Friendship Album, 1933
By Frances O'Roark Dowell

The idea for Friendship Album, 1933, came to me after reading Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World Fair: The Sears National Quilt Contest and Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition by quilt historians Merikay Waldvogel and Barbara Brackman. With its $1,000 grand prize (nearly $20,000 in today’s dollars), the Sears National Quilt Contest inspired a lot of women to enter the competition. Five such women make up Friendship Album’s circle of quilters. They all make plans to enter, although for different reasons — and not all of them to do with the prize-money.

• Eula, whose family has been forced by hard times to leave the farm and move into town, where she doesn’t know a soul and is pretty sure she’ll never fit in…
• Bess, a widow of one year, who shows up at the first meeting as a way of avoiding duty on her church’s altar guild and her neighbors’ constant condolences…
• Dorothy, a woman trying hard to keep peace in her home and her sewing scissors away from the lively young grandchildren who’ve just moved in…
• Then there’s the bee’s youngest member, Florence, living the life of a bored socialite after being jilted by her fiancé. Can starting her own quilt business turn her life around?
• And, finally, Florence’s sister-in-law, Emmeline, who’s fresh out of material for her weekly quilting column and hopes to find inspiration in this odd collection of quilters.

When I got a few hundred pages into the Friendship Album, 1933, I decided to try something new. You are witnessing the results right here — a podcast reading of the first draft of a novel as it developed, combined with blog posts highlighting the research materials supporting the writing. 

I hope you enjoy this first draft of the Milton Falls, Ohio, of my imagination.