Otto Bookstore
A Booklover's Paradise in the Heart of Downtown Williamsport
107 W. Fourth St.
Williamsport, PA 17701
570-326-5764, 1-888-762-4526
HOURS:
Monday through Friday, 9 to 8
Saturday, 9 to 6
Sunday 1 to 4
“A Secret Gift” Is a Gift that Keeps on Giving A review by Betsy Rider “A Secret Gift” by Ted Gup is a book that inspires the hard pressed to hang on while inspiring those who have a bit more to share. When Ted Gup’s grandmother was cleaning out her attic, she gave Ted the letters her husband had received seventy five years earlier when, just before Christmas, he had anonymously advertised for people to write to him telling him why they needed the five dollars he was going to give to those he felt were most in need. The ad had appeared in the Canton, Ohio, daily paper in 1933 when the Great Depression was at its worst. The five dollars then would have bought what one hundred dollars would buy today. Ted’s book not only reprints many of the heart-breaking letters but his exhaustive research shows what happened to the people who wrote them and how their lives and the lives of their descendants were affected by the generosity of the giver. The hard times they all endured, losing their jobs, their savings and their homes and the pride they hung onto which wouldn’t let them apply for more public forms of charity present a picture of a generation tried by fire—a generation which would later be known as the “Greatest Generation. While giving a blow-by-blow history of the Great Depression in Canton Ohio, Ted also brings into focus the transition the town made as it recovered in the forties and fifties and then its decline in today’s “Recession.” The implication of worse times to come if we don’t get our industrial legs under us again is frightening. As intense as the history of these hurting people is, the book has another story within it. It is the story of Sam Stone who placed the ad and brightened the Christmas of so many. He was a gregarious businessman with a past that he never shared with his grandson or anyone else if he could help it. He, too, lost his business and his home not long after his secret gift. And, like many of the letter writers, he survived. But what was he hiding? His grandson, the author, researched that question too. He accessed records from many towns, government agencies and international sources. He got to know the hidden Sam Stone (as he was known). Ted Gup had the perfect background for the job he took on after reading the letters. He had been an investigative reporter for the Washington Post and Time magazine. He has written two other books; “A Book of Honor” and “Nation of Secrets.” He is now a professor and chair of the Journalism Department at Emerson College. And he is obviously a man who is deeply attached to his family, past and present. I found the book fascinating. As I read the letters, I felt a little like I used to feel reading the letters to Ann Landers. But following the research the author undertook, I felt like I was getting a very well presented history course in America in the years before my birth. (Well, one year before my birth!) And in these times when everyone looks to government and “non-profits” for help through difficult situations, it’s inspiring to read of one person who took it upon himself to anonymously relieve his neighbors’ burdens, if only for the Christmas season.
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