[book_talk] book review - Ted Gup

From: "Bonnie L. Sherrell" <blslarner@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Blind Chit Chat" <Blind-Chit-Chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Books for the Blind" <Books4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Blind Book Lovers Cafe" <bblc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Book Talk" <book_talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 00:07:46 -0800
_The Secret Gift_
by Ted Gup

On December 17, 1933, an unusual advertisement was run, once only, on
page three of the Canton Repository, Canton, Ohio's daily newspaper. 
The advertisement, which was addressed to "the White Collar Man,"
offered five to ten dollars to at least seventy-five residents of the
city who were willing to write to B. Virdot, care of General Delivery,
explaining why they needed such help at Christmastime.  It was
explained that B. Virdot was an assumed name, and that total anonymity
was offered to those who wrote, those who would receive the checks, and
to the person using the name of B. Virdot.  How many letters were
received by B. Virdot is unknown; what is known is that in the end a
hundred fifty checks for five dollars each were sent to people all over
the city of Canton, a few of which went to rural areas outside the
city.

Ted Gup, an investigative reporter, loved his grandfather, Sam Stone. 
Not long after Sam and his wife Minna retired from the clothing store
chain Sam had run for years in Canton and moved to Florida, Ted's
family followed suit.  Ted knew that his grandfather's family had
emigrated from Europe in the early part of the century, but he'd never
been certain of the details, for he'd been told at least three
different countries from which they were supposed to have come, and
he'd been told both that Grandpa Sam had been born in Europe and that
he'd been born in Pittsburgh.  Which was it?  And what connections were
there to the Stones who lived not far from Grandpa's old home that he'd
been warned were to be avoided like the plague?

No one would answer Ted's questions while he was growing up, and not
even his Grandmother Minna would do so after Sam's death.  But a few
years after Minna's death, Ted's mother gave him a certain suitcase
that she said she had reason to believe held a number of family papers
that she was certain Ted, as the unofficial family historian, would be
most interested in.  There were some legal papers, various family
letters that Minna had saved, and in a single bundle topped by a copy
of the advertisement from the Canton Repository, December 17, 1933, a
hundred fifty letters, some written on expensive stationary and others
on scraps of paper or on postcards or even on brown or manila paper cut
from paper bags or wrapping paper, on writing tablets and the backs of
lists, all detailing the miseries of those who'd read the advertisement
and who wrote hoping to obtain at least five dollars, sometimes for
their family, sometimes for others, who were suffering from the effects
of the Great Depression.  Many were from people who'd been wealthy
until the stock market crashed and the banks closed down and their
businesses went under; others had been getting by until there were no
jobs to be had; many were written by wives whose husbands were too
proud to accept charity; some were written on behalf of parents or
neighbors.  One was written by a fourteen-year-old girl who wanted to
take her family out for Christmas dinner, as they'd not had a real meal
for months.  The writers represented all races, colors, and creeds,
those who'd been wealthy and those who'd always lived with poverty as
well as many who'd lost jobs when companies closed down or due to
illness or due to women being laid off with no  one checking to see if
they were married or if their husbands were able to work or were even
employed.  Most expressed shock to find that no matter how hard they
looked they could not find gainful employment, and were more concerned
with making certain there was something for their children for
Christmas than with getting anything for themselves.

With the letters was a bankbook showing an initial deposit in the name
of B. Virdot of seven hundred fifty dollars, and the ledger showing
where each of a hundred fifty five dollar checks were sent.

And there were in many cases a second letter thanking B. Virdot for the
generous gift of five dollars, oftentimes indicating that the money had
gone for shoes for the children so they could walk to school through
the winter weather or to small gifts or, in one case, to repay the
milkman who'd been delivering milk in spite of the family being months
behind on the dairy bills.

Gup was amazed that his Jewish grandparents had quietly made such gifts
to the people of Canton, Ohio, at such a time.  So he set himself to
learning where the gifts had gone, how they had affected the families
involved, and how many of the families had come to be in such straits
that they'd respond to such a generous offer as they did.  And as he
looked into the histories of the recipients of those hundred fifty
checks, he also explored the history of his grandfather to answer those
questions as to where and when Sam Stone had entered this world, and
how he'd ended up on Canton, Ohio, and married to Minna, and how he'd
been inspired to make such a gift to his neighbors throughout the city.

In Europe antisemitic sentiments were being once again whipped up, this
time by the burgeoning Nazi party in Germany and in surrounding
countries; in the United States a Jewish refugee from pogroms in
Romania who'd managed to keep going in business in spite of the
financial setbacks thrown at him by the Depression was doing his best
to help the citizens of his adopted community make it with a bit more
cheer through what had promised to be a bleak Christmas.  Gup's
research was timely, as we are recovering from the undeclared
depression of the new millenium, and the news of the B. Virdot offer in
1933 led several communities around the nation to repeat the
experiment, including within Canton itself, which has been even worse
hit now than it was in the thirties.

The book is both well researched and well written.  I got my copy in
print at Costco; I do hope it is available in alternate formats.  I do
recommend it, and found it uplifting to see how one person's desire to
give back to the community that accepted him as he presented himself
managed to positively touch so many lives, and how those anonymous
gifts still echo to this very day. 

Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large

"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise 
cannot see all ends." LOTR

"Don't go where I can't follow."
[book_talk] book review - Ted Gup

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