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Happy 150th Birthday, America!

https://mylife100yearsago.com/2026/07/05/happy-150th-birthday-america/

Published: July 5, 2026 21:24

I haven’t been feeling much Fourth of July spirit this weekend for a lot of reasons, including Cape Town’s gray winter weather. So I decided to turn to 1926, when America celebrated its sesquicentennial, hoping to find a more festive scene.*  On the…

Children’s Books: Your 1925 Holiday Guide

https://mylife100yearsago.com/2026/01/01/childrens-books-your-1925-holiday-guide/

Published: January 1, 2026 05:06

1925 is the best children’s book year ever! Or a total washout! It depends on whether you believe the New York Times, whose anonymous critic tells us in its November 8 holiday children’s book roundup that “never since man began to make books, have there…

One last summer swim in 1925

https://mylife100yearsago.com/2025/09/03/one-last-summer-swim-in-1925/

Published: September 3, 2025 23:27

August in Washington, D.C., wound down in a very un-D.C. fashion, with moderate temperatures and low humidity, a far cry from the weather in late July when I went to the DC Open finals.* The women’s final, played in the afternoon after a long rain delay,…

Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room, and Literary Beefs

https://mylife100yearsago.com/2025/07/10/virginia-woolf-jacobs-room-and-literary-beefs/

Published: July 10, 2025 21:49

I realize that it’s unreasonable to sign up for the annual meeting of the International T.S. Eliot Society, followed immediately by the T.S. Eliot International Summer School, and complain that people talk about T.S. Eliot too much. I became a member of…

July 1925 Magazine Covers Celebrate America’s Spirit

https://mylife100yearsago.com/2025/07/04/july-1925-magazine-covers-celebrate-americas-spirit/

Published: July 4, 2025 21:30

This year, a lot of Americans will be celebrating Independence Day in a minor key. I’m one of them. I’m spending our country’s anniversary in COVID isolation at Trinity College, Dublin, a set of circumstances not conducive to riotous celebration even at…

The Best and Worst of the New Yorker’s First Issue

https://mylife100yearsago.com/2025/02/28/the-best-and-worst-of-the-new-yorkers-first-issue/

Published: February 28, 2025 16:25

I grew up with the New Yorker. My family had a subscription. We had a huge cartoon collection that I browsed through constantly. My high school English teacher explained the proper way to read the magazine: front to back, skipping the cartoons and ads,…

The Top Posts of 1924

https://mylife100yearsago.com/2025/01/09/the-top-posts-of-1924/

Published: January 9, 2025 20:19

Belated happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to the (can it be?) eighth year of My Life 100 Years Ago.* This year’s J.C. Leyendecker New Year’s baby apparently just registered his new car and immediately has to repair it, which I gather is par for the…

Children’s Books: Your 1924 Holiday Shopping Guide

https://mylife100yearsago.com/2024/12/25/childrens-books-your-1924-holiday-shopping-guide/

Published: December 25, 2024 20:25

Welcome to the sixth annual children’s books holiday shopping guide! I’ve just arrived in Cape Town from Washington, D.C., as I do at this time every year.* This year, determined to avoid a repetition of last year’s kind of pathetic effort, I got an…

A Double Rainbow of 1924 Magazine Covers

https://mylife100yearsago.com/2024/08/31/a-double-rainbow-of-1924-magazine-covers/

Published: August 31, 2024 20:02

I recently went on on a trip from Cape Town to Washington, D.C., Seattle, North Cascades National Park, Seattle again, Denver, D.C. again, and then back home to Cape Town, all in three weeks. It was wonderful, but it was too much: too many airports, too…

The Top Posts of 1923

https://mylife100yearsago.com/2024/01/01/the-top-posts-of-1923/

Published: January 1, 2024 20:47

Happy 2024, everyone! I don’t know if there’s some symbolism behind this year’s J.C. Leyendecker New Year’s baby that I’m missing, or if it’s just a baby knight riding a mechanical horse and using a feather as a lance. Any insights would be welcomed.…