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

by Lily Koppel Narrated by Johanna Parker

Overview

“A world straight from the pages of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. . . . An extraordinary story about coming of age, following your dreams and discovering (or rediscovering) who you are, were and want to be.” -*Parade

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

Opening the tarnished brass lock of a red leather diary found in the basement of a New York City apartment building,*New York Times*writer Lily Koppel embarked on a journey into the past. Compelled by the hopes and heartaches captured in the pages, Koppel set out to find the diary's owner, a 90-year old woman named Florence. Eventually reunited with her diary, Florence ventured back to the girl she once was, rediscovering a lost self that burned with artistic fervor.

Joining intimate interviews with original diary entries,*The Red Leather Diary*is an evocative and entrancing work that recreates 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.

The Red Leather Diary is a perfect gift for history buffs, art lovers, and anyone interested in coming of age stories set in 1930s New York City.

HarperCollins 2024

Editorial Reviews

If 22-year-old recent Barnard graduate Lily Koppel hadn't been agile enough to climb into a dumpster, Florence Wolfson's red leather diary might have been lost forever. As it was, Koppel rescued it from a sea of steamer trunks, brought it back to her small apartment, and began an immersion that would last for years. Wolfson's journal tracked her adolescent preoccupations and teenage yearnings from 1929 to 1934 so candidly that Koppel couldn't resist trying to track down its author. When she found her, she met a 90-year-old woman who was eager to be reintroduced to her much younger self.

Alana Newhouse

On its own, the diary offers a dusty window into an extraordinary life. With her skillful reporting, fine prose and excellent eye for period detail, Koppel has given it a lovely shine: especially since she miraculously managed to track down—and befriend—Wolfson, who is now in her 90s. In The Red Leather Diary Koppel's delicate historical filigree moves along a tale told mostly by the entries…In the end, The Red Leather Diary is a story about not one but two lovable characters—and the city that brought them together.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Journalist Koppel found the inspiration for this book, based on her 2006 New York Times article, after discovering Florence Wolfson’s diary in a Manhattan dumpster. Koppel eventually locates Florence in Florida and surprises the 90-year-old with this artifact from her past, which reveals her views on growing up as an intelligent, ambitious and creative teenager on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the 1930s. Florence received the diary as a present on her 14th birthday. She recorded everything from her first kiss (with a boy) to her crush on actress Eva Le Galliene (which led her to question her sexuality) to her passion for writing and art. The diary acts as a window into a fascinating and privileged world, one that Koppel tries to recreate by writing in a novelistic way, using no more than snippets of text from Florence’s diary and, we can presume, multiple interviews as support. The result, which some readers may find frustrating and others rewarding, is that the original inspiration—the diary itself—becomes no more than a starting point for a much larger story: that of Florence’s life.

Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In 2003, Koppel, a young New York Times journalist, stumbled across Florence Wolfson's titular five-year (1929-34) diary by chance; it was sitting in a dumpster on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Koppel was rightly fascinated by this glimpse into a stranger's teenage years in the elegant and exciting New York City of the 1930s, and so she tracked down the diary's writer. After her initial surprise, Wolfson, then 90 years old and living in Connecticut, willingly fleshed out the diary for Koppel with recollections of her later life. The resulting story, which initially appeared as a New York Times feature article, is here developed into a compelling portrait of 1930s New York cleverly blended with Koppel's own experiences of the city to create a connection between then and now. Koppel's love of New York is obvious in the details she draws from Florence's diary, which show how the city has changed in ways both big and small. An entertaining and enjoyable work suited to public library collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ12/07.]
—Stacey Rae Brownlie

From the Publisher

Skillful reporting, fine prose and [an] excellent eye for period detail. . . . A story about not one but two lovable characters—and the city that brought them together.” — New York Times Book Review

“Offers a glimpse of a bygone era in Manhattan—all the lovelier because Koppel was able to track down the writer, now a glamorous-looking Connecticut resident in her 90s.” — New York Times

“A novelistic biography. . . . Conjures up a romantic version of the Manhattan of Howitt’s youth.” — Washington Post Book World

“[An] amazing story. . . . A highbrow fairy tale. . . . Much of the book’s emotional power derives from the drama of an old woman reclaiming a past that was almost lost to her. . . . Koppel writes with flair.” — Chicago Tribune

“A world straight from the pages of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. . . . The Red Leather Diary is Koppel’s tribute to both the tempestuous girl she came to know on paper and the older, more even-tempered women she grew to love in real life. It’s an extraordinary story about coming of age, following your dreams and discovering (or rediscovering) who you are, were and want to be.” — Parade

“Florence’s life reads like E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime in places, with all the famous paths crossed and situations experienced; while descriptions of city life recall Marjorie Hart’s Summer at Tiffany... Together, Koppel and Florence take readers through a world dizzy with new ideas, rhythms and inventions.” — BookPage

“After a front-page story appeared in the New York Times Sunday City section, interest in Florence’s fascinating story prompted the author to write a full-length book that works as both a biography and a spellbinding glimpse into a vanished era.” — Booklist

