The Mysterious Mary Donovan June 24, 2005 – Posted in: Aberrant Normalcy

Have you ever read an old book and found something inside it from the previous owner? Take for example this book of poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
Longfellow
(Please note that the coffee stain is not mine.)
I found this book at my grandmother’s house a few years ago. On the inside cover is a signature of a woman named Mary Donovan from the year 1924:
Mary Donovan
I don’t know who this woman is, but I suspect my grandmother may have purchased the book secondhand. As far as I can tell the book was published in 1920. Mary (or perhaps my grandmother) left a flower inside the pages of the book:
Flower
Does anyone know what kind of flower this is? Perhaps we can identify the geographical area this comes from. The poem on that page is called “Prince Henry”. Also, there was dateless a newspaper article about Longfellow stuck between the pages:
Article
It would be interesting to track down the grandchildren of this Mary Donovan and show this to them, if possible. I wonder what they would say?

In other news, the interview with the Hudson Current went well yesterday and the article should appear sometime next week. I’m going to see Me and You and Everyone We Know tonight. It’s supposed to be good. I’ll let you know. Anyhow, have a happy weekend! 🙂