If you want to read again those great Sherlock Holmes books, but are on a budget, why not download the PDF of the story and read it online? 221BakerStreet.org has graciously provided the world with what appears to be the entire Holmes canon. There is also a discussion site, further links, info and just about everything Sherlock you can think of! Coolbeans!
The Fall River Historical Society website is prettier than ever and has some juicy tidbits hidden away for you to find in your explorations. Besides a very complete gift shop, there are some archives of past publications worth looking at.
Here is a PDF copy of their Fall River Historical Society Report from Fall 2002 (Vol. 14, #3). The first article is titled, “Charles Henry Wells: An Insider Speaks of Lizzie.” It is a lengthy one and a must read.
Download your PDF copy here.
From the New York Times, October 22, 1892:
Found this PDF on the web, linked to the Illinois Institute of Technology. Whaaa? I am so confused.
The best I can tell, this document may be a review of some sort by the teacher of Lit 309 (her syllabus is also online). It seems to refer to a book of short stories by Daniel Lyons titled The Last Good Man. According to Amazon.com, the book is described thusly by Library Journal
Like Sherwood Anderson’s classic Winesburg, Ohio , Lyons’s debut collection of 11 stories–winner of the Associated Writing Programs 1992 Award in Short Fiction–lifts the rock off a seemingly sleepy town to cast light on the quietly desperate secret lives of its inhabitants. Lawton Falls, Massachusetts is a dying mill city whose ethnically mixed population includes politicians, priests, blue-collar workers, mixed-up teens, and the newspaperman of the title tale who, at the end of an undistinguished career, wrestles with the morality of making “a great deal of money in an illicit fashion.” Lyons, a remarkably gifted writer, renders these slices of life with compassion and a keen eye for telling detail. Highly recommended.
- David Sowd, formerly with Stark Cty. District Lib., Canton, Ohio
While the review for the book on Amazon does not mention the Borden case, I guess I am to assume from this piece on Sharon Quiroz’s site that the story “The Miracle” does. If so, then this is news to me. I guess I am going to have to check this one out of my local library and figure it all out.
Here is the entire text from the PDF:
Lyon City
Lawton Falls is the town in which Lizzie Borden famously axed her father to death. Mr. Borden was the rich owner of the mill in Lawton Falls at that time, a city where workers certainly earned their pay, but for all the hard work, the place was rather prosperous. According to the back cover of the book, Lawton Falls is now a dying mill city, perhaps best described in the opening paragraph of “The Miracle,” where a once viable, if ugly, church, is described as abandoned.Perhaps the axe murders were a portent of spiritual crises to come.
If the city of Lawton Falls is characterized by spiritual decay, it is equally characterized by ethnic identity and conflict. Over the entire collection of stories, we see the city as a set of ethnic groups, almost all Catholic, which word means, you may know “universal.” (There is one Jewish character, which still means the question is about religion, not, for example, eye-color.) So the city as Lyons describes it here appears to be held together by a common religion, even though that basis is sometimes barely a memory or even not at all present to the consciousness of the characters. These Catholics are subdivided into Italians, Puerto Ricans and Cubans (why no Irish?). Thus, national/linguistic identities sometimes seem to hide a religious commonality. We will see in all the stories different kinds of spiritual crisis, often religious, frequently of different origin. But Lyons always seems to be fretting about spiritual failures: the city is multi-ethnic, spiritually troubled, and it isn’t clear that religion is the answer.
Download your PDF copy here, if you really want to.
From the New York Times, August 16, 1892:
UPDATE: auction ended early on July 22. No other details than this from eBay: “The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale.”
This just popped up on eBay, but don’t let the auction fool you. This is NOT Lizzie Borden of Fall River hatchet murder fame. It might be some lady named “Lizzy Borden” as the signature states, but it isn’t Lizzie Andrew Borden. 100 bucks plus 10 for shipping. Hmmm. Let me see . . . was I born yesterday? Nope. And neither were you.
An Actual Photo of the Ax Murderer Lizzy Borden?
The photo is in nice shape but for a small chip visible near her right eye
Print in bottom of photo reads “No Main St ALLEN Mansfield MA” and the photo is Signed “Lizzie Borden”, is it her signature?, probally not as it appears to be written in blue ballpoint ink which was not available when lizzy was alive.
This photo was found stuck in a book about lizzie borden at an estate sale about 10 miles from Fall River Massachusetts
This may or may not be a photo of her, it looks like a lot like her but Lizzy was a little plumper, the photo is being sold as is/as found
In “Either Way it Goes Down . . . America’s 54 Women on Death Row in the Context of Patriarchy,” DeAnna M. Horne examines “the experience of women in the criminal justice system” and concludes that “sex-role stereotyping prevails over context-specific reasoning” and that “the application of justice for women is skewed.”
She uses the first 15 pages to examine the Lizzie Borden case as a traditional way of “looking at women in the criminal justice system.”
