It’s late Friday evening and I suddenly remember that I haven’t put in an advent calendar post yet. Who was it that came up with this silly challenge, in the midst of everything else going on in December? Oh, right… It was me, wasn’t it…
Have you solved the riddles yet, from yesterday?
I shall of course give you the answers but I’ll wait another day.
As I mentioned in passing, besides the book of riddles, there were two other books without spines in that old cover. One came from my mother’s side of the family, and I get the impression this was originally published serially in a magazine, in 1945 – but all the parts collected, so that the book is complete (just not bound). It’s a story about a pair of Scotch twins, translated from English.
I used to read this, and a few other books that had belonged to my mum and her sister, when visiting my maternal grandfather back in my pre-teens and early teens. (When his house was sold after he died, I kept a few favourites, including this.)
Moreover, when looking it up on the internet, I learned that this was far from the only book written by its author, Lucy Fitch Perkins. She lived 1865-1937 and was an American illustrator and writer of children’s books who got quite famous in her day for a whole series of books about twins. But not the same twins. Her stories are set in various countries all over the world, in quite different circumstances and time periods. But they’re nearly all about twins. Besides the Scotch Twins, she wrote about Dutch Twins, Belgian Twins, Japanese Twins, Eskimo Twins, Swiss Twins, French Twins, Mexican Twins, Italian Twins, Irish Twins, Cave Twins, Spartan Twins, Puritan Twins, and American Twins of the Revolution… And possibly even more twins that I haven’t come across yet. Quite a few of them are available free for Kindle. Just out of curiosity, when I’ve finished rereading this one about the Scotch twins, I think I shall have to try at least one of the others for comparison… if only because the very idea seems so unique!
(I’m thinking that of my blogging friends, Meike might be the most likely to give one a go as well…?)
The Wiki article says that for each book, Perkins would try to interview an individual who grew up in the given country to gain an understanding of the particular customs there.
Another article I found online also says that Lucy Perkins was active in a number of community arts, social reform and women's rights movements, including the Chicago Woman’s Club and the League of Women Voters.
