Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Book Review: Mrs. Sharp's Traditions

A Book You Can Buy From Me

Title: Mrs. Sharp's Traditions

Author: Sarah Ban Breathnach

Author's web page: http://simpleabundance.com/

Date: 2001

Publisher: Scribner / Simple Abundance

ISBN: 0-7432-1076-X

Length: 256 pages, mostly illustrated

Quote: "It gives me great pleasure to introduce my first book to the admirers of Simple Abundance. You see, the seeds of my simply abundant life (and yours!) were lovingly sown in Mrs. Sharp's Traditions, which was originally published in 1990."

Sarah Ban Breathnach is a multilayered, semi-fictional character in her own right. In an earlier, more ordinary life, she was married to Ed Sharp, who became mayor of Takoma Park, Maryland. Takoma Park is one of the suburban towns around Washington, D.C., each of which tended to attract different demographic groups. Takoma Park was "developed" in the 1890s; its first buildings, other than farmhouses, were a hospital, schools, and office buildings brought in to create the world headquarters of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. This global church was founded in New England, so the community that hosts its headquarters was, naturally, a mix of New England and total multicultural madness.

Later, cheap housing attracted students and artists as well as Adventists. The real Mrs. Sharp, not an Adventist, liked collecting antiques and adored presiding over the historical pageants, re-enactments, folk festivals, craft shows, and flea markets her husband's electorate staged almost every weekend. Much of this pageantry commemorated the 1890s, when a few of the older houses had actually existed and some of the antiques in their attics had been new.

Mrs. Sharp's first fictional alter ego was a hypothetical ancestor, Victorianna Sharp, who liked to reenact Victorian entertainments using the Victorian paraphernalia the real Mrs. Sharp collected. Paper dolls, May baskets, and magic lanterns naturally suggested daisy chains, flower "fashions," and terribly cute things made from pine cones. Mrs. Sharp found that children loved these pastimes. Parents loved them, too, because they're cheap and wholesome.

So the first edition of Mrs. Sharp's Traditions was published, and sold well, especially in the Washington Metropolitan Area where people knew Mrs. Sharp. It wasn't a bestseller, but it encouraged Mrs. Sharp to write other books, including Simple Abundance...which sold so well in the 1990s that Scribner named a whole division of its publishing operations for that book.

By the time Simple Abundance came out, the author was no longer married to Mr. Sharp, and chose to write under her Irish Festival name (pronounced more or less like "Bonn Brannock"). By 2001, the daughter with whom she'd shared all those Victorian games, crafts, and poems had grown up. Other people entered her life. She moved to Britain. As she summarized in this 2001 edition of Mrs. Sharp's Traditions, she hardly felt like the same person who had written the first edition. "While aficionados of the original volume begged me not to make any changes, I couldn't help but indulge in revising and redesigning it." Most of the same poems, recipes, and projects are in this book, but it looks completely different from the 1990 edition.

It's also "more sensitive" to single-parent families (less interest in Daddy's role in the fun and games).

Mrs. Sharp's traditions mostly come from the British Isles. This was not a problem in multiethnic Takoma Park, where neighbors re-created their own cultural traditions; the idea was to keep your own little display of ancestral art, music, cuisine, etc., as pure as possible when you were displaying it to the public, and also appreciate everyone else's. If your heritage isn't British or Irish you'll probably have a lot of traditions of your own to add to Mrs. Sharp's. She wouldn't mind. She would have been a nice guest at your special celebrations.

Some of Mrs. Sharp's traditions actually fell out of favor because they were historically linked to Celtic and Saxon Pagan traditions. How bad is that? You decide. The book is arranged in calendar order. Each month of Mrs. Sharp's year includes something that's completely secular, sensible, and accessible to everybody.

Mrs. Sharp's Traditions is warmly recommended to anyone looking for ideas for simple family fun and wholesome alcohol-free parties.

(To buy it here, scroll down to the Paypal purchase button.)










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