Her conclusion?
In the view of chivalry theorists, “real” women are spared from harsh treatment by our criminal justice system due to their perceived feminine nature. Women are less responsible for their actions, in this view, and therefore, less culpable and less likely to pose a continuing danger to society. “Real” women are hysterical, childlike, weak, and delicate. They are white and they are rich. True ladies—idle, respectable, proper, and useless—can not murder. They are wholly dependant upon men and they are victims totally subsumed by male domination. They are naturally timid, fit only for the domestic sphere. They are fit only for the role of wife and mother. If a man won’t marry them, these women may still behave with propriety, but it must be in the service of a man. “Real” women don’t kill.
When women accused of violent crime are seen as “real” women, they are acquitted, like Lizzie, or given sentences that are relatively light. Even if the jury had believed that Lizzie killed her parents, the perceived weak and passive nature of women make them less culpable for any violent crimes they have committed. In the view of the chivalry theory, Lizzie Borden was acquitted because as a woman she was weak, submissive, dependent and passive.
For the complete text of this 47-page article, you can download the PDF here.
The Fall River Historical Society has placed on its web site the Summer 2002 issue of The Fall River Historical Society Report.
This one is a keeper, so download it now. It has the new image, just revealed in this issue, of Alice Russell as an old woman. You will love the candid of her in her chair. The accompanying article is great!
Get the complete PDF copy here.
How cool. And not to late to get seats! Who wants to go with me?
The Nashville Ballet announces its new season.
NASHVILLE, TN – Nashville, TN – Nashville Ballet announces its 2006-2007 Season, featuring a world-premiere interpretation of the infamous legend of Lizzie Borden, a ballet with local singers/songwriters from Bluebird Cafe, the Nutcracker holiday tradition and the world’s most recognized classical ballet, Swan Lake. All of the Nashville Ballet series performances will feature live music.
Nashville Ballet Artistic Director Paul Vasterling planned the season to showcase the diversity of ballet. “Each year we try to give audiences many different reasons to come see us,” he explained. “Whether you love interesting and creative new material, collaborations with renowned members of the Nashville music community or the beauty and tradition of classical ballet, this season has something for you.”
Fall Series: The Legend of Lizzie Borden October 6-8, 2006, Polk Theater at TPAC. The Legend of Lizzie Borden, Journey, Serenade and Lydian Fanfares, a tribute to Maestro Schermerhorn The highlight of the fall series is Vasterling’s own spin on the infamous legend of Lizzie Borden. In 1892, she was found innocent of the brutal axe murders of her father and stepmother, a verdict that is still debated to this day. This original ballet is choreographed to Fall River Legend, composer Morton Gould’s dark musical interpretation of Lizzie Borden’s controversial story.
The Nashville Symphony performs for The Legend of Lizzie Borden and the three accompanying ballets: Journey, Serenade and Lydian Fanfares. Salvatore Aiello’s Journey showcases the athleticism of the company’s male dancers. George Balanchine’s beautiful Serenade, his first ballet performed in the United States, is set to the music of Tchaikovsky. The program will also include a special tribute to the late Maestro Kenneth Schermerhorn with a ballet set to his composition, Lydian Fanfares.
I love it when the Lizzie Borden case is used in school to help teach students about society, law, history or theatre. Here is another great example of teachers working hard to inspire their kids to learn about important concepts using cool subjects as context.
From Summer 2004, The Austin News:
Austin Preparatory School students reenacted the trial of Lizzie Borden on April 28, 2004 in celebration of Law Day. The infamous Lizzie Borden was accused, tried, and acquitted of killing her father and stepmother in Fall River during the summer of 1892.
This trial was the culmination of a semester’s worth of work by 65 juniors and seniors enrolled in Law and Sociology classes. The prosecution and the defense relied on factual data and accounts found in William Masterson’s book Lizzie Didn’t Do It!, along with several other sources approved by Austin teachers and program directors Brian Chenery and David Hoffses.
“The students worked very hard to prepare for the trial,” said Chenery. “They even competed for the roles of Lizzie Borden and the defense’s closing attorney.” Students interested in those parts went before their classmates during a free period to answer questions testing their knowledge of the subject. In the end, the young woman who was least riled by the audience won the role of Lizzie Borden, and a confident public speaker earned her part as the defense’s closing attorney.
Austin parent and lawyer, Michael McHugh, served as the judge, while other parents served on the jury. After several hours of court, and some time spent deliberating, the jury found Lizzie not guilty. In the end, Chenery was most pleased with the students’ performance. “They did a tremendous job,” he said. “I enjoy watching the students discover hidden talents in the process of preparing for trial. They learn things about the real world: meeting deadlines, preparing for presentations, and working with a team.”
Here is the complete PDF download of the story.
