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KATHERINE SAGE : 1925 - 1929 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT DIARY HAND WRITTEN BY A WEALTHY LOS ANGELES MATRON BESET BY PERFECT DAY AFTER PERFECT DAY MAKING ONE WONDER HOW SHE WILL BE AFFECTED BY THE LOOMING GREAT DEPRESSION

16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. On offer is an original 1925 - 1929 5 year diary authored by Katherine Sage, a young wealthy woman from Glendale, Los Angeles, providing a window into her life during economy boom of the Roaring twenties. The diary is a five-year Ward's diary titled "A Line A Day: a condensed, comparative diary for five years", it contains 365 pages, with 5 daily entries of 4 lines per page. The diary is 99% complete. The book is leather bound, with gilded edges, the cover shows reasonable age-wearing signs.. It measures 5.8' x 3.6', and is in good condition, handwriting is mostly legible. Katherine Sage was born in Minnesota in 1898 or 1896. In 1925, when she started the diary she was living with her husband C. D. (Dick) Sage, and a five months old daughter Jane. Dick Sage was a native of Iowa, graduate of Creighton University in Omaha, who came West in 1919. In 1922 he became an assistant sales manager of Bishop and Co Los Angeles and his career was developing successfully. Katherine mentions him getting a raise at least twice: "1927. Dick got a raise was so glad he phoned me"; Jan 30, 1929. Dick got another raise - pretty nice - Dinner, dance at Alexandria". From other sources it is known that in mid-1930s he became a district sales manager at the National Biscuit Company (NABISCO) in Los Angeles, and then promoted to San Francisco Headquarters where he was responsible for Northern California, Utah and Idaho branches. The family is well off, Dick seems to work much and travel around on business and Katharine shares her time between caring for her daughter, visits, guests, small trips, clubs and parties. The 1920s was a prosperous time for California and Los Angeles, the city was growing, new businesses appeared, the car usage increased. The diary gives a great picture of life of a young married woman from a wealthy family in the age of prosperity. It mentions a lot of names of friends and family members, some of them with their birthday dates. She also gives names of local businesses and neighbourhoods, fashionable clubs and resorts, and describes purchases she makes. Naturally, as a young mother she writes about her daughter almost in each entry giving a pretty good idea of how children were raised in middle class Californian families in those days, including diet, games, education, health issues: "Jan 1, 1925. Took Jane to the rose parade at Pasadena. Lonely day - Glendale won 1st prize. Dinner at Belly's with Mrs. Hills. Wonderful day - Janie was as good"; "Jan2, 1925. Janie 5 months old. Sat alone for 1st time. Weather like summer..."; "Jan 3, 1925. Janie plays peek-a-boo..."; "Jan 5, 1925. Feed her prune juice every a.m. Loves it". On January 12, 1925 she mentions going to Los Angeles after a picture of Janie at Witzel. Witzel was a very prominent portrait photographer of Los Angeles, who was Hollywood's first star photographer and made portraits of many prominent Los Angeles figures. Another noted person she mentions is Kate Brew Vaughn, an American author, lecturer, home economics teacher, newspaper writer, and radio host who also lived in Glendale Jennie is growing and descriptions a getting more detailed: "Sept 14 1926. Jane is surely smart, counts to 19 - and knows just every rhyme you mention, only takes a few times to teach her"; "Jan 11 1927. Jennie just fine - plays so nice now - likes to ride the kids bicycle, is just like a 3 years old"; "Aug 2, 1927 (Jane's birthday). Well Jane had her first party - 26 kids - 15 mammies - had a good time, day perfect and everything went off fine - got wonderful gifts". At the age of 3 Jennie starts attending school and Katherine becomes a member of Mother's club, and then is asked to become its president. Her social life is very active: "Jan 6, 1926. Went to over Bellys, had Rose shampoo our hair...had a little bridge party for the gang - poured rain in a.m. and half could not come but we had a nice time anyway"; "Jul 20, 1926. Met Dick at factory & went to Pacific Club at Long Beach - one swell"; "Sept. 10, 1926. Went to cooking school". The family is rather wealthy which can be seen seen from Katherine's purchases: "Sept 7 1927. Busy getting fall deeds - bought a new fur coat - cocoa caracal - 235, regular 450. Sure got a good buy"; "March 13, 1929. Went to l.a and got a new red silk dress red and white sport shoes - red hat - sweater etc - sure cute outfits"; "March 14, 1929. Expect our new car any day - got 225 on our old one"; "March 16, 1929. Got our new car - Ow, you classy Willy-Knight - did not get home till 5 p.m. 995.00 net". She is quite happy with her life - often writing "Another perfect day"; "Gorgeous day"; "Nice time". Altogether it gives an excellent insight into a lifestyle of middle-class Californian families at that time.. Illustr.: /. Manuscript. Book Condition: Good +

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