Preserving Lives: An American Family’s Scrapbook, 1920-1950. Hardcover. 2018. TCU Press. By Hank O’Neal
This is the story of two ordinary people, Harold and Sarah, who lived ordinary lives, each born more than a century ago. Perhaps there are millions of people who have similar stories and fascinating lives. But the lives of Harold and Sarah were preserved not in the memories of others but in the pages of seven scrapbooks, thousands of photographs, letters, postcards, illustrations, and bits of memorabilia from which their lives together may be reconstructed. Harold’s and Sarah’s lives were unusually fascinating because of time and place: the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, and the emerging supremacy of what came to be known as the American Dream. The story began and thrived in the rough and tumble world of the East Texas oil patch, and this makes it even more compelling.
