Invented lives...

Dear Diary,

I have been gathering things for my scrapbook and I'm focusing on my travel over the years.  This reminded me of a piece of art I had made.  On the shelf in my studio is this assemblage I created years ago.  I found an old book at a flea market, An American Girl Abroad, and it inspired me to invent a life for the young girl to go with the book cover. 

Finding this piece got me thinking of my acting class in college when we performed parts of the Spoon River Anthology, a series of poems written in 1915 by Edgar Lee Masters.  Based on real names in various cemeteries, Masters invented lives for them and had them speak to the listener....part history, part imagination.

I think that may have been the origin of my love of historical fiction.  I'm reading a good one now, A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline, which tells the story of Christina Olson the famous girl in the Andrew Wyeth painting, Christina's World.  If the weather co-operates, I will be traveling to Rockland, Maine tomorrow or Friday to see the exhibit of Wyeth's work that celebrates the 100th anniversary of his birth and to visit the Olson House in nearby Cushing, Maine.  This is a fine example of the convoluted way my mind works!  One minute I am looking at old bits and pieces of a trip to England in 1990 and the next minute I am planning a trip to Rockland, Maine!