Item #3396 A Young Girl's Diary [manuscript cover title]. California, Rosy Thomas.

A Young Girl's Diary [manuscript cover title]

Rio Bravo, Ca. 1914. [18],30pp. of manuscript on lined paper. Contemporary handmade plain wrappers, stitched. Minor edge wear and light staining to wrappers. Very good. Item #3396

A holographic diary and short story written by in 1914 by Rosy Thomas, a young California woman in Rio Bravo, a former settlement in Kern County along the Santa Fe Railroad near Bakersfield. The first portion of eighteen pages encompasses Thomas's diary, which begins on January 30 and runs through February 14, 1914. Thomas records her daily activities , including playing with friends, doing odd chores around her house (where she lives with her sister and aunt), and more. A sample entry from February 2 reads: "Monday I got up at seven o'clock. We were hurrying around so as not to be late for school. Then we went out and brushed and harnessed the horse. After breakfast we got ready and went to school. But we were around 10 minutes late. We got home late from school and we had to get in wood and get supper, and we went to bed about half past eight."

Following her diary is a thirty-page story by Thomas, entitled "Rosilie and Her Dog." The story concerns a young girl who becomes lost on her way from home from school and misses her parents and her dog, whose name is Sleipnir, presumably after the eight-legged horse of Odin in Norse mythology. Eight-year-old Rosilie stumbles into a mountain cottage, where she stays for some time with the owner of the cottage. In time, Rosilie is reunited with her dog and parents, who take a liking to George. In the end, the group all moves in together and then later to the city. According to ancestry records, Rosy Thomas was an orphan at the time she wrote her story, which adds special resonance to the concept of the character of Rosilie getting separated from her parents and lost in the woods. A unique record of a young girl's life in fact and fiction in rural California in the early 20th century.

Price: $850.00