Reading letters, particularly love letters, is similar to reading a
diary. We are interested and curious, but still hold a certain
sense of being intrusive. However, letters are still considered the
most personal way to understand the character and personality of an
individual and of the zeitgeist in which the letters are written.
Placing these particular letters in their historical context of The
Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression is particularly poignant
in that they are written mainly by those in their early twenties,
young people who were on the cusp of the great adventure of life.
In this collection most of the letters are written by gentlemen to
one particular beauty Jessie Beverly Pifer, dashing, independent,
fashionable, and always remembered as the stylish and vibrant
Jebbie, Belle of the Class of 1924. The letters, many beautiful in
their own right because of the handwriting, provide a first hand
account of daily travails lived by the young nearly a century ago,
expressing a parallel to modes of communication of then and now,
displaying emotions familiar to all generations, and revealing the
love and devotion of All the Gentlemen Callers who loved Jessie. We
can t help but wonder how emails of today can ever connect the
sender and the receiver through the carefully constructed, flowing
reflection, and very personal expression found only in love letters
written with a fountain pen. The Author, Dr. Judith Thompson Witmer
(Director of the Capital Area Institute for Mathematics and Science
at Penn State Harrisburg), holds a respect and passion for social
history of small towns and the families who live there. The author
of nearly a dozen books, ranging from biographies to educational
administration and other trade books, her most recent publication
(2011) is Jebbie: Vamp to Victim, the true story of Jessie Beverly
Pifer, a beautiful young woman with many suitors who became
entrapped in a web of deceit. All the Gentlemen Callers is a
companion to Jebbie, focusing on the social interaction of young
men who came calling on young women, a generation like no other in
changing the social times and expectations of becoming adults in a
time Studs Terkel called euphoric and F. Scott Fitzgerald termed
The Jazz Age.
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