From the May 2005 NASIG (North American Serials Interest Group) Newsletter (with photos!),
Maggie Rioux, Systems Librarian for the MBLWHOI Library in Woods Hole, Mass., states, “I’ve been collecting Lizzie Bordeniana (is that a word?) since about 1981. When I first moved to Cape Cod in 1980 about the only thing I knew about Southeastern Massachusetts was “Lizzie Borden took an axe…” I had an interest in true crime reading anyway so I started acquiring a few things. Then when I went to library school (URI, 1991) and decided that any librarian worth her salt had to have a book collection, Lizzie Borden was a natural. After taking some courses at Terry Belanger’s Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, I got more serious about collecting. I now have almost 150 Lizzie Borden items, mostly books but including a couple of dolls, some CDs and videocassettes and an almost complete run of the Lizzie Borden Quarterly, which was published from 1993 until 2004. I also collect books by Maria Jane McIntosh, a relatively obscure 19th Century American author (further explanation upon request) and Edmund Lester Pearson, a librarian, humorist and author who wrote one of the definitive Borden books plus other true crime stuff (which is how I got interested in him). In addition I have stuff on books, libraries, Woods Hole and miscellaneous interesting things for a total of over 300 items in the collection. The most interesting is a little Japanese book called The Fisher Boy Urashima published in Tokyo in 1886. It’s in English, illustrated with woodblock prints and printed on paper which was then crushed vertically or “creped.” These were books of simple folktales published after the opening of Japan to the West and designed for Japanese who wanted to learn English or maybe for American or European traders to take home as souvenirs.”
Cool. Looks exactly like my bookcase. Nice to know there are other proud collectors of Borden kitsch out there! By the way, I sell that great bobblehead. Want one?
If you want to read about other collections by NASIG members, you can read the whole newletter by downloading the PDF here.
From the New York Times, February 18, 1893:
The Kent State University Press has graciously posted several excepts of a 2002 book titled Blood and Ink, by Albert Borowitz. Of note is a partial introduction to the work in which the Lizzie Borden case is mentioned.
From the website for the book:
Albert Borowitz provides a guide to “fact-based crime literature” focusing on two principle groups of works: non-fictional accounts of crimes and criminal trials, including essays, monographs, journalism, editions of court transcripts, prison histories, and criminal and police biographies and memoirs; and works of imaginative literature, such as novels, stories, or stage works, based on or inspired by actual crimes or criminals.
Blood and Ink, with forewords by Barzun and true-crime writer/historian Jonathan Goodman, will prove to be an invaluable resource to true-crime aficionados as well as to students and scholars of literature, cultural studies, and social history.
Albert Borowitz is a graduate of Harvard University with a B.A. in classics, M.A. in Chinese regional studies, and a J.D. He is also the author of Terrorism for Self-Glorification: The Herostratos Syndrome (The Kent State University Press, 2005). He is a retired partner from the international law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue.
Click here to download a PDF of the first 12 pages of the book’s introduction. This is a book I would like to read. Time for Interlibrary Loan again!
Another except:
s.55 Sullivan, Robert Goodbye Lizzie Borden. Brattleboro, Vt.: Stephen Greene, 1974. This volume, written by a judge of the Massachusetts Superior Court, is the first booklength study of the Borden case by a jurist. Judge Sullivan regards as erroneous two evidentiary exclusions made by the trial judge: the ruling that Lizzie’s sworn statements at the inquest could not be admitted since she was then constructively under arrest; and the exclusion of evidence that shortly before the axe murders Lizzie attempted to purchase prussic acid in order, so she said, to mothproof a fur cape. Nevertheless, Sullivan believes that the evidence before the jury established Lizzie’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Sullivan speculates that the jury may have been influenced by news reports of the unrelated axe murder of Bertha Manchester in Fall River shortly before the Borden trial began.
This type of list is right up my alley. It includes all sorts of factoids about the state of Massachusetts, most of which I never heard before. Makes me want to visit there. Oh, wait, I am going to visit there—on August 9th, at 6:30PM, I will be doing a multi-media presentation on Lizzie Borden in Popular Culture at the Fall River Public Library (shameless plug).
Oh, back to the subject at hand. Here is a sample from the list which can be downloaded as a PDF here.
Thank you Chubby Woodman!
Inventions and Innovations
1891 Basketball was invented by James Naismith in Springfield
1895 Volleyball was invented by William Morgan in Holyoke
1925 Frozen food invented by Clarence Birdseye in Gloucester
1928 First computer was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge
1930 Chocolate chips and chocolate chip cookies invented by Ruth Graves Wakefield. Wakefield named her new cookie invention after the Toll House Inn, which she ran in Whitman, Massachusetts.
1855 Boston cream pie, Parker House rolls and Boston Scrod were all invented at the Omni Parker House in Boston.
1914 Fried clams invented by Lawrence “Chubby” Woodman in Essex
1957 Pink flamingo lawn ornaments invented by Don Featherstone in Leominster
From the New York Times, August 16, 1892:
