[Diary]: A Young New Jersey Woman's Diary During and After World War I.

Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, 1921. Hardcover. Very Good. Girl's diary and scrapbook of her life and adventures during 1916 to 1921 from Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Three quarter black leather with paper marbled boards measuring 10.5" x 8". 202pp. Approximately 42,000 words. Very good lacking the spine, modest rubbing, and edgewear with clear handwritten text. Contains three gelatin silver sepia-toned photographs measuring 4" x 3" with newspaper and magazine clippings.

Vera Shipman's daily diary during her time in high school and after college. The diary starts on Shipman's 16th birthday on April 30th, 1916: "I was sweet sixteen today a very important epoch in my life. It was great, and the only mean thing is, it can never happen again". Most of the diary takes place during the time Shipman was at her high school, Ridgefield Park High school in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Shipman spent most of her time playing basketball, crocheting, biking, and watching films with her friends. Many of the films she talks about include actors Willard Mack and Mary Pickford, two popular silent film stars. Her favorite pass time was the schools choir, which she has some trouble getting into, but eventually got a part in, "Make believe I'm not happy now!" She frequently writes about how her studies are going and often gets perfect marks on tests. Aside from her school's sports clubs and magazine (The Cuckoo, which she was editor and chief of), Shipham spends a large amount of time at church and with her Baptist church's Campfire Girls Club. On one trip, the girls went to Belmar, New Jersey for a camping trip and the camp grounds renamed one of their campsites "Metla-Kahl-La" in honor of the Campfire Girls Club.

Though often lamenting on a new test coming up or an unwanted advance from a boy, Shipham does talk about her town going under quarantine due to the increased number of kids with polio and measles. Shipham never writes about coming down with these illnesses, but that her friends often did, "she's been very sick, didn't know whether she'd live". She did however deal with a great amount of pain from walking to and from school, making remarks about her bloody and blistered feet. During this time she also writes about World War I and the shortages it caused her town, "Santa has been good to me this year in spite of the war and the shortage of supplies". For months her high school and various stores around the town are closed. When the school finally reopens, Shipham graduates and heads off to Montclair State College, signing off on her diary.

The diary resumes again on December 27th, 1920, two full years after Shipham's last entry. The rest of the entries from this point are all about her romantic affairs with three different men. She first breaks up with her current partner, Bud, "I don't want him to think he owns me. I suppose I ought to cut him altogether but I can't get up nerve enough to go through the after effects - the possibility of having nobody for a while. Mean? Yes, I suppose so but I can't help it." Then she declines both Bud's and another man's, Bert, advances, "I refused. He needn't think I'm so stuck on his royal highness that I'd give up prayer meeting for him." Most of the pages talk about how unhappy she is that these two men won't leave her alone and how sad it is to see women chasing after them. Aside from this, she writes about teaching at her old high school and going to church meetings and plays with her new romantic interest Ed.

Small newspaper and magazine clippings, cut photographs of Shipham, and letters from Ed and Bud are pasted into the diary. Also included is a playbill affixed to a separate sheet of paper for the play, "The Secret Room," starring Frances Dee, Eleonora Von Mendelssohn, Grace Coppin, and Reed Brown, Jr. The playbill is for the Royal theatre is New York City.

An extensive diary about a young women's life during and after World War I, 1916-1921, from Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.