“Koppel’s love of New York is obvious in the details she draws from Florence’s diary, which show how the city has changed in ways both big and small. An entertaining and enjoyable work.” — Library Journal

“In The Red Leather Diary, Lily Koppel finds an old journal in a Dumpster, gets lost in its rich take on 1930s New York and, improbably, tracks down the now-90-year-old woman whose life—real and imagined—fills its worn pages.” — Reader's Digest (Editors' Choice)

“New York Times writer Lily Koppel’s The Red Leather Diary melds three life-affirming subjects—Florence Wolfson’s journal of life in 1930s Manhattan, Koppel’s discovery of it in a Dumpster decades later, and the meeting of the two women—into one enchanting memoir.” — Elle

“Sparked by a felicitous discovery in an Upper West Side dumpster, New York Times writer Lily Koppel spins an enthralling true fairy tale about a Depression-era ingénue.” — Vogue

“Combining the diary entries as well as Kopple’s intimate interviews with Howitt, the book paints a glamorous and poetic picture of what life was like for a young woman of that era whose love of exploration, writing, music, and theater put her at odds with her mother’s hopes for her future. . . . THE RED LEATHER DIARY reinforces the lesson that it’s never too late to forge new relationships, or simply regain your easily forgotten teenage ambitions.” — Ladies’ Home Journal

“A window into a fascinating and privileged world. . . . Rewarding.” — Publishers Weekly

“A fascinating book—inventive and inspiring.” — Erica Jong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fear of Flying

“Mesmerizing. Koppel evokes 1930s Manhattan nicely, but it’s Wolfson herself who makes the book remarkable. For readers whose experience of the Deco era is limited to movies starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the story of the free-spirited Wolfson may read like a trial run for the sexual revolution of the 1960s.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch

New York Times Book Review

Skillful reporting, fine prose and [an] excellent eye for period detail. . . . A story about not one but two lovable characters—and the city that brought them together.

Chicago Tribune

[An] amazing story. . . . A highbrow fairy tale. . . . Much of the book’s emotional power derives from the drama of an old woman reclaiming a past that was almost lost to her. . . . Koppel writes with flair.

Reader's Digest (Editors' Choice)

In The Red Leather Diary, Lily Koppel finds an old journal in a Dumpster, gets lost in its rich take on 1930s New York and, improbably, tracks down the now-90-year-old woman whose life—real and imagined—fills its worn pages.

Parade

A world straight from the pages of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. . . . The Red Leather Diary is Koppel’s tribute to both the tempestuous girl she came to know on paper and the older, more even-tempered women she grew to love in real life. It’s an extraordinary story about coming of age, following your dreams and discovering (or rediscovering) who you are, were and want to be.

New York Times

Offers a glimpse of a bygone era in Manhattan—all the lovelier because Koppel was able to track down the writer, now a glamorous-looking Connecticut resident in her 90s.

Washington Post Book World

A novelistic biography. . . . Conjures up a romantic version of the Manhattan of Howitt’s youth.

Booklist

After a front-page story appeared in the New York Times Sunday City section, interest in Florence’s fascinating story prompted the author to write a full-length book that works as both a biography and a spellbinding glimpse into a vanished era.

BookPage

Florence’s life reads like E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime in places, with all the famous paths crossed and situations experienced; while descriptions of city life recall Marjorie Hart’s Summer at Tiffany... Together, Koppel and Florence take readers through a world dizzy with new ideas, rhythms and inventions.

Elle

New York Times writer Lily Koppel’s The Red Leather Diary melds three life-affirming subjects—Florence Wolfson’s journal of life in 1930s Manhattan, Koppel’s discovery of it in a Dumpster decades later, and the meeting of the two women—into one enchanting memoir.

Ladies’ Home Journal

Combining the diary entries as well as Kopple’s intimate interviews with Howitt, the book paints a glamorous and poetic picture of what life was like for a young woman of that era whose love of exploration, writing, music, and theater put her at odds with her mother’s hopes for her future. . . . THE RED LEATHER DIARY reinforces the lesson that it’s never too late to forge new relationships, or simply regain your easily forgotten teenage ambitions.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Mesmerizing. Koppel evokes 1930s Manhattan nicely, but it’s Wolfson herself who makes the book remarkable. For readers whose experience of the Deco era is limited to movies starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the story of the free-spirited Wolfson may read like a trial run for the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

Vogue

Sparked by a felicitous discovery in an Upper West Side dumpster, New York Times writer Lily Koppel spins an enthralling true fairy tale about a Depression-era ingénue.

Erica Jong

A fascinating book—inventive and inspiring.

Booklist

After a front-page story appeared in the New York Times Sunday City section, interest in Florence’s fascinating story prompted the author to write a full-length book that works as both a biography and a spellbinding glimpse into a vanished era.

