The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life through the Pages of a Lost Journal

by Lily Koppel

Rescued from a Dumpster on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a discarded diary brings to life the glamorous, forgotten world of an extraordinary young woman.

For more than half a century, the red leather diary lay silent, languishing inside a steamer trunk, its worn cover crumbling into little flakes. When a cleaning sweep of a New York City apartment building brings this lost treasure to light, both the diary and its owner are given a second life.

Recovered by Lily Koppel, a young writer working at the New York Times, the journal paints a vivid picture of 1930s New York—horseback riding in Central Park, summer excursions to the Catskills, and an obsession with a famous avant-garde actress. From 1929 to 1934, not a single day's entry is skipped.

Opening the tarnished brass lock, Koppel embarks on a journey into the past, traveling to a New York in which women of privilege meet for tea at Schrafft's, dance at the Hotel Pennsylvania, and toast the night at El Morocco. As she turns the diary's brittle pages, Koppel is captivated by the headstrong young woman whose intimate thoughts and emotions fill the pale blue lines. Who was this lovely ingénue who adored the works of Baudelaire and Jane Austen, who was sexually curious beyond her years, who traveled to Rome, Paris, and London?

Compelled by the hopes and heartaches captured in the pages, Koppel sets out to find the diary's owner, her only clue the inscription on the frontispiece—"This book belongs to . . . Florence Wolfson." A chance phone call from a private investigator leads Koppel to Florence, a ninety-year-old woman living with her husband of sixty-seven years. Reunited with her diary, Florence ventures back to the girl she once was, rediscovering a lost self that burned with artistic fervor.

Joining intimate interviews with original diary entries, Koppel reveals the world of a New York teenager obsessed with the state of her soul and her appearance, and muses on the serendipitous chain of events that returned the lost journal to its owner. Evocative and entrancing, The Red Leather Diary re-creates the romance and glitter, sophistication and promise, of 1930s New York, bringing to life the true story of a precocious young woman who dared to follow her dreams.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Book Club, History, Biography Memoir, New York

320 pages, Hardcover

First published April 8, 2008

About the author

Lily Koppel is the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of The Astronaut Wives Club (Now an ABC Television Series Premiering June 18th at 8|7c) and The Red Leather Diary. "[An] entertaining and quirky throwback...This is truly a great snapshot of the times," says Publisher's Weekly of The Astronaut Wives Club. She has written for The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and Glamour. Koppel grew up in Chicago and attended Barnard College and Oxford. She currently resides in New York.

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lily Koppel then 22 has just moved to New York to work for the Times. The superintendent of her brownstone has decided once and for all to move years of forgotten items to the dumpster. Of these items is a red leather diary inside of a trunk that Lily rescues.

The diary's author is a nonagenarian named Florence Howitt nee Wolfson. I find the 14-19 year old Florence to be a sophisticated woman for her time. Not only did she receive a bachelors from Hunter College and a masters from Barnard during the depression, she also became a successful artist and writer. Most women of the age if they attended college at all were happy to receive their Mrs degree.

Additionally, Florence was well versed in all the art forms of the day and at 91 can still quote the masters of her youth. Also she was accomplished in tennis and horseback riding, which were not viewed as feminine pastimes 80 years ago. Florence looking back says that after marriage she lead an ordinary life in the Connecticut suburbs. Reading about young Florence her life and relationships seems anything but normal. She might not have accomplished all she set out at 14, but she seems to have lived a full life. As she and Lily both say, the diary is her gift.

The one drawback I have noticed from other reviews is that the prose jumps from Lily's voice to Florence's. I don't find that to be choppy; after all this is a diary. If anything, Lily's commentary keeps us rooted in the present in an otherwise window to the past.
I would recommend this book. It offers us a glimpse into 1930s America. Usually this era is viewed as the gloomy depression. We are not given snapshots of people who managed to achieve despite the bleakness of the decade. Red Leather Diary manages to do that by giving us a life just beginning with little mention of the despair that most have heard about many times. Thank you Florence for sharing your diary and Lily for putting it in book form. A light and charming read, I rate this memoir 3.5 stars.

[Janelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first I thought it was the fact that I couldn't relate to Florence's life growing up that caused me to not like the book. It's not that we grew up 60 years apart, that caused me to unrelate, it was her upper middle class, lower upper class upbringing, her lesbian trysts, her quest for love to complete her, that I couldn't relate too. It all seemed unrealistic. But then I realized I've read other recounts of people's lives that I was unable to relate to, and enjoyed them. After some thought I realized that it was the writing that drove me to dislike this book. Up until the Chapter on Nat Howitt, I couldn't really follow the story, it was very disjointed and lacked fluidity. I constantly found myself trying to figure out how old she was when such and such was happening. It seemed just random bits carelessly strung together. And, the author just seemed pompus (maybe it was her picture). Great conceptn, poor execution. I had to force myself to finish this one, and had I not been reading it for a book club, wouldn't have bothered.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the end of chapter 13:

So far this book is an inspiration of living life to its fullest. Not because this teenager is necessarily more wonderful than any other human being whose footsteps have fallen on this earth; but because you can read it and look at it from afar, and touch its edges of life lived; as if it's in a snow globe or behind a fog of time. You read and you know that there is a 90 year old woman sitting beside you, fingers outstretched, touching the same edge as you are, stirring her own past inside herself. She says she lives more fully and passionately at 90 because of this reflection of self; of the past, the present, and the future swimming together, holding hands, hearts beating in unison. 90 year old Florence will tell you that there is no separate Me Yesterday, Me Today, Me Tomorrow. There is only ME.



The comments I wrote in the Chicks on Lit book club discussion after finishing the book in its entirety:


As I come away from the book with some time to reflect, I find I have some overwhelming thoughts...

Everything we read affects us differently depending on where we are in our lives. I am in a transition. Mourning the loss of a future I'll never have, swimming upstream through the nagging desire to make my future my own, and finally, being immobilized by the realization that decisions are terribly difficult with no black or white answers. Florence, of course, affected me becuase she was in a transition, too (what teenager isn't). I don't think she would have married if she weren't pressured to do so, though I believe that she did love Nat. (Oh, what is love anyway? Now that's a topic for another thread...) Flo wouldn't have done a damn thing to change her life if it weren't by force--the force of her parents, the force of the war, the force of simple adulthood. And as she looked back, a 90 year old woman reflecting upon her youth, she oozed a sense of loss with her words. She said (I'm paraphrasing), "Yes I had a good life, but never the life I'd imagined." At the end, I found myself questioning whether it's ok to live a life never imagined. Can we feel satisfied, looking back from 90 years old, if our lives veered left, right, over, under? I think not. If we want satisfaction, we must embrace the unexpected, lay aside all plans, and swing as freely on our tethers as the wind allows--only then may our aged selves sink into peace.

I look to Lily Koppel as well. The image of her, standing in a pink flapper dress, the fusion of teenage Flo, crone Flo, and Lily herself beating as one heart inside one body. Lily is us. She is all of us. A woman affected by an anonymous life scribbled on diary pages. A woman in the midst of her own soul's path to peace. Is she sitting at her desk, as I am, staring up at ceiling tiles? Are you? And you and you? Are we women, as one, marching towards our future in the shadow of the adult Florence, aching to make our lives our own? I hope so. I hope we are moving forward, by inch and mile, hand in hand together, ready to take what comes. I hope for myself, that the day when I come into my crone self, I can look back and say, "Yes I had a good life, but never the life I'd imagined... And I loved every breath!"

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written -- at times the narrative changed tense and narrator, and it wasn't clear why -- and frustrating. I would have wanted to read the diary, not a fictionalized version of the diary.

[Tricia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here's the most interesting part of this book:
Lily Koppel was a gossip columnist for the New York Times when she found the red leather diary in a dumpster outside her building. She decided to track down the owner, who miraculously was 90 years old and still alive.

