title: The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life through the Pages of a Lost Journal
author:  Lily Koppel 
description: Journalist Koppel found the inspiration for this book, based on her 2006 New York Times article, after discovering Florence Wolfsons 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 Florences diary and, we can presume, multiple interviews as support. The result, which some readers may find frustrating and others rewarding, is that the original inspirationthe diary itselfbecomes no more than a starting point for a much larger story: that of Florences life.
zlib_text: > INTERTWINED
  
  > Brooke VanSoelen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2020 Brooke Vansoelen
  
  All rights reserved  
    
  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any
  similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended
  by the author.  
    
  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or
  transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
  recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.  
    
  ISBN-13: 9781234567890  
  ISBN-10: 1477123456  
    
  Cover design by: Hannah Wood  
  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309  
  Printed in the United States of America
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > To my parent's, for keeping my stories in their dresser drawer.  
  > And to Nathan and Elise, for giving me something to write about.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > Contents
  
  [Title Page](index_split_000.html#filepos101)
  
  [Copyright](index_split_001.html#filepos345)
  
  [Dedication](index_split_002.html#filepos1166)
  
  [Intertwine