“The author creates believable characters whose lives contain plenty of passion and tragedy but... history itself is the novel’s best feature. The author has done her homework, infusing her work with convincing details of 19th- and early-20th-century city life.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“This is the book you will carry around with you - on the porch swing and waiting in line at the post office – to see how our great-grandparents lived in these United States once upon a time…
— Rafael Alvarez, author of Tales from the Holy Land
“…a strong, serene, uplifting debut novel [from] a gifted writer with a firm grasp of American history, a fine way of turning a phrase, and a crisp sense of humor.”
— Bryan Crockett, Ph.D., author of Love’s Alchemy: A John Donne Mystery
Up the Hill
to Home
A Novel
Up the Hill
to Home
A Novel
Jennifer Bort Yacovissi
Apprentice House
Loyola University Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland
Copyright © 2015 by Jennifer Bort Yacovissi
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher (except by reviewers who may quote brief passages).
First Edition
Printed in the United States of America
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-62720-039-4
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-62720-056-1
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62720-040-0
Design by Maegan Smith
Published by Apprentice House
Apprentice House
Loyola University Maryland
4501 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210
410.617.5265 • 410.617.2198 (fax)
www.apprenticehouse.com [email protected]
To Jeanie—always the brightest light in any room.
Table of Contents
Morning, Passion Sunday, 16 April 1933 3
Charley Beck’s Happenstance 11
Midday, Passion Sunday, 16 April 1933 63
Evening, Passion Sunday, 16 April 1933 111
Morning, Monday, 17 April 1933 167
Fred for Friends, Ferd for Family 205
Evening, Monday, 17 April 1933 225
Babies, Babies, Babies 257
Thank You for Another Fine Year 381
Palm Sunday, 23 April 1933 459
Acknowledgements 471
Prologue
The first entry in the diary of Emma Lucretia Miller Beck, age 38:
Sunday, July 28, 1895, 9:15 p.m.: A beautiful day, a lovely bright cool night, when wee baby first came, only 7 ½ pounds, but lively as a little cricket, for she had not been in this world three hours when she put her little fist in her mouth and tried to suck it, for she was so hungry. The moon which was bright and clear was in its first quarter, Mercury as Morning Star and Venus as Evening Star were keeping watch over baby: Days length fourteen hours twenty-six minutes.
Morning, Passion Sunday,
16 April 1933
Lillie stands at the top of the cellar stairs feeling for the light switch, which is just out of convenient arm’s reach. When Charley Beck makes the conversion from gaslight to electric—what, almost ten years ago now?—the work crew includes one