Here's the rest of the book:
The owner of the diary, Florence Wolfson, grew up among the Manhattan elite in the '20s and '30s. For Florence, life was all about art, plays, music, literature, and sexual experimentation with both men and women. She was self-centered, moody, and melodramatic. Florence grew up with virtually no parental guidance and no religious or moral conviction.

It showed.

I thought in the intervening 70 years that maybe Florence would have learned what life is really about. Instead, when the diary was brought to her, she said she felt that rest of her life she had not been true to the "real" person she was--the person from the diary.

[Rose Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love that this journal was found in a dumpster...almost gone forever, but found. And that Lily Koppel found the owner of the diary, and returned it to her.

I was intrigued by all the treasures that were found in the steamer trunks, and this journal added a "voice" to the other treasures.
I loved the photos that were included in the book, and all the historical information on Manhattan.

How wonderful for Florence, who had such a passion for literature in her school/college years, to now have a story of her own, her story, almost forgotten and never told.
Although I think I may have enjoyed it more if told by her, in her own words.

It wasnt an "Oh My God, I cant put it down" kind of book for me (hence the 3 stars, not 4 or 5)
But I did enjoy the peek into a privileged teen girl's life in Manhattan, in the late 20's/early 30's, and the fact that this journal was reunited with its owner after so many years.

I enjoyed meeting Lily Koppel about 2 weeks ago, and hearing the story of how she came to find the journal, and eventually Florence.

[Kate Spears · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. That being said, it was not great by any stretch. It was almost as if the author just described and described things, but nothing ever actually happened. And the things that did happen weren't really stories, just descriptions. The concept was very neat, although I wish that more images from the diary had been used (i.e. her hand-written words/story). The format is where the author (Lily Koppel) would give an excerpt from the diary and then follow it with a long description that sometimes wasn't that interesting. Maybe it is just a hard thing to do, to make someone's un-connected thoughts and musings into a whole book. I think it would have been better in first person also. Now I sound like I didn't like it, but I did. Just my observations!

[Daniel Myatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this book well written? No.

Is this book perfectly edited? No.

But this book is lovely, truely lovely! It is a wonderful reminder of the joy in "things" which link us to our past.

We've become so obsessed with clear spaces and empty rooms that we often get rid of things that will bring us joy later in life. Luckily there are people like the author who is willing to climb into skips (dumpsters) and recover our history.

A wonderful story of two women living in New York, separated by decades. Told after the finding of an old red diary thrown out.

Loved it!

[Book Concierge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Subtitled: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal

Lily Koppel was a young (age 22) writer working at the New York Times when she stumbled upon a dumpster filled with old steamer trunks. Her curiosity piqued, she started scavenging and among the vintage clothing, handbags and general miscellanea she came across an old red leather diary, its cover cracked and peeling. It had originally been given to Florence Wolfson for her 14th birthday – Aug 11, 1929, and Florence dutifully wrote in it every day for the five years allowed on its pages.

The diary gave an intimate look at the life of a relatively privileged young lady in New York from 1919 to 1934. Florence attended the theater, opera, music concerts, had crushes and “love affairs,” read voraciously, studied hard, and was a keen observer of what was going on around her. But the diary did more than offer a fascinating glimpse into the past.

As Lily read the young Florence’s record of her hopes, dreams, experiences, heartbreaks and triumphs, she discovered something about herself. The diary had come to Koppel at a time when she, like the teenaged Florence, was searching for her purpose in life, wondering if she was on the right path, at once eager and frightened to experience new things.

And then Koppel went searching for Florence … and found her.

I was mesmerized from beginning to end.

[Coco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finished! What a disappointment. This book, like "Triangle," had so much promise and just failed to deliver. The premise, that a diary was found in a modern day dumpster, chronicling the life of a young girl coming of age in the late 1920s/early 30s in New York, was excellent. Unfortunately, author Lily Koppel's writing was just lame. Unimaginative and choppy, she types in Florence's journal entries, but nothing more. She just never creates a world or character to captivate the reader.

