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A red leather day: Dive into Dumpster leads to precious discovery

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/35680/full/35680/a-red-leather-day-dive-into-dumpster-leads-to-precious-discovery/ A red leather day: Dive into Dumpster leads to precious discovery Friday, September 5, 2008 | by amanda pazornik How does New York Times celebrity reporter Lily Koppel go from strutting the red carpets at movie premieres and interviewing actors and musicians such as Morgan Freeman and Mick Jagger, to realizing that her life's purpose is not to mingle with the rich and famous, but uncover vestiges of old New York? She finds a diary. It belonged to Florence Wolfson, the daughter of two Russian Jewish immigrants. From 1929 to 1934, Wolfson penned her greatest desires, wildest dreams and deepest secrets on pages that landed in Koppel's hands nearly 70 years later. Koppel will recount the details of the fortuitous discovery that inspired her book, "The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal" in San Francisco on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at Books Inc. and Wednesday, Sept. 10 at Booksmith. "When I first read it, I had no idea I was reading a teenager's chronicle," said Koppel, who is 27. "It was almost like 'Sex and the City' for the 1930s." On Oct. 6, 2003, Koppel left the lavender-painted room she was renting on New York's Upper West Side to find a bank of Dumpsters lined up on the curb in front of her Riverside Drive apartment. She discovered the trash bins were filled not with garbage, but with steamer trunks brought to the United States from Paris, London and Monaco in the 1920s and '30s. So she did what any celebrity reporter would do: She jumped in. "I was bouncing on about six trunks and wondering when I had my last tetanus shot," Koppel said. "I started excavating each trunk; each one was its own time capsule." Flapper dresses, vintage handbags, matchboxes from the Copacabana and other treasures appeared before Koppel, who called herself "the leader of this archeological dig." A young building engineer standing nearby joined in the hunt; he uncovered Wolfson's diary and gave it to Koppel. That evening, she stared at the diary, its latch unlocked. Its contents called to her, as it sat atop one of six trunks in her room. She started to read the inked journal, each page revealing more details about the teenager who recorded them. After skimming through about 2,000 entries, Koppel shared the diary with Charles Eric Gordon, a New York lawyer who specialized in tracking down missing persons. He searched through birth records and vintage telephone books, and eventually found Florence Wolfson-Howitt, a 90-year-old woman who split her time between homes in Florida and Connecticut, where she lived with her husband, Nathan Howitt. "At this point, I felt like I knew Florence very intimately," Koppel said. "At first I thought this was the nice portrait of a nice Jewish daughter. But wow, she was much more adventurous than I initially thought." Wolfson was born in Manhattan on Aug. 11, 1915. Her father, Daniel, was a doctor from a line of prominent rabbis. Her mother, Rebecca, owned a couture shop where she sewed outfits, each one worth up to $1,000. Wolfson's family belonged to Temple Emanu-El and Central Synagogue, both in New York City. Her father had remained very religious after immigrating to the United States, while her mother's connection to Judaism gradually slipped away because of her business' success, according to Koppel. Her parents' financial position afforded Wolfson many luxuries: She subscribed to the Philharmonic, played tennis in Central Park and rode horses along the park's bridle paths. She also was a writer, a pianist and a painter, which inspired her travels to Europe where she jetted from London to Paris to Rome. "The diary really unbuttoned my whole notion of the past," Koppel said. "We think of the past as more conservative, but I found it to be this era of pivotal freedom. I was struck that as a young woman, Florence was a free spirit, and at some point she needed to rein that in." On a whim, Koppel called the diary's owner. Wolfson-Howitt answered the phone with a warm and welcoming voice like an old stage actress, Koppel said. She had forgotten about the diary, but as Koppel talked, details started to fill her memory once again. A month after talking by phone, the pair met at Wolfson-Howitt's home in Connecticut. Koppel said it was like reuniting with her long-lost grandmother, an unexpectedly glamorous woman with Christian Dior glasses that framed her eyes. "It was really an incredible moment," Koppel said. "The story really comes full circle and her words are being known to the world. This diary has provided this amazing portal for me as a young writer, and I think she's really changed my life." "The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal" by Lily Koppel (336 pages, Harper, $23.95). Lily Koppel will discuss and sign copies of her book 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9 at Books Inc., 601 Van Ness Ave., S.F. and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10 at Booksmith, 1644 Haight St., S.F.

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