Much thanks to Em Rito for writing this up.

The Book Women, a play released in 2022, created by Rachel Bublitz, follows the storyline of four women (Della “Star” Harlow, Sissy Mae Harlow, Erma Frey, and Josephine Jolly) on one of their day to day journey’s through the Appalachian Mountains as they deliver books, magazines, letters, newspapers, and other reading material to people of any age in an attempt to literate the mountains. Starting off the day previous, we are introduced to the main cast as well as Leo Burnet (played by Josh Kroll), a reporter from New York City who came to do an article on the book women and their jobs that are funded by the government through FDR’s ‘New Deal’, an attempt to release the strife endured due to the Great Depression. Leo Burnet is sent out on the following day with Della Harlow (played by Laini Seltzer) as she shows him her work and the way around the mountains of Kentucky.

As well as Burnet’s attempts of learning the way of the book women, Sissy Mae Harlow (played by Morgan Goodrich), Della’s younger sister, is taken around the mountains and is informed as to how to be a book women by Josephine Jolly (played by Christina Jones) whom she will be replacing, due to Josephine having to leave them behind to take care of sickly family members. Starting off despising the work, Sissy Mae learns to love the job and eventually permanently replaces Josphine, since she is sadly unable to return to her work.

Erma Frey’s (played by Ellie Frank) journey may not be as adventurous as the other three book women, at first, but she comes across Cora Walker (played by Madeline Zdrojewski), who is struggling with the difficulties of losing her mother and no longer having any direct family remaining, and helps her cope with the loss and takes her along her route and later to her uncle’s house so she’ll have someone to be with her.

Book Women is a truly fantastic play on the impact of women, the New Deal, and the south, as a whole, and brings light to programs hidden at the time due to the fact that they were women led. Plays published like this bring great amounts of light to parts of history forgotten or disregarded along the way, and it covers many different aspects that must be considered. So, for this extra credit blog on the Book Women, I am asking you to answer all three of the following questions:

1. The Book Women being one of the many branch offs of the WPA was one of the most impactful programs in the Appalachian Mountains, but there were many more that changed how the US functioned at the time. So, how did the WPA (in and outside of the Book Women) impact people during the Great Depression and was it a useful program and part of the New Deal?
2. As shown in Newsies, as well, the press played an extremely important role in the opinions of people throughout the US’ history. How was Leo Burnet’s article and others among the sorts extremely influential and helpful to programs like the WPA?
3. As stated in the title, the play Book Women primarily revolves around the working women of the 1930s, but there were many different opinions shared about the idea of working women at the time, even though they were legally supposed to be treated equally since 1920. So, how was the importance of women changing during this time and what viewpoints were changing? 

300 words minimum for all three answers.  Due by June 2nd by midnight.