The only reason I stuck with this one was because it was for my next book club. One part I did enjoy was the early description of the contents of the steamer trunks that were in the dumpster where the discarded diary was found--Lucite handbag, Grace Kelly evening bag, the flapper dress, etc. I had just been going through a box full of vintage hats and gloves for a display case, so this part resonated. One interesting thing I noticed about the vintage evening gloves--women's hands used to be much smaller! My hands are pretty small and I could not even squeeze into most of the gloves.

The lack of compelling descriptive writing also disturbed me. When Lily meets a private detective near the end of the book, she doesn't even bother to describe his appearance. I guess the photo is supposed to satisfy us. I found so many such instances where there were gaping holes. Florence ends up married but we are never told the details, which actually might have been interesting.

Florence, a young Jewish girl, travels to Europe before WWII. She is befriended by two Germans who tell her she's the perfect Aryan woman. She hides her Jewishness. She hangs out with people who protest America's involvement in the war. Koppel never bothers to ask her how she felt about this later in her life. She does, however, spend a lot of time describing Florence's outfits and romantic liaisons.

I think part of the problem is that Koppel identifies so closely with her subject. She takes obvious pride in being told that she and Florence look alike and that Florence was considered a beauty. Koppel loves to relate how fabulous her legs are and write about her glorious red hair. Maybe if she hadn't become so enamored with Florence (she feels like her granddaughter), she would have asked some deeper questions, interviewed Florence's brother, Irving, and talked to her about whether she regretted leading such a selfish life when she was so privileged.

Recently, I was talking with someone who was young during the Great Depression and she said that nobody could afford to do anything back then. According to her, everybody was affected. While Florence touches on the Wall Street Crash and her father losing everything, it didn't seem to slow her down. Her main regret seems to be the loss of her snakeskin coat in a fire when her childhood home burned down. I'm currently reading Katharine Graham's autobiography and the difference between these women is just night and day. Graham can actually write, for one thing, and draws the reader in, making the characters come to life. Although her mother was quite narcissistic and similar in many ways to Florence, Graham gives her dimension and adds humor. The book is not merely a listing of events.

The Red Leather Diary was found in a dumpster. I'd like to put my copy of the book back there.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rare book that can be read over again. A found diary reveals a fascinating world infused with art, love and literature. A young journalist tracks down the woman whose 1930s world was hidden, locked away in a trunk for almost 75 years and then is brought to light. Crystal clear prose shimmer in this debut biography/memoir by Lily Koppel.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. This is the true story of the discovery of a long-forgotten diary. The diary of Florence Wolfson lay undiscovered for over half a century until the author, Lily Koppel, finds it in a dumpster. Koppel is a writer for the New York Times and was naturally curious about the content of the diary. She searched for the diary's author, and 90 year-old Florence told her all about her life in 1920s and 1930s New York. Florence as a teenager had been full of energy and had a zest for life and the arts. Her story is an amazing one. Lily Koppel brings the pages of the diary to life brilliantly.

[melanie (lit*chick) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I loved getting to know Florence Wolfson through the pages of her diary. I loved the history of NYC.
I didn't like so much the presentation by Lily Koppel.Her framing of the pages seemed kind of dry.
Still recommended for a glimpse at life in NYC from diary entries that are really stunning. Florence is a smart lady with an amazingly intersting life.
And it makes me wish I'd kept a diary...

[Matt Marn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look back in time at a life, fully lived and deeply enjoyed, from nearly 100 years ago. What makes this even more poetic is the diary chronicling this young woman's adventures in life was found by a writer, and not only restored and expanded, but returned emotionally to its owner.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though non-fiction, this retelling of the life of a young woman in New York city during the 1920s-30s reads much like historical fiction. It provides a glimpse of the social world of a "brilliant and too individual" girl shortly after the turn of the century... which is in many ways more progressive and exciting than our "liberated" modern environment.

