Hello ,
Fannie Sellins is back! I'm working on the final edits of her biography scheduled for release in 2016, nine years and many revisions after I began the project.
Also this week, congratulations to subscriber Erma Baude, winner of a $25 gift certificate to her favorite independent bookstore. Erma, get in touch to claim your prize.
Standing in the GapBetween Rich and Poor |
Fannie Sellins entered my life via a Google search on American labor history way back in 2007--In the Midst of Terror She went out to Her Work was one entry that turned up. Who could pass on that? Not me. The article by Mary Lou Hawse started like this: "Fannie Sellins was a labor organizer -- and from all accounts, she was an exceptional one. But she paid with her life." Suffice it to say, I was off like a bloodhound tracking scent and by the end of the
day, I was determined to write a book about this woman. She reminded me of Ita Ford, one of the Maryknoll sisters brutally murdered by national guardsmen in El Salvador in 1980.Both women shared a love
for the poor, selfless courage, and a focus on people's everyday needs while working for systemic change. Ita chose to work in El Salvador, where a small minority controlled the vast majority of the country's wealth and most people lived in poverty. She was fully aware of the death squads raining violence on those who spoke out against the system, including the Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador Oscar Romero who was assassinated while saying Mass. Ita believed deeply in Romero's words, "one who is committed to the poor must risk the same fate as the poor. And in El Salvador we know what the fate of the poor signifies: to disappear, to be tortured, to be captive and to be found dead." In 1913-14, Fannie Sellins made her home among the destitute miners' families in the nonunion coal fields of West Virginia. The United Mine Workers Journal called her an "Angel of Mercy," who went into the miners' homes, encouraging their wives
and caring for the sick and dying. "Whenever there was a strike, with its inevitable suffering, Mrs. Sellins was found, caring for the women and children through the dark days of the struggle." Threatened with arrest for urging miners to join the union, Fannie said, "The only wrong that they can say I have done is to take shoes to the little children in Colliers who need shoes. And when I think of their little bare
feet, blue with the cruel blasts of winter, it makes me determined that if it be wrong to put shoes upon those little feet, then I will continue to do wrong as long as I have hands and feet to crawl to Colliers." When the miners' union was crushed in West Virginia, Fannie moved to Pennsylvania's Black Valley, they called it the Black Valley. The name sprang from the fighting between labor unions and mine owners. Fighting so fierce, they called it war.
Labor war. In late summer 1919, miners struck Allegheny Coal and Coke in Brackenridge, PA. Fannie was warned to leave town if she valued her life. She stayed. She walked the picket lines with the men and rallied strikers to stick it out. She tried to keep peace, while the two sides heckled each other and often came to blows. One afternoon an argument broke out between sheriff's deputies and an unarmed miner. A crowd gathered, including Fannie, seeing deputies club, then shoot and
kill the man. She shouted for the lawmen to stop. They turned on her, gunning her down as she tried to herd nearby children to safety.
Women at Fannie's Funeral St. Peter's Church, New Kensington, PA.
Ita and Fannie did not give their lives in some grand gesture of generosity and selflessness, they simply got up each morning and did the work that was before them. For Ita, it was driving people where they needed to go in the rocky hills of El Salvador, or delivering medicine and food. For Fannie, it was helping a poor woman in labor or encouraging workers to believe they deserved better. They stood with the poor and downtrodden with such integrity that those with power
and wealth could not allow them to live.
I need to come up with a subtitle for the book, Fannie Never Flinches. Any ideas? Let me know. Many thanks to Librarian Jennifer, Librarian over at Jean Little Library Blogspot for nominating PURE GRIT for the The
Cybils, the children's and young adult bloggers literary awards. I'm thrilled to death at this honor!
Thanks, too, to @MrsYuskoLibrary for including PURE GRIT in the best new books of 2014 for tweens and teens at the Washington Library Media Association Conference in Yakima, WA. I'll be there Saturday afternoon talking about how great nonfiction books spark students interest in creativity across
the curriculum. Here's my latest effort to do something every day that has nothing to do with writing and book promotion. I raided my Italian prune tree before the squirrels got away with them all, let them ripen in a box for a
week and put fourteen pints in the freezer. I did save enough out in the hopes of making a plum torte soon, if not sooner. If you haven't made one, check out the recipe and photos here. It's delicious. Thanks for reading! I know your time is valuable and I appreciate you spending a few minutes with me today. I am always happy to hear your thoughts. If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam or sell your email address and you can unsubscribe anytime by clicking the unsubscribe link below. If you'd like to get your hands on a copy of PURE GRIT, here's the place! If you'd like a signed copy and I'm not coming to your neighborhood soon, let me know. I
can send you a personally autographed book or a signed bookplate. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teacher and librarians, visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. My best, Mary Questions? Comments? Contact me at
MaryCronkFarrell@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.
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