Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Family Game Night in the 1920s

A deck of cards, a checkerboard, or a chess set seemed a little hum-drum for my intrepid Three Snowbirds. I couldn't picture the ladies playing the Cootie Game they had been in France and seen first hand the infestations the troops suffered. This just wouldn't be Cornelia's idea of a fun evening with the family gathered around a board depicting a WWI battlefield where players moved little red cooties across the board to the "cootie trap." 


This led me to look into what sorts of games a family might gather around the dining table to play. The first one that caught my attention was Snakes and Ladders. Yes, the same board game I played with my daughter in the late 1970s was around in the 1920s. The board has hardly changed. 





I discovered a game called Hokum, which was one of the most popular of the decade. Since the game was unfamiliar to me I wanted to know how it was played. It turns out that Hokum is the forerunner of Bingo and the rules are very similar. 

In 1921 a new sensation hit the market, a board game based on The Wizard of Oz series. This was more than a decade before Judy Garland was carried off to Oz through the magic of Hollywood. The board game doesn't just take us on a tour of Munchkin Land, but all the magical lands in the kingdom of Oz. 

While we're talking of magic, let's not overlook the fascination with all things magical and mystical among us, Parker Brothers introduced a game called the Venician Fortuneteller. It never became as popular as the Mystifying Oracle Ouija or the Ouija Board as it is known today. I don't know about Cornelia, but I'm sure Teddy tried her hand at speaking to the spirit world. Her natural curiosity wouldn't let her miss out on Ouija.




Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Waif Wander: Mary Fortune (1833-19??)


Mary Fortune is a true woman of mystery. Her series of more than five hundred short detective stories was published in the Australian Journal and spanned more than forty years. At the time hers was the longest-running series in crime fiction. She also pioneered the case book form of writing detective stories, which was later used by Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes stories. Seven of her stories were reprinted as THE DETECTIVE’S ALBUM: TALES OF THE AUSTRALIAN POLICE (1871), which was the first book of detective fiction published in Australia.

Mary also wrote poetry, serialized novels, worked as a journalist, and wrote an unreliable memoir. The latter contributed to the mystery surrounding her life. Nobody really knew who she was. Much of her work was published under the pseudonyms “Waif Wander” or just ‘W.W.” with her real name, identity, and, as W.W., even her gender hidden. In her autobiographical writing, there are a few clues to her life, but both she and the Australian Journal guarded her privacy.

Sadly, her desire for privacy was so pervasive that her death passed without any public attention. The exact date of her death remains a mystery. What little we know about her comes from a book collector, J.K. Moir, who began searching for ‘Waif Wander’ in the 1950s. Through his queries to people who might have known her, he located some manuscript poems and a letter signed "M. H. Fortune." It took another generation and the microfilming and indexing of documents from colonial Australia before more information about ‘Waif Wander’ was discovered.


Among the fragmentary information revealed in her autobiographical writing was the mention that she and her little son, George, immigrated to Australia from Canada in 1855. There was no mention of a husband. However, the clue of her immigration led to the discovery of an 1858 'Goldfields marriage' (a public marriage with no minister) of Mary Helena Fortune, nee Wilson to a mounted policeman named Percy Rollo Brett. His occupation also explained her knowledge of police procedures.

The marriage did not last, and in 1866 Brett married a second time without divorcing her. It seems, though, that Mary was the first person in the couple to commit bigamy. Her first husband, Joseph Fortune, died in Canada in 1861, six years after she and her son moved to Australia. There is no evidence that Joseph ever came to Australia, but in 1856 Mary named him the father of her second son, Eastbourne Vawdey Fortune.

The only surviving physical description of Fortune was part of a police inquiry: “40 years of age, tall, pale complexion, thin build; wore dark jacket and skirt, black hat, and old elastic - side boots. Is much given to drink and has been locked up several times for drunkenness. Is a literary subscriber to several of the Melbourne newspapers.”

What we know of her later life is from the 1909 letter J.K. Moir discovered. She was impoverished and nearly blind. Her magazine contributions stopped altogether in 1913. The Australian Journal granted her an annuity and continued reprinting her Detective Album series through 1919. After that, they hired other writers for the popular series which continued until 1933. She created the police procedural and developed the casebook style while Arthur Conan Doyle, who became famous for it, was still in the nursery.

Perhaps this final note on her death is the saddest commentary on her life. The impoverished author’s funeral was paid for by the Australian Journal and she was buried in someone else’s grave. Her final resting place remains unknown, as does whose name is on the gravestone.

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

A Fresh Start

 I haven't been blogging for quite some time. There are so many writers' blogs out there that we don't need another voice telling readers about their writing journey or doing a "how to ..." blog. The simple truth is that I don't like talking about myself and don't have the kind of ego that leads me to want to be the expert of the day. 

So, what do I do with my writing blog?

After much thought about whether or not to remove the blog or use it, I have decided to talk about other writers, their journies, their struggles, and their work. I am going to focus mainly on women mystery writers because my favorite writers are all women and many of them don't get the attention they deserve. This is not to say that men will never appear on my blog. There are a few that I enjoy reading and will be happy to comment about their work. 

Oh, one more thing, expect history. I am a history junkie. In 2020 I did a presentation on women mystery writers who pioneered the genre. Many of them deserve more than a passing mention. I am going to profile some of them in my blog this year. 

If you stop by, you might discover a woman of mystery you didn't know before.