Day: March 1, 2024

Book Review: The Pirate’s Wife by Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos

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Author: Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos
Title: The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd 
Narrator: Courtney Patterson
Publication Info: Harlequin Audio, 2022
Summary/Review:

There’s a trend of fictional works titled The [name of man’s trade] [female relative], but The Pirate’s Wife is a history of a woman who was the spouse of an actual pirate.  Or a privateer, depending on your point of view.  Sarah Bradley was only 14 when she settled in New York City with her parents and seven years later when she married Captain William Kidd, she had already been married and widowed twice.  Geanacopoulos surmises that while the first marriage was arranged by her father, and the second marriage was out of necessity, Sarah and Kidd shared a passionate love.

But they didn’t get to spend much time together as Kidd was commissioned to sail the Adventure Galley as a privateer with the support of New York Governor Bellomont.  When the rumor that Kidd had turned pirate was spread, his investors turned against him and he was captured in Boston in 1699.  Sarah went to support him and was arrested as well.  Sarah is shown to work to protect her family name and try to prevent the execution of her husband.  However, Kidd would be brought to England and hung in 1701, leaving Sarah a widow yet again.  The rest of her life would require rebuilding her reputation and for their children as well, a difficult task that she achieved.

This is an interesting glimpse of the actions of historical figure who accomplished a lot despite the prejudices against her for being a woman at the time. Geanacopoulos addresses gaps in the historical record by frequently writing “Sarah may have…” which is a good hedge against being historically inaccurate, but becomes a bit of an irritant in her writing style.  Definitely a book worth checking out if you’re interested in women’s history, pirates, and Colonial America.

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Rating: ***

Book Review: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System by Cynthia Zaitzevsky

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Author: Cynthia Zaitzevsky
Title: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System
Publication Info: Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press, 1982.
Summary/Review:

In a coffee-table format and richly illustrated with historic photographs and drawings, Cynthia Zaitzevsky explores the history of Boston’s groundbreaking park systems.  Frederick Law Olmsted, a pioneer of landscape architecture with his design for Central Park, moved to Brookline in the final decades of his life to work with the City of Boston on an elaborate network of parks that became known as the Emerald Necklace.  Zaitzevsky sums up the topographical history of Boston and Olmsted’s biography before moving on to the various segments of the Emerald Necklace (Olmsted had a strict definition of what was and wasn’t a park, considering the Back Bay Fens to be a sanitary improvement while Franklin Park was the only “true” park), as well as other projects Olmsted and company worked on in the area.

Olmsted’s parks survive to this day although often dramatically different forms.  The vision of democracy Olmsted had of the restorative nature of pastoral settings for the people was at odds with actual city residents needs for active sports and recreation.  Zaitzevsky seems disappointed that Olmsted’s vision didn’t survive except in places like Arnold Arboretum, but as a Bostonian with kids I’ve enjoyed many of the adaptive reuses of the parks while still appreciating the Olmstedian landscapes. One quibble with this book is that the author breaks it down in topics rather than chronologically or by park, which means there are chapters about Olmsted’s firm, plans, plants, etc toward the end that I kind of got bored with.  I’d have found it more illuminating to have that information incorporated into the broader narrative of the Emerald Necklace.
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Rating: ***1/2