[PUTNAM, Frances Anne] : [Manuscripts] : [Commonplacing Books] : Various, including Humansville, Missouri: [ca. 1913-1928]. Commercial ruled-leave journal. 9 3/4" x 8." Pebble-grained cloth over boards with smooth maroon calf over spine and at corners. With ticket of "Harry Porter, stationer" of Lincoln, Nebraska to interior. 300 numbered pages about full with ink entries in a holograph cursive. Calf about gone from spine, crudely rebacked in a black cloth. Mild handling wear. Textblock sound, contents highly legible. About good-plus.

An early 20th Century commonplacing book of verse, short stories, correspondence, journal entries, etc... kept by a Frances Anne Putnam (1898-1982) originally of Humansville, Missouri. The majority of contents appear to be transcribed from other sources, though the book's opening, which provides a likely satirical 1913 letter to her father, sets the tone for the album, reflecting a wry sense of humor in the young, rural Polk County teen:

"I am sorry you never get to have a good time anymore since I have grown to be a lady. You are as good as a precious stone to me. Especially when I want money." 

Two pages of notes from a 1928 "meeting of private duty nurses" seem to find her in Lincoln, Nebraska where she worked for sometime before moving to Chicago where she lived until 1981, returning to Humansville after retirement. A lovely rural Missouri woman's commonplacing book.