you like historical fiction and if you like mysteries, this one is for you!”
– 5 Star Amazon Review
Was change possible in 1913?
To find out, read THE WHISPERING WOMEN today!
“Richly drawn characters, the vibrant historical setting, and a suspenseful mystery create a strong current that pulls readers into this delightful novel. But it's the women's issues—as relevant today as they were in the early 1900s—that will linger long after the last page."
-- Donna S. Meredith, The Southern Literary Review
Thanks so much for the opportunity to talk about some of my historical interests that relate to the Delafield & Malloy Investigations series!
In The Whispering Women, the first book in my Delafield & Malloy Investigations series, the inciting incident of the story is the death of a young woman during an illegal abortion in 1913. I did not intend to write a political story. At the time I was writing it, abortion wasn’t even in the news. I was simply writing about something that was a problem for women at the time and developing a plot around it.
In the third and most recent book in the series, Secrets and Spies, the plot centers around the presence of German spies and saboteurs in New York City in 1915, two years before the United States entered the Great War. The information I found was absolutely fascinating and sometimes horrific. I was especially disturbed when I learned that German saboteurs killed hundreds of potential war horses in New York with a bacteria called glanders.
However, the topic I want to discuss for this blog is the protest movement in 1914 New York City, which I covered in The Burning Bride! Wow! When I first started this book, I had no idea that Emma Goldman was publishing a magazine for anarchists called Mother Earth or that a 21-year-old man was leading an army of hungry unemployed men into churches demanding that they adhere to the teachings of Jesus and house and feed the hungry. Some of the churches responded with kindness. Others did not!
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| New York church |
The young man in question was Frank Tannenbaum. When he led a group of a couple hundred protestors to St. Alphonsus Church to demand food and shelter, he and his group were met by an overwhelming force of police.
Here is how I described the event in my book, using primary sources:
According
to the reporter, the priest ordered them to leave, but the men refused,
standing on the pews, yelling. A few frightened congregants were quoted in the
paper. One woman had insisted that the fellow standing in her pew take off his
cap out of respect. Which he did. Frank had asked the priest to let the men
sleep in the church that night.
Ellen read the story, outrage
building a fire in her mind.
“You'll do nothing of the kind,”
Father Adrian replied. “The Catholic church is no place for you to sleep, and I
strongly object to the way you entered here.”
“Well, will you give us money to buy
food?”
“No.”
“Will you give us work?” Frank asked.
Again Father Adrian refused.
“But I tell you we're starving,”
Frank implored.
Of course, starving men and women
were not Father Adrian’s problem.
According to the account, Frank had finally given up but it was too late. The police were bound and determined to end the threat of Frank Tannenbaum.
Frank Tannenbaum spent a year in jail and was fined the exorbitant sum of five hundred dollars all because he demanded food and shelter for hungry, out-of-work people. That’s where Frank’s story ends in the book, but he later went on to attend Columbia University, earn a Ph.D. in economics and eventually become an expert on Mexico and Latin America.
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| Frank Tannenbaum. Public Domain. This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ggbain.19596. |
Another historical figure from that era whom I found fascinating was Becky Edelsohn. She was a feisty anarchist who stood up to authority any chance she got. One time, she opened the door of a limousine and spit in a plutocrat’s face. She was famous for her signature red stockings, for her fiery speeches, and for being one of the first hunger strikers in the U.S.
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| Becky Edelsohn under arrest, public domain |
Anarchists get a bad rap these days, and even then, they would sometimes use violence to call attention to their cause. But remember that in the early 20th century, there was no such thing as “unemployment insurance” or “workmen’s comp” and children often worked 15-hour days in dangerous factories while the wealthy lived extravagant lives of conspicuous consumption. It’s understandable that the poor, and the activists who advocated for them, were so outraged.
I got a lot of information about this era from a terrific book titled More Powerful Than Dynamite by Thai Jones, and both Emma Goldman and her first husband, Alexander Berkman (who went to prison for trying to kill Henry Frick) wrote memoirs. I was even able to find copies of Mother Earth online.
I’m lucky that my brother lives in Manhattan and so I’ve been able to do so much research in the area. On one trip I took a tour with the Bowery Boys — I highly recommend their podcast series!! — and got to see the Greenwich Village apartment building where Emma Goldman, once labeled the “most dangerous woman in America,” lived.
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| Emma Goldman’s apartment |
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| Franco |
About the Author:
Trish MacEnulty is a bestselling novelist. In addition to her historical fiction, she has published novels, a short story collection, and a memoir. A former Professor of English, she currently lives in Florida with her husband, two dogs, and one cat. She writes book reviews and feature articles for the Historical Novel Review. She loves reading, writing, walking with her dogs, streaming historical series, cooking, and dancing.
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You might also like
books written by Helen Hollick
Website: https://helenhollick.net/
Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
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Thank you so much for hosting Trish MacEnulty today, Helen. Such a fascinating post! xx
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