Irma A Chicago Woman's Story 18711966 Author:Ellen Fitzsimmons Steinberg, Irma Rosenthal Frankenstein Ellen Steinbergs Irma, painstakingly crafted out of Irma Rosenthal Frankensteins voluminous writings, gives us an inspiring and richly rewarding account of the life and times of an active, socially engaged woman who devoted herself to her family and her community over the course of a long and full life. Irma (18711966) was born... more » in Chicagojust before the Chicago Fireof German Jewish parents who had come to the U.S. shortly after the Civil War. She attended public schools and the University of Chicago, participated energetically in Jewish womens and social-welfare activities, raised her family, and published one poem and a small book. Irmas journals and diaries were private accounts in which she chronicled the rhythm of her days and the shape of her life. She recorded her thoughts and short quotations from her reading, jotted down her own poems and short stories, constructed dinner-party menus, and wrote biographical sketches of her family. Interspersed among the records of what she did when and with whom are a number of lengthy reflections on Chicago history, her early life, religious beliefs, education, her aspirations, disappointments, sorrows, and successes. She documented her familys activities during the Chicago Fire, the citys rebuilding, early educational curricula in the citys schools, what it was like to participate in the suffrage movement and vote for the first time, the effect of the Great Depression on the middle class, and World War II as seen from her perspective. In each chapter, Ellen Steinberg has set Irmas contemporary entries and later memoirs against the context of the Chicago history that Irma knew so well. Irmas story will fascinate those interested in diaries and autobiography, womens history, and Chicago history. From a plethora of rich source materialsincluding over half a million words of Irmas writings aloneSteinberg has created a seamless, fascinating narrative about a Chicago woman who, although "nobody famous" (in her words), lived a vital life in a vibrant city.« less