Hello, Miss Eliza!

What a coincidence that your comment came in June! While I was recently cleaning out papers, I came across the letters from Margaret Vail. (Some things I do keep.) You asked if Vail had written subsequent books. I believe she did not. She told me about one she had started, but it was in a drawer, seemingly to stay there. It recounted her husband’s return home from the War, but she gave no reason for not continuing the story. Possibly, and even likely, Robert might have not wanted his story told. After all, France and Germany had experienced a number of skirmishes over the centuries, and after his time in a German prison camp, he might not have wanted his American wife revealing anything that could in a future date, give them cause even to notice him. Margaret had been a reporter here in her country, with some major magazine such as Life, I think, and American reporters like to tell all, you know. Margaret Vail wasn’t her real name, I learned. At the moment, I can’t lay my hands on those letters—they are in another stack of papers somewhere—but if I see them again soon, I will see what I can do to enlighten you more.

It may amuse you to know a special group of ten books, favorites of mine (including Yours Is the Earth), is right beside my desk. Seven of the volumes are either novels set in France or nonfiction about France. I have neither visited France nor studied its language. If you or any other readers of this blog are especially interested in reading about World War II, let me recommend an excellent nonfiction title that made fascinating reading for me and was one source of information that inspired my writing a short story now in contest. That book is Wine and War by Don and Petie Kladstrup. Although I lived through that war, a short time in military uniform near the close of the conflict, this book taught me much about the war that other historical accounts did not touch upon. And to boot, I thought continually about Margaret Vail as I read. If you liked her story, you will enjoy this one.

♥