Sisters, Seeds, & Cedars: Rediscovering Nineteenth Century Life Through Correspondence from Rural Arkansas and Alabama [VINTAGE 1995] [UNCIRCULATED EX-GENEOLOGY DEPARTMENT LIBRARY REFERENCE COPY] [FIRST EDITION]

Fine unread condition brown faux leather boards with gold front cover and spine lettering contained in a fine condition non price-clipped color illustrated dust jacket. Includes Table of Illustrations and Photographs; Foreword by Senator Pryor; Introduction; Acknowledgments; Afterword; Appendix A: Family Connections/Tree; Appendix B: Geneological Charts in Alphabetical Order; Appendix C: Principal Families Index; and Appendix D: People and Places. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs and preliminary page maps entitled: 1) Harmony Grove Community from Corps of Engineers map (circa 1865) and 2: Mulberry Community in Autauga County, AL. "For Reference: Not to be taken from this room" sticker neatly affixed to upper edge of inner front board, five library stamps and a black marker crossing out the ISBN label. Uncirculated "For Reference" Not to be taken from this room" Geneology Department copy. "Sisters, Seeds, & Cedars is the compelling story of family life and relationships in a nineteenth century Arkansas community. The letters span three generations, providing an intimate view of the devotion, pride, joys, and sorrows of everyday life." - from the rear outer jacket. "As sources about life in southern Arkansas during the 19th century, these famlly letters are priceless." - Dee Brown, Arkansas author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. "A fascinating portrait of the American South. These letters offer an intimate view of a family from antebellum worlds to the twentieth century." - WIlliam Ferris, Director, Center for the Study of Southern Culture. "Two sisters, Cornelia and Clara, begin the narrative with a series of short notes to their father asking for presents of hair ribbons. From this girlish beginning, the plot expands to include a hundred years of family and friends. Clara leaves Alabama to visit Brother George, Brother Joh, Sis Fannie, and Sis Millie in Arkansas while Cornelia remains in Alabama to stay with her parents and teach school. Letters cross the Mississippi River regularly, always full of family and community news. Babies are born, couples marry, and loved ones ar buried with a gentle language that captures their joy, expectations, disappointments, and grief. Clara finds love in Arkansas and marries, thus becoming a member of the Arkansas community. She and her husband are farmers filled with the need to till the soil, plant, and watch things grow. Seeds, especially flower seeds, are requested from Alabama as a way to bring a portion of "home" into their transplanted lives. Clara even asks for seedlings of the cedar trees from the family cemetery in Alabama when she loses her two small children on the same day and must begin her own family cemetery in Arkansas. When war comes to the communities in 1861 correspondence across the Mississippi becomes sporadic at best and almost nonexistent for four years, but life continues and efforts are made to stay in contact with family members, some of whom are in battle. Emotions run high and there is a constant concern for the well-being of those dear people who are far afield. The harshness of life is never more evident than the period during the war which demanded courage from everyone. But the people endure and emerge stronger. Cornelia joins her family in Arkansas. Second generations take their place in the community, and the cycle begins again. These letters are a miscrocosm of America. People like these letter writers built communities, suffered the same hardships, nurtured the same strengths, and experienced the same emotions in every part of this nation. They sowed not only cotton and corn; they sowed the seeds of a future world power. They not only planted roses, hyacinths, and cedar trees; they planted values for generations to come." - from the inner front and rear jakcet flaps.…