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This novel tells the story of the Little Falls textile strike of
1912 from the perspective of one of its leading participants, M.
Helen Schloss. She was a public health nurse and an active
socialist before she came to Little Falls, New York at the
invitation of a group of wealthy women. When workers at the Phoenix
and Gilbert textile mills struck against wage cuts in October, she
was ready to support them in every way she could. Over the next
three months, Little Falls was the national focus for the growing
labor movement as Socialist Party and IWW activists from around the
country joined the battle. But it was not the radical celebrities
of the era who won the strike. It was the largely female, immigrant
workers and the two women who led them: Helen Schloss and Matilda
Rabinowitz. Also included is an excerpt from Matilda's unpublished
memoir, courtesy of her granddaughter Robbin Legere Henderson.
Matilda went on from Little Falls to lead strikes across the
country and was an active writer until very late in life. Helen,
who organized medical care at the great Paterson and Ludlow
strikes, vanishes from history after she went to Russia in 1921.
In the winter of 1885 William Druse disappeared from his run-down
farm near the tiny village of Jordanville, New York. It took a
month for the suspicions of his neighbors to lead the local sheriff
to arrest Druse's wife Roxy for killing her husband with an axe.
Even more horrific stories circulated of how she forced her son,
daughter and nephew to dismember and burn the body. Some even said
she fed their father's remains to the pigs. The trial which
followed became the center of a newly sensational national press
and drew the curious and morbid to the county courthouse in
Herkimer. Among them was an aspiring young journalist named W. H.
Tippetts who, as Roxy Druse fought for her life, published a short
book detailing all of the county's murders from colonial times,
culminating in an interview with Roxy herself. Despite a spirited
campaign to save her life life, she was hung in Herkimer in 1887
while her daughter Mary received a ten year sentence as accomplice.
This novel is based very closely on those events, as seen through
the eyes of W.H. Tippetts, but presents a new view of Roxy Druse
not as a cold-blooded murder but as a mother who would do anything
to save the lives of her children. Also included is Tippetts' own
history of the county's numerous murders in the years leading up to
1887.
The Kerwood brothers are not your everyday Tom, Dick and Harry. So
when Tom Kerwood and his wife Linda nervously await Mrs Potter from
the adoption agency, who's to assess them at home, it's not
surprising that events get out of hand. Dick has returned from a
French smuggling trip with brandy and cigarettes - and two Kosovan
refugees. Meanwhile, hospital porter Harry has embarked on an
ambitious plan (involving body parts) to get the price reduced on
the house Tom and Linda want to buy. Hilarious mayhem ensues, as
Tom must fabricate ever wilder explanations to placate Linda, Mrs
Potter and a suspicious policeman. Seen to critical acclaim at
London's Duke of York theatre in 2005, the Cooneys' smart,
resourceful comedy starred the McGann brothers.
Michael Cooney's riotous farce has all the ingredients for
rib-tickling hilarity and offers a colourful selection of character
roles. Eric Swan (aided by his Uncle George and unbeknown to his
wife, Linda) has pocketed thousands of pounds through fraudulent
DSS claims. When Norman Bassett (the lodger) opens the door to Mr
Jenkins, the DSS Inspector, deceptive mayhem follows - as do the
undertaker, bereavement counsellor, psychiatrist, Norman's
fianc�e, a corpse, the ominous Ms Cowper and a rather rebellious
washing machine! "this superb farce...I found myself snorting like
a demented whale. Cash on Delivery strikes me as being an instant
classic of the genre." - Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph
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Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
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