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

I have always loved and been drawn to journals, diaries and memoirs. The romance and charm of even how Lily found this diary was delightful. But yes, the time capsule it opened up was fascinating. If it had been me, I would have arranged to have the entire steamer trunk (maybe ALL of them, out there on that sidewalk, waiting for the dumpster), brought home with me, and I would have spent months going through each and every item, savouring every moment of treasure. But maybe that's just me!

Florence was the very definition of a brainy, artsy free spirit while, at the same time, rebelling and chafing against family and the constraints of the day, the same as every teenage girl across time, I am sure. That she could sail across the ocean show more alone and traipse around an increasingly tempestuous and dangerous Europe in 1934, and stay safe, even in her innocence, was remarkable to me. For sure, those were different times.

But what fascinated me almost as much as the diary itself, was the end, the last chapter, which brought us to the present, where Lily engages the help of a private investigator to help her locate Florence. And the meeting of the two, the kindred spirits, and the instantaneous bond they developed - I expected nothing less. I also enjoyed the final section, *About the Author*, an interview with Lily herself. I wish she had written more and hope she does. I read her second book, The Astronauts Wives several years ago, before I ever heard of this one. But I enjoyed The Red Leather Diary so much more. show less

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 show more “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. show less

In 2003, journalist Lily Koppel exited her apartment at 98 Riverside Drive in New York and was surprised to see more than fifty trunks and valises from a bygone era piled high in a red dumpster. Intrigued, she climbed up and began excavating. Amid relics from the 1920s and 30s, stored within the confines of a forgotten trunk, was a small red leather diary written by a young girl. This discovery would not only change the course of Koppel’s life, but would open up the long forgotten world of Florence Wolfson - a precocious and passionate young woman who dreamed of a literary life and sought love while growing up in New York City. Born in 1915, Florence Wolfson came of age during Prohibition, the Depression and WWII. She was raised by show more Jewish immigrant parents who worked their way up to Manhattan’s fashionable neighborhoods. Florence’s voice within the pages of her diary drew Koppel to her. Here was a young girl who was highly intelligent, ahead of her time and driven to live life to its fullest.

The Red Leather Diary combines diary entries with narrative developed from interviews Koppel had with ninety year old Florence…who she located with help from a private investigator three years after discovering the diary. The book gives the reader a glimpse into the thoughts and dreams of a privileged girl who excelled in music, art and writing. It is also filled with teenage passion and drama as Florence discovers love with both boys and girls. Florence Wolfson started a literary salon (a novel idea) in 1934 which included famous poets John Berryman and Delmore Schwartz; and she traveled alone to Europe in 1936, on the cusp of WWII. Koppel captures the life of this enigmatic and strongly independent young woman perfectly.

But the book is not just about Florence - it is also about its author who arrived in New York City at the age of 22 seeking to make her own mark in the world. In an interview at the end of the book, Lily Koppel writes:

When I moved to New York, like every young person drawn to the big city, my quest echoed Florence’s: I was seeking love, meaning in my life, and, as a writer, a story.

Koppel’s discovery inflamed her imagination. When she finally was able to meet Florence Wolfson face to face, an immediate friendship formed - a unique connection between a young woman at the beginning of her life and an older woman looking back on her youth.

How do you feel when a forgotten chunk of your life, full of adolescent angst and passion, is handed to you? How do you feel when you see your striving, feeling, immature self through your now elderly eyes? It stopped my heart for a moment. That was me? - written by Florence (Wolfson) Howitt, September 3, 2007 -

I read straight through The Red Leather Diary, finding myself immersed in a time long gone through the words of a girl who wanted to live in the center of it all. Koppel has written a marvelous book that tugs at the reader’s imagination.

Highly recommended. show less

This book made me angry. The book and its author a nothing more than a fraud. My anger originated with the difficulty to figure out how the book had come into being and who the real author is. Authorship is claimed by Lily Koppel. It must be said that her claim to authorship is justified regarding the way the book was produced, but it does not seem entirely fair. Some of my anger also relates to the title: the words "diary" and "journal" are very misleading, suggesting a wealth of original material. However, the original source document is merely a notebook, containing ultra-short messages for each day between 1929 and 1935 (almost like a long-hand version of a Twitter account). Ms Koppel is not the editor of a historical document, no, show more she has selected and interpreted these short messages and writing a story around them. The story is based on the notes, conversations with the author, whom she tracked down, and library research (+ Lily's musings).

