The new issue of the FREE Literary Hatchet is now online for your reading pleasure. This issue is dedicated to the late William Schley-Ulrich.
You will find wonders within its pages, a gem in every poem and story.
We hope you enjoy it.
You can download your free copy here.
Just click Downloads, fill out the form for Issue #4 and it will download to your computer.
Warm wishes for a happy new year,
Stefani Koorey
Editor/Publisher
The Literary Hatchet
This image is from Zillow.com, a site where you can find real estate. Once I entered Fall River in the search box, and clicked on the city on the map, the outlines of Fall River are shown with the red marks showing the houses for sale.
So it was to my surprise to see that the part of Fall River where the people live is shaped like a hatchet!!! Do you see what I see?
Mondo Lizzie Borden would like to wish all of you a joyous holiday season and a Merry Christmas.
Perhaps the walk signals in Fall River could be changed to this:
Another little tidbit from Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River was posted online today at the website for the Fall River Historical Society.
And a lovely Christmas present it is!
Also: the Historical Society has released a statement regarding the book’s scheduled publication!
I have seen the cover of this book and it is going to be a first class production.
For those who like to hold their Hatchets in their hands, the print version (hard copy) of the latest issue is available for order!
You can grab yours here. Only $14.99 for 86 pages of great scholarship, humor, and excellent analysis!
A blast from the past: A letter to the editor of the New York Times from 1992, written by Neilson Caplain of Fall River, Massachusetts, former president of the board of the Fall River Historical Society.
Letter: On Lizzie Borden; The Murder Weapon Mystery
Published: May 16, 1992To the Editor:
According to a report from George Washington University (Campus Life, April 26), Prof. James E. Starrs hopes to dig up the bodies of Abby and Andrew Borden to compare the chips on a hatchet with the wounds inflicted by the hatchet when they were slain in Fall River, Mass., in 1892. The professor is bound to be disappointed. The hatchet to which he has access is not the one that did in the Bordens.
The hatchet he would examine, dubbed the “handleless hatchet,” is in the collection at the Fall River Historical Society. It is indeed the one presented at the trial of Lizzie Borden in June 1893. However, the prosecution did not claim that this was the very instrument used in the double murder. Reference to “The Trial of Lizzie Borden” by Edmund Pearson, which gives the verbatim testimony, discloses that the good doctors who testified said only that this hatchet could have been the murder weapon.
Furthermore there was no evidence presented at the trial to tie the hatchet to the crime — no blood, hair or tissue staining the metal or wood, or in the crevices between the two. To the contrary, the testimony of the forensic experts at Harvard was that the hatchet was clear of any such tell-tale matter.
To this day the mystery of the murder weapon has sustained interest and titillated investigators. What happened to the hatchet? How could it have been hidden or otherwise disposed of? Never before has a credible explanation been postulated.
Now, however, 100 years after the commission of the crime, startling new information regarding the actual murder weapon has become known and will be revealed in forthcoming books, confirming that a hatchet other than the one at the historical society did the dirty deed.
Under the circumstances exhumation of the bodies would serve no useful purpose, and it is to be hoped that the responsible authorities in Fall River will bar any violation of the graves. NEILSON CAPLAIN Fall River, Mass., April 30, 1992 The writer is a director and immediate past president of the Fall River Historical Society.
Saturday, December 19, from noon until 2:30, you can meet Rory Raven, the author of Wicked Conduct, a new book on the Sarah Cornell story—another famous Fall River murder.
Here are the details of the book from the Historical Society’s website.
Here is a big story about the book by Deb Allard in today’s Herald News.
If you can’t make it to the book signing, you can purchase your copy on Amazon.com at a discount.
The Literary Hatchet publishes contemporary short fiction, poetry, prose, photography, cartoons, and humor by established and emerging writers and artists from around the world. Subjects range from mystery, murder, macabre, horror, monsters, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night.
The next issue is due to be published soon and we are accepting submissions until Friday, December 18, 2009 at 9 pm.
Please submit your creative work to peartreepress (at) mac.com.
Please visit the website for The Literary Hatchet and download the last three issues for FREE.
From Roman Holiday. The voice of Audrey Hepburn.
Our good friend and fellow Bordenite, William F. Schley-Ulrich passed away on September 27, 2009. He was 90 years, 7 months, and 3 days old.
Born in 1919, William was a regular contributor to the old Lizzie Borden Quarterly and penned a few major pieces for The Hatchet as well. Bill also was a regular on the Lizzie Borden Society Forum (421 Posts), and would often send me material in the mail on the Borden case. Before he passed away he wrote me and several close friends that he was soon to go and wished to say goodbye.
He was particularly interested in Nance O’Neil and did an extensive study of her films for The Hatchet. He also penned a great work on the books that we know to have been in Lizzie’s library, and what her reading habits must have been like based on these titles.
Bill had lost his lovely wife Marjorie a few years ago and mourned her passing each and every day. She was his angel. They were married for over 60 years and he kept referring to her as his “bride.”
Bill was a true gentleman and a scholar. He will be greatly missed.
This information was passed onto me by Sherry Chapman, one of the FriendsFour.
Here is Bill’s avatar from the Lizzie Borden Society Forum. I think I will always remember him as this Victorian St. Nicholas.
The Fall 2009 issue of The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden and Victorian Studies has FINALLY been placed ONLINE for your reading pleasure. If your web browser does not load the new page, don’t forget to hit your browser’s refresh button to make it seek out the new uploaded version of the web site. Thank you for your patience!
Subscribers can download your copy immediately or view a slideshow of the magazine at this address.
If you would like to subscribe you can visit the above link. Details are provided at the website. One year is only $15!
I am sure all of our authors would appreciate any feedback by you, the readers. Please stop by the Lizzie Borden Society Forum and give you comments!
If you have forgotten or misplaced your login info, please email me at peartreepress@mac.com and I will resend it to you.
Happy reading!
Stefani Koorey
Editor and Publisher
The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden & Victorian Studies
