Seeking a big red book from the 30's with anthropomorphized objects.
316C: Anthropomorphized objects
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Category Archives: 1930s or earlier
316B: The mystery of the dead cousin
It’s a mystery/thriller, with some paranormal overtones. I was born in ’66 and I believe I’d read it by the time I entered high school in ’80, so it must have been written sometime before then. Possibly way before then, as I recall the book was a beat-up paperback when I picked it up.
It’s about a set of female cousins. One is dramatically beautiful, outgoing and rich, and kind of mean; she dies (I think before the book’s action begins) and leaves her estate to her cousin, who bears a certain resemblance to her but is kind and introverted. The good cousin moves into the house and begins thinking her dead cousin was murdered, I think? She also starts behaving oddly – more like the dead cousin. She dyes her hair to match the dead cousin. I vaguely recall a reference to “silver blonde” or something like that.
There’s a love interest for the cousin – I want to say he’s a lawyer? And that he also had some kind of relationship with the dead cousin? Maybe?
I think the dead cousin’s name is Cathy or Kathy, or maybe it’s the surviving cousin’s name? I don’t remember how the book develops the ghost angle – whether the ghost is real or just the cousin’s imagination – but I’m pretty sure it turns out she was murdered.
There’s a supporting character who’s a friend of the living cousin. I remember she shows up at one point and is described as an earth mother type, I think, and says something about the coffee she’s offered – like “heavens, yes, keep it coming” or maybe “I like my coffee like I like my men” but I could be wrong on that.
God I hope that’s enough because it’s driving me nuts, and I can’t find it, and this is all I recall.
315W: A lion of a tale
It's a children's book, kind of big, maybe 8"x10", old, probably from the 60's or earlier. Hardcover. There is a lion on the front, I think the cover was pinkish. Multiple stories, one involving a lion that gave his hair to birds and lost it all, so they brought him leaves. I think another was about monkeys. I've been searching for years. Halp! 😀
315I: The Marvelous Train Trip
The book was hardcover, dark blue, large (10″ x 7″) about 1″ thick. The characters in the story: Fritz, a workman who has restored a venerable steam locomotive, a boy who takes the locomotive on a trip across the United States.
The locomotive cannot stop, but can slow down for a variety of adventures, such as traveling through the New York subway, and rescuing people from a forest fire (perhaps inspired by the fire at Pestigo, WI). Upon return, Fritz announces that the “bearings are burned out,” and the final picture shows the locomotive’s diamond stack off to one side, and a deer’s skull and antlers on the wall.
This book was in my Grandmother’s home in Berkeley, California. I would have paded through it when I was six in 1949. I was overseas in the Army when she died. The house, and all the books, were sold.
313L: Two Ladybugs Make Slippers
When I was a child, we enjoyed many books from the local library (located at Coventry Rd and Euclid Heights Boulevard in Cleveland Heights, Ohio).
A favorite was about two bugs. I remember them pictured as lady bugs named Pimpernel and Cochineal. Their friend Bagley Beetle was sick and they went to visit him and gave him some slippers they made for him.
Book was probably printed 1930’s or earlier.
309V: Children Stranded on Island
Children stranded on island, cared for by older sister, and rescued by a ship at end. The sister only regrets that one child’s broken leg had been set incorrectly. I read this in the fifties, probably published before WW II.
309L: How human beings “diversified”
I am hoping to find a book that my father read to me when I was about 5 years old. After that, I remember reading it myself for years. This was a very long time ago…probably 1948 or so. No, I don’t remember the name of the book or the author but I can still visualize the black and white line drawings. The book told the story of how human beings “diversified” and the different races and ethnic groups evolved as they traveled across the Earth over centuries. The groups of people were called by various nonsense names….as I recall, there were names like Goopledops but that’s about as close as I can get. I know it was a hardcover book. I wonder if anyone remembers it. Thank you.
309K: Turn back to the front and read it again!
I grew up in the mountains of Virginia. In my three room country school, there were very few books, but there is one I remember very fondly and would love to have a copy of it.  I don’t remember the title or author, but I would have read this around 1946 or 1947.  Here is a gist of the story. A family lives very happily in a tiny, tidy one room house. One day they decide that their house is too small so they begin adding rooms onto the one room. They continue to add so many rooms (one behind the other) that they seldom see their family members. I believe that the house became such a curiosity that train tracks were built along side the house so tourists could see it.  The family members navigated this long house on roller skates. One day the family happened to meet together in one of the many rooms and decided that they were much happier in their one room. So they proceeded to tear down all of the added rooms until their house was back to the one room. Here is the part that intrigued me and the reason I believe I still remember it. On the final page, it said. “If you want to see what this family did next, turn back to the front of the book and read it again!”
308B: Putting on Poochie Powder
Looking for a children’s book my mother, born in 1956, would have read as a child. She remembers it involving dogs having a party, getting messy and taking a bath, and putting on “poochie powder” or “poochy powder” after the bath.
306Z: Her face is on the moon
I would like to find a children’s book about a cat who’s mother has died and now is a face on the moon. It was written c.1939-1945. I thought the author was Ben Hecht but the book is not listed among his bibliography.
The book was in color and maybe 15 pages in length. The mother communicates with her daughter every moonlit night.