The story-telling vehicle for this book is an tattered old red leather diary found by the author in a dumpster behind her New York apartment building. This lost treasure provides a magical link to the past and lends a sense of excitement and naivete to what might otherwise be a simple biography.

When the author of the book incredibly finds and speaks with the author of the diary, it is touching to find that, like most of us, the dreams of her youth were not realized. Though a point of criticism for some, I found the very ordinariness of the journalist's adult life to be, not a disappointment, but the reality check provided by a life lived.

In reading the other Goodreads reviews, I am struck by the fact that readers are very polarized about this book. In my opinion, the ratings reflect more on the reader than the book. Most critics feel the book is dry, the life not extraordinary enough, and miss the sense of a neatly packaged life "message." If you frequently find yourself bored in anything other than an action film, then you may want to skip reading the Red Leather Diary. If, conversely, you feel you can draw on a sense of wonder upon finding a link to the past in your everyday life, if you still thrill to hear friends tell tales about their past, and if you have not become hardened and blase about romance, then there is a chance that you will be transported by this book and love the read.

[Susann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Florence Wolfson was a smart, privileged Manhattan teenager when she started her diary in 1929. For five years, she faithfully recorded a sentence or two every night. Decades later, Lily Koppel found the diary, found the much older Florence, and told her story.
What a life she had! Her teenage life in the 1930s was leaps and bounds more adventurous than my experiences in the 1980s.
Florence sometimes comes off as a little vain and self-absorbed, but, hey, it's a diary: it's supposed to be self-absorbed. And in the midsts of her preening, Florence is also soaking in the arts, thinking and creating. She takes some gutsy chances and reminds me of my grandmother. I especially liked that Koppel brought us up-to-date with Florence's life. By the end, I got a little teary and felt inspired to buy this:
http://www.raredevice.net/item.php?it...
Because a sentence or two a night is important.
P.S. to Betsy-Tacy fans: there's a Marco in the story, too!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A whole book just on the contents of all those trunks would have been wonderful! The fact that she grabbed the diary, and was able to connect with the owner was such a lucky thing. Florence lived a most unusual life for a young woman of her time, in some ways she got to do ore than teens today. yet in others her life was quite restricted. I found the family tragedies of her friends eye-opening, and looking at her own parents makes you realize the choices they had to make to keep going.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book but ended up very bored by it. The premise of the book is pretty cool. It's the true story written by a young woman journalist-in-training who found a very old diary outside her nyc apartment building a few years ago. Diary was written by a teen ager in 1930s manhattan. She tracks down the woman who wrote the diary who is actually still alive and well. This book is basically a recap of this woman's life, which would only interest me if I knew her personally or was related to her. I rate this book 2 yawns.

[Deborah · Rating 1 out of 5]

having read most of my book club's review of this book I had decided to give it very little time. The 2 parts of the book I found the most interesting was to see NYC though the eyes of someone living in it as it grew up. The seconded was knowing that this woman was a contemporary of my parents. I'm am more grateful than ever for the values my parents lived and died by. A young girl growing up in the wilds of the west had a very different outlook on life than the self indulged girl of this book. I skimmed though it in about 2 hours.

[Ciara · Rating 4 out of 5]