The author never tells us how many entries the original notebook contained, and how much of that she used. from the book, we get the impression that the notebook was crammed with notes, but a photographic image of the notebook on the author's website suggests that the notebook was only partially filled.

Another problematic issue is the overall scope of the book. The notebooks cover a five-year period, during which the author, Florence Wolfson, was between the ages of 14 and 19. However, the story in the book and reproduced photographs extend into the period after the age of 19, for example Florence's 'grand tour' to Europe at the age of 21! This transition / extension is not clearly marked, and obviously is a much more attractive part of Florence life.

The story that is told by the book is interesting, and the investigative work put into it is thorough and well-done. Nonetheless, much of my anger remains, as lingering irritation at the sloppiness of presenting the source and the lack of modesty on the part of the author, pushing herself on the foreground. show less

At first I thought that I wouldn't enjoy the story of a privileged young woman in NYC during the 1920s and 30s, but Lily Koppel did an amazing job at weaving diary entries with a lot of research to craft a whimsical story. I think that really made this story work for me is that Lily asked Florence, the author of the diary, if it was ok to move forward with the book. Obviously she said yes...but the courage and fearlessness of a 90-year-old woman allowing us a peek into her thoughts, desires and dreams as a late-teenage won me over.

I loved this - from how the diary was discovered to being able to know (almost) how the story ended for both Florence and her contemporaries. I found it fascinating that as a teen in 1920 she had more freedom almost than my own daughter has now. Her everyday experience was far from what I imagined she would have. I would have expected a girl in the 1920's to be much more purient, respectable, victorian almost.Other reviewers say that they would have prefered more of Florences entries but she was not writing for the expectation of a audience - she had four lines in which to write (pay attention to the description of the diary layout)and she as a teen wrote only her viewpoint and as much as she needed to record not tell. We only have the show more information that there is becuase Lily found her still alive. That Florence at 90 shared so much truth - not glossing over her affairs or her attitude is suprising and startling. Her life though not one of celebrity is unique. I like the way it was written with both the immediacy of the experience and description enough to explore the times. I have read quite a few biographys (generally avoiding celeb biographies) and often find them either too detached or too self indulgent. For me, though not perfect, it struck a good balance.Ultimately it reminded me of the passions of my own as a teenager , largely unrealised but I am not sure that I have regrets as such. Also a reminder as my newly teen daughter enters the maelstrom of adolescence. show less

Subtitled “Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal,” this book should list as co-author the diary’s writer, Florence Wolfson Howitt, who is still alive and well at age 93. Florence received a “Mile Stones Five Year Diary” for her 14th birthday on August 11, 1929, and continued to write four lines faithfully every day through August 10, 1934, the day before she turned 19. It’s a fascinating look at the life of the gifted daughter of a Yiddish doctor and couture dressmaker in New York City.

Lily Koppel was a young New York Times reporter when the diary was found in October 2003 in a dumpster outside her apartment building, saved by the doorman from numerous unclaimed trunks in the building’s storage area. With show more the help of a lawyer/private investigator, Koppel tracked down the owner now living in Connecticut and Florida. Koppel combines research on New York City in that period with interviews of Howitt and others, as well as excerpts from the diary. She weaves a fascinating tale about a precocious young woman who starts college at age 15, wants to be a writer and artist, and falls in love with both men and women. The non-fiction book is heavily illustrated with photographs, mostly from Howitt’s albums.

I loved this book! I think it’s mostly because I had a similar five-year diary at a comparable age, although I could never confine myself to just four lines per day, and thus I wrote longer journal entries at infrequent intervals, eventually continuing my diary/journal in two spiral notebooks. (I admire Howitt for managing to be so succinct yet detailed in her brief entries.) Alas, I threw them all away before my marriage to my first husband, not wanting him to read what I’d written about previous loves. That of course included my current husband, the love of my life. I’d give anything to have those journals today (especially since my love is so good at remembering our past and I’m so bad), but they’re not likely to be recovered from a landfill.

My only gripe with the book is that Koppel uses excerpts from the diary without any dates. I would have liked to have known exactly when particular entries were made. Also, the back-cover blurb on the hardbound edition is misleading: it includes supposed entries from September 2 and October 12, 1934, which would have been beyond the five-year period the diary covered.

For more information on the book and the diary behind it, see http://www.redleatherdiary.com/. This review also appears on my blog, Bookin' It. show less