(Editors' Choice) - Reader's Digest

"In The Red Leather Diary, Lily Koppel finds an old journal in a Dumpster, gets lost in its rich take on 1930s New York and, improbably, tracks down the now-90-year-old woman whose life—real and imagined—fills its worn pages."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173726414
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

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

Chapter One

The Discovery

Once upon a time the diary had a tiny key. Little red flakes now crumble off the worn cover. For more than half a century, its tarnished latch unlocked, the red leather diary lay silent inside an old steamer trunk strewn with vintage labels evoking the glamorous age of ocean liner travel. "This book belongs to," reads the frontispiece, followed by "Florence Wolfson" scrawled in faded black ink. Inside, in brief, breathless dispatches written on gold-edged pages, the journal recorded five years in the life and times of a smart and headstrong New York teenager, a young woman who loved Baudelaire, Central Park, and men and women with equal abandon.

Tucked within the diary, like a pressed flower, is a yellowed newspaper clipping. The photograph of a girl with huge, soulful eyes and marcelled blond hair atop a heart-shaped face stares out of the brittle scrap. The diary was a gift for her fourteenth birthday on August 11, 1929, and she wrote a few lines faithfully, every day, until she turned nineteen. Then, like so many relics of time past, it was forgotten. The trunk, in turn, languished in the basement of 98 Riverside Drive, a prewar apartment house at Eighty-second Street, until October 2003, when the management decided it was time to clear out the storage area.

The trunk was one of a roomful carted to a waiting Dumpster, and as is often the case in New York, trash and treasure were bedfellows. Some passersby jimmied open the locks and pried apart the trunks' sides in search of old money. Others stared transfixed, as ifgazing into a shipwreck, at the treasures spilling from the warped cedar drawers: a flowered kimono, a beaded flapper dress, a cloth-bound volume of Tennyson's poems, half of a baby's red sweater still hanging from its knitting needles. A single limp silk glove fluttered like a small flag. But the diary seems a particularly eloquent survivor of another age. It was as if a corsage once pinned to a girl's dress were preserved for three quarters of a century, faded ribbons intact, the scent still lingering on its petals. Through a serendipitous chain of events, the diary was given the chance to tell its story.

The first time I came to 98 Riverside Drive, an orange brick and limestone building set like a misty castle overlooking leafy Riverside Park and the Hudson River, I felt I was entering a hidden universe awaiting discovery. Under the maroon awning, I entered the red marble lobby, pockmarked with age like the face of the moon. I passed an old framed print of a gondola gliding under Venice's Bridge of Sighs, the early August evening light that filtered through stained-glass windows illuminating a young gallant displaying a jeweled coat of arms, with a dagger stuck in his belt. He was carrying a locked treasure chest.

My gaze wandered to the building's rusted brass buzzer. There were fifteen stories, each floor divided into eight apartments, A through H, where I half expected to find Holden Caulfield's name. Among the residents were several psychoanalytical practices and an Einstein. Floating through the courtyard airshaft, I heard Mozart being worked out on piano. The building seemed to have an artistic soul.

I was twenty-two. I had just landed a job at the New York Times after graduating from Barnard College. An older woman I had met at the newspaper had put me in touch with a friend who wanted to rent a room in her apartment at 98 Riverside. The building was on the Upper West Side, which has long held the reputation of being Manhattan's literary home, although few young artists could still afford the rents.

I rang the pearl doorbell to 2E, waiting in front of the peephole. The red door bordered in black opened, and my new landlady introduced herself. Peggy was in her fifties, with a Meg Ryan haircut. Midwest born and bred, she was glad to learn that I was from Chicago. She was still wearing a pink leotard and tights from Pilates, and her pert expression was hard to read behind a black eye patch. "The pirate look," she said, explaining that a cab had hit her while she was biking through Midtown. Peggy shrugged. "Just my luck."

It was a marvelous apartment with an original fireplace, high ceilings with ornate moldings, Oriental carpets, and antiques. Her collection of Arts and Crafts pottery and vases covered every available surface. When turned upside down, they revealed their makers' names stamped on the bottom—Marblehead, Rookwood, Van Briggle, Roseville and Door. I admired a faun grazing on a vase. "All empty." Peggy giggled, since none held flowers. "I know, very Freudian." She opened French doors, showing me the dining room with a parquet border, and led me through the kitchen, past a no-longer-ringing maid's bell. Down the hallway, she pointed to her own paintings, acrylic portraits and rural landscapes. "The building even has a library," added Peggy, who had just finished Willa Cather's A Lost Lady, which she recommended.

Over Brie with crackers and red grapes set out with silver Victorian grape scissors, we became acquainted on the couch, a pullout, where Peggy said she would sleep. I offered to take the living room instead of her master bedroom, but Peggy insisted. She mentioned rigging up a Chinese screen for privacy. This way she could watch TV late or get up if she couldn't sleep. She told me that when she was my age, she had also come to New York to become an artist. There was a short-lived marriage in her early twenties to a jazz musician. Peggy admitted she lived quietly now, designing Impressionist-inspired napkins and guest towel sets painted with café chairs and names like Paris Bistro, which she sold on the Internet.

The Red Leather Diary
Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal. Copyright © by Lily Koppel. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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