In the “Most Unique Mention of Lizzie Borden” category we find an item from Pocatello, Idaho.
A theatre company has produced a play about Lizzie and the murders titled Over The Fence: Hearsay, Hatchets, and Homicide while at the same time asking for donations of books for women in prison.
The Old Town Actor’s Studio (OTAS) is performing a play called Over the Fence: Hearsay, Hatchets and Homicide, based on the life of Lizzie Borden, a woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892.
The play will start at 7:30 on Saturday and Monday evening, May 3 and 5 only, and costs $10. While it does talk about the murders, there are no reenactments or graphic depictions. Much of the play is focused on testimony directly quoted from the actual testimonies in the trial.
To go along with the subject, OTAS is gathering books to promote educating women in prison. Donations can include all different kinds of books except for true crime and erotica novels. The Pocatello woman who co-wrote the play said it’s good for women there to have books.
“For those women who have a lot of free time who are never getting out, it’s going to be boring sitting in a cell,” said Emily Crumpton. “You’re really limited to what you can do anyway, so why not give them a book?”
If you are interested in donating, the OTAS is located at 427 N. Main, Suite G in Pocatello. If you are unable to make it there, you can contact Emily at crumemil (at) isu.edu.
There is a news video that accompanies the article that is brief and worth watching.
We know from Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River by Michael Martins and Dennis Binette that when Lizzie herself was in jail in Taunton for 10 months, awaiting her trial for the murder of her father and stepmother, that she spent her time writing letters, receiving visits from her sister and lawyer, and made friends with the cat that resided there. She also read. That is something factual one can say about Lizzie Borden, she loved her books. When she died she left a large library to her friends and legatees.
The genres Lizzie Borden collected included modern classics and popular novels. Non-fiction seemed to be present as well on subjects ranging from gardening to animal husbandry. She signed these books (perhaps all of them, who knows) on the first page inside the cover, taking ownership of the tome for all time.
We don’t know if she read the entirely of the books she owned, but she made interesting marks in the margins, underlining passages that struck her fancy. She wrote in some of them, pasting little snippets of verse from the newspaper or other publications. Sometimes she placed an envelope seal inside—a seal she had printed with the name of her home Maplecroft embossed upon it.
The women in the prison that will be the recipients of the donated books from this event are indeed fortunate to have this theatre company think of their reading needs in this way. Says Emily Crumpton from the theatre company, “For those women who have a lot of free time who are never getting out, it’s going to be boring sitting in a cell. You’re really limited to what you can do anyway, so why not give them a book?”