i couldn't believe it when i stumbled across the book at the library! it's a kind of biography of a young woman who kept a diary everyday for five years between the ages of 14 & 19, years 1929-1934. she graduated from her fancy manhattan high school three years early & enrolled at hunter college when she was 15. she had many a love affair with both men & women, edited her college literary journal, harbored aspirations of being a painter or playwright, traveled to europe shortly before the onset of world war two & had an affair with a faux-count who became the subject of "la dolce vita," & generally had one of those very dramatic mid-twentieth-century lives that seem somewhat incomprehensible to people in 2008. & she documented it all in her diary, which was then left in a travel trunk in her basement at 98 riverside drive in manhattan along with corroborating evidence, such as telegrams, dresses, coats, autographed photos, etc. all of this was thrown out into a dumpster by the building management almost 75 years later, & some of it, including the diary, was recovered by the author, lily koppel, on her way to work as a celebrity reporter for the "new york times". after spending a few years reading the diary & wondering about its author, florence, she made the acquaintance of a private investigator, who tracked the now 90-year-old florence down at her florida summer home. lily called her to return the diary & a friendship blossomed, which turned into this book. i love shit like this because i LOVE DIARIES. i am obsessed with diaries. & i am pretty curious about what life was like for people circa 1925-1935 or so, since i think there is a certain degree of similarity between that time period & the ten-year span we are living through right now. & i like the idea of cross-generational friendships. & it is my dream to be walking down the street one day & stumble across a trunk full of historical americana, perhaps including an awesome diary written by a halfways interesting person. dude! so yeah, even though this book kind of has that treacly oprah's book club feel to it, it was totally up my alley.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can you imagine being new to New York City, starting a new career as a journalist and stumbling upon a dumpster full to the brim with old steamer trunks? This is a true story and it is what happened to Lily Koppel in 2003. She made an amazing discovery, an old and cracked red leather diary complete with a broken latch. Inside, she reads the diary of Florence Wolfson, a 14 year old girl when she started the diary in 1929 after she received it as a present. She continued to write in the diary through to 1934 when she turned 19. The diary is a window into the life and mind of a young girl as she grows and matures. Florence writes brief diary entries about theater experiences, literature, shopping and fashion,friendships, family and even her own sexual explorations. Lily became fascinated with the diary and set on a path to find out as much as she could about Florence and was able to locate Florence with much perseverance and the assistance of an investigator.



Ms. Koppel translated the snippets and entries from Florence's diary into a novelistic type story that turns the diary and back story into a wonderful read. I have a special fondness for books related to diaries and letters. I find that diaries and letters take you to the true inner core of a person and you can get a true picture of who they are as a reader. It may be because diaries and letters are usually meant for private inner thoughts and not for mass appeal. There is a genuineness in these types of books that I am drawn to. The Red Leather Diary definitely takes you into the private inner thoughts of Florence, sometimes a bit more than you may want to know. I found Florence to be a woman ahead of her times in many ways and I was thrilled to read that Lily found her and she was reunited with the girl of her youth from the diary. It was also interesting to read about Florence's life after the diary ended and her life now. I believe that the author did a wonderful job bringing to light the pages of Florence's diary and it is a story that I will not forget.


Redlady's Reading Room

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful discovery, this diary and this book.

Lily Koppel has done a magnificent job relating the story of Frances Wolfson to the reader, taking the intimate, personal notes of a private journal, and expanding on them through research.

And what a wonderful life, Frances Wolfson lives! The detail and intimacy, shared by a young teen who certainly never expects anyone to invade, is delightful. So many artistic types, male and female, can relate to so much of the anguish and longing for art and culture in their lives.

How fortuitous to find this journal of the young woman who managed to flit in some remarkable circles of distinguished personnel! To get such a personal account of some of these meetings really makes this book a rare gem.

Kudos to Koppel for the excellent work in finding and recognizing what she had and bringing it all together. And kudos to Frances, for a wonderful life, and her willingness to share.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is AMAZING. I read it in one sitting. It made me want to be better, to do better, and to not get stuck in life just because it's easy. This book may have changed my life by challenging me to change. I will say what it is: inspired (full of love, life, and hope) and real.

I do have to admit I have a thing for diaries full of letters, photos and the like and this niche of a book satisfies many of my desires that I want within the pages of a life in print.

[Rona · Rating 3 out of 5]

First-time author Lily Koppel found an engaging diary written during the Jazz Age by a gifted, beautiful teen, Florence Wolfson who dreamed of becoming a writer but was blown off course by her parents' insistence that she find a rich husband. When Lily tracked her down, nonagerian Florence reconnected with her young self. The author doesn't explore the issues raised by Florence's story, but the book is touching and evocative.

[Didi Wane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admire Florence Wolfson and Lily Koppel. I saw them on the Today Show and was so impressed that I had to get the book. Three more chapters to go and I don't want it to end.

[Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

The diary was the perfect place to lock away her deepest secrets, a chronicle of desire and longing. Anything could be written inside its pages, as thick as a novel, for charting a course as unpredictable as the life of its owner.

This book really spoke to me because of my lifelong love of journaling. It truly is amazing to look back at what you have written and see the wisdom, foolishness, and pure emotions contained on a page. Florence Wolfson Howitt seemed like some exotic creature, but really, she was just an ordinary person living in a time now consigned to black and white photographs. Such spirit, energy, and temper! My favorite chapter was her trip to Europe, as it reminded me of my own freeing experiences in travel. This book captures the fleetingness of life and how the urgency of youth swiftly gives way to the regrets of old age. Florence had an interesting life, but she felt she could have done more with it.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard about this book on NPR and was so intrigued that I raced right out to get it. I have to say, I was somewhat disappointed. The subject of the book, Florence Wolfson, is fascinating, and it's irresistable to learn about her life in 1930s NYC and to draw comparisons to one's own life at that same point, when you're young and energetic and a bundle of potential and possibilities. Florence was (is) clearly a gifted writer and thinker. In fact, I really wish she had been the one to give voice to her entire story. Lily Koppel's tale of finding the diary in an abandoned steamer trunk is fascinating, but limited in how much it can offer the reader. Or maybe it's just Koppel's description that makes it feel limited. I really felt that this story would have sprung to life and been brilliant in the hands of a better storyteller, but often, Koppel's writing style just left me flat. I found myself skimming over some material because of the style in which it was presented, not because of the content itself. Still, it was a delight to be introduced to Florence Wolfson Howitt, and to catch up with the goings-on in her life since she ended her diary.

[Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this book. Florence was such a remarkable young lady and it was a pleasure to get a glimpse of her life through the writing in her diary. I loved the snippets of New York City, her pursuit and wonder of all art, the way she listened to music and went to the theater and museums - just wonderful. I thought her questioning her sexuality was quite frank and her later explanations left me wanting to read more about those times. I enjoyed the fact that so many photographs were included, I felt they added to the narrative.

Lily Koppel's writing style, however, was extremely choppy and a bit disengaged. I could feel her passion for the subject matter and for Florence, but at the same time I felt like some thoughts went unfinished, like she was distracted or trying to add everything she got from the interviews with Florence, yet not getting enough details to complete the thought and so going on to the next bit too quickly.

I did like how at the end of the book, she came full term with many of Florence's friends and let us know how their lives had played out. I would have liked to have known how and why Florence chose to marry the man she did.

[Andie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 2003, Lily Koppel, a young reporter for the New York Times came upon a dumpster of old trunks outside her building on the upper West side. The building, needing storage space was throwing away unclaimed items. Intrigued, Ms. Koppel scavenged and found a coat from Bergdorf Goodman, several pieces of interesting bric-a-brac and a 5-year leather bound diary that had been kept by a young girl named Florence Wolfson from 1929 to 1934.

As Koppel read the diary she became intrigued with the life of this well-to-do New York woman who grabbed life with both hands and pursued philosophy and the arts with the same enthusiasm she pursued men, dancing and nightclubs. She became determined to see if Florence was still alive, and in 2006 reunited Florence with the diary of her much-younger self.

Florence, then flushed out the details of her life and the result is this book - a wonderful glimpse into bygone era an of a woman who lived life to the fullest.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll admit, I had high hopes for this book, and entered into it to mixed feelings about the first 1/3. It grew on me. Florence, the writer of the journal lived an almost magical life in some ways. Friend of poets, and actresses. Sought after by counts, doctors, beautiful women, she seemed to have a shining life in her early days. She searched, wrote, painted, and organized salons, and traveled the world. Just a few years captured into a short journal, found by a journalist, fleshed out and shared with the world. I did lose interest a few times when it became a little too much fleshing out of the history of NY at the time by the author Lily. There are many names and people to remember as well, but as a quick look into the life of NYC for a certain class and life it was an entertaining read.