Book Prizes - What can they tell us?

Books awarded as prizes to Norah & Eileen Myers

The above books have sat on my bookcase for over thirty-five years and although I have looked at and handled them numerous times, I had never actually read them until recently. The one on the left was awarded to my great, great Aunt Honorah Myers, known as Norah, as a twelve year old. It was first prize for Poetry when in 2nd Class at St Mary's Convent, Rutherglen, Xmas 1906. The other book was awarded to her younger sister, Eileen, as a nine year old. It was 1st prize for English when in fourth grade at St. Mary's School, Rutherglen, Xmas, 1911. The two girls were the youngest of a family of 10 children of John Myers and Margaret McAuliffe. All four grandparents were Irish Catholics who had come to Victoria in the 1850's. Sadly both girls died in their twenties and neither married, although Norah had a son Cecil supposedly fathered by a famous tennis player. Another married sister also died in her twenties. On reading the books I was very surprised at the stories they told, which prompted me to research more about the books and their authors to try to understand why they were chosen as prizes.

Inscriptions in each book

Many of us have items passed down to us and it can be a valuable exercise to record what you know of these items and who they belonged to, so their history is not lost to future generations. If you also do some research on these items, it can add extra context to the original owner's story. Having finally read these books, I wanted to know more about them. They were both supplied by William P Linehan, 309 Little Collins Street, Melbourne. William Lineham's obituary in The Advocate, Dec 1945, described him as "Founder and Principal of Well-known Catholic Bookshop". He had set up his own bookshop in 1895 and had a hand in setting up two well known Catholic publications, the Austral Light and the Tribune, the latter being published for several years on his premises. Requiem Mass was held at St Patrick's Cathedral with the Archbishop presiding. Books from this supplier would, therefore, have been considered suitable prizes to their students by the Nuns, who had only recently come from Melbourne to Rutherglen. St Mary's School and Convent had only been established in March 1901 after a request by the Parish Priest, Fr. Micheal O'Connor, to the Presentation Nuns in Melbourne to sends some Nuns to educate the children of the Parish. Did the Nuns actually know what the stories were about or am I surprised at their content because I am viewing them with a 21st century perspective?

The Adventures of a Casket, An Episode of the Invasion of 1814, by Theophile Menard, translated from French is of superior quality and was awarded to Norah Myers. The flowery section of the cover is textured, while the grey section is embossed in silver and wraps around to a similar depth on the back. The spine has only one word on it "Casket", a hint to the story. It appears to have been read many times and greatly treasured. It has no publishing date, but a copyright of 1876 by Benziger Brothers. Benziger Brothers were a Catholic book publishing company founded in 1792 in Switzerland by Joseph Charles Benziger and later run and expanded by his sons and grandsons. They were bestowed the title of Printers to the Holy Apostolic See in 1867. The Holy See being the government of the Catholic Church based in the Vatican.

The story is told from the perspective of a young man's experiences of the Austrian invasion of France in 1814, when it was necessary for the French to hide their valuables from the invading Austrians. Set in the village of Baume les Dames, many took advantage of hiding their valuables in a vault under the local chapel. The young man had been given the duty of looking after a lady and her niece, whilst the husband was away on business. The valuables belonging to the niece were placed in a casket, and together with several other cases packed with family valuables, the young man was charged with taking them to the Chapel for safe keeping. There is a great deal of detail about the over running of the village and the battles nearby, as well as the entertaining of officers and billeting of invading troops. The casket, a plain wooden box, never made it to the vault and was inadvertently left in the kitchen area of the Abbey where soldiers stayed, some cleaning their boots on it, but it was never opened. When the army finally left and the valuables of the villagers were reclaimed, there was great dismay that the casket with its valuables was not there. The young man, who was responsible for hiding it was mortified and offered to pay for it when he could. Weeks passed before the casket was found and the moral of the story was "What God guards is well guarded."  Although an interesting historical story it wasn't one I thought appropriate for a Poetry prize for a 12 year old girl.

The Opening Pages of each Book

The Old Gray Rosary, by Mrs Anna H. Dorsey, is in a slightly more tattered condition, possibly because of its lesser quality, with thicker paper and some pages printed on a slant. There is no publisher or publication date, only a small Irish Trade Mark stamped on the last page that I can find nothing about. The spelling of "gray" in the title indicates its American origin. Anna was born in Washington D C in 1816, the daughter of a minister. Both Anna and her husband were converts to Catholicism and she is remembered as a pioneer of Catholic literature in America. She was the author of numerous short stories and novels, the majority of which concentrated on the melodramatic and religious conversion.  In 1889, Anna was awarded the Laetare Medal, by Notre Dame University, Indiana, in recognition of outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society, the most prestigious award given to American Catholics. Another well known recipient of this medal was President John F Kennedy. She lived through a time of great upheaval in America with her only son killed fighting for the Union side in the American Civil War.

The Irish Trade Mark

The story begins with a girl asking questions about her mother's collection of rosary beads among which are the old gray rosary beads, described as ugly and forlorn. They were made of beans and brass wire and belonged to a slave. This led to the girl being given a manuscript written by her grandmother which told the story of those beads described as:

     "a true narrative of the struggles of a poor negro slave, with the infirmities of her nature and the sins of her life; who, disheartened by frequent failure and the evil consequences of the great sin of  her life, abandoned the sacraments of the church and everything connected with her religion, except devotion to the Blessed Mother of Jesus Christ."

It is a story told from a Protestant point of view and wasn't very flattering to Catholics. The girl's grandfather was a slave owner, who treated his slaves better than most, with ill-treated slaves coming to ask him to buy them. He often did, but only bonded them for a certain number of years and then granted them their freedom. Mary, the owner of the beads, was one of these slaves who had been brutally treated by a drunken owner and had herself resorted to drink in the mistaken idea it would drown her sorrows. Mary was now treated well, cooked for the family and looked after the children. Everyday she prayed using those gray rosary beads. The daughter of the family, was curious about both this habit and Mary's religion. She was allowed to accompany Mary to her Church, where she was captivated by the paintings, statues and rituals which were much more interesting than the austere Protestant church her parents went to. Mary had lapses to her old ways and was given many chances. One night looking after the children, she left them alone for a few minutes and an accident with a candle occurred, with one of the younger children dying of burns. The grandfather immediately emancipated his slaves and the family moved North. Mary's Catholic influence was forgotten. The family returned after many years and the daughter married a Catholic and converted. By chance she reconnected with Mary, who had had a sad life, but still clung to her old gray rosary beads and recited the rosary three times daily. Again I found it a strange book to give to a 9 year old, Catholic girl, as the majority of the book is focused on the Protestant religion.

By reading and researching these books I have learnt about the type of books my great, great Aunts were given to read and although they were being educated here in Australia, the books were published overseas about historic stories there. Australia was still finding its identity, as was seen when WW1 broke out a few years later and Australian men enlisted to help Britain, the mother country. An interesting side note to this story is in December 1906 when Norah received her prize, her older brother, Patrick applied for a special licence to marry Mary Louisa Williams, a protestant. Patrick and Mary were my great grandparents. On the same bookshelf as the above books I have three books awarded to Mary Louisa Williams, for Good Conduct, when she attended Sunday School at St Stephen's, Church of England, Rutherglen.