Students of World War Two History (of which I am one)must think that they are living in a golden age for new insights into this titanic struggle. Beginning roughly in 2007 with Ken Burns’ documentary The War as well as his book there has been an explosion of interest in the World War Two. One of the results of this has been books which encompass the history of the entire conflict like Sir Max Hastings’s Inferno. There is also a forthcoming volume from Antony Beevor which will cover the whole war as well. When Hastings was asked to explain the interest he said it is because it is the most important event in human history.

Thomas J. Craughwell has written an outstanding book about the bizarre plot by a group of counterfeiters to steal the entombed body of Abraham Lincoln. This took place in 1876 and Craughwell has aptly entitled the book Stealing Lincoln’s Body. He has a chapter which reviews the world of counterfeiting. In it he makes reference to an incident during the American Revolution. The British were trying to destabilize the new American currency called continentals. Two distributors of the counterfeit currency, David Farnsworth and John Blair, were arrested in Danbury with ten thousand dollars worth of false continentals. They were subsequently tried and convicted and executed in Hartford on October 8, 1778.

With the one hundreth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic fast approaching all aspects of the tragedy are being written about. One aspect of the tragedy that is new is an exhibit at Widener University which has a unique focus on the dogs who sailed on Titanic. There were twelve dogs who sailed and nine were kept in an onboard kennel while three smaller dogs were able to stay in their owners’ cabins. The smaller dogs all survived probably because when they were carried on board the lifeboats the crew assumed that the people were carrying babies. The larger dogs unfortunately all perished. One of them, a Great Dane, perished in the arms of its owner, Ann Elizabeth Isham who had left the safety of a lifeboat to retrieve the dog and lost her life as well.

Silvio Bedini grew up in Ridgefield and became a very famous historian. He ultimately became a curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. He was asked in 1958 to write a brochure about the history of Ridgefield for the town’s 250th anniversary. In three months he produced an outstanding local history titled Ridgefield in Review. His interest in history can be traced back to a visit to the Ridgefield Library while growing up. He was allowed to visit the basement historical room by a kindly librarian. The librarian allowed him to see, but not to touch, the sword that had been presented to Sergeant Jeremiah Keeler by the Marquis de Lafayette. He was hooked by history.

Eugene O’Neill, the foremost American dramatist, lived from 1922 until 1927 in Ridgefield. He and his second wife, Agnes, bought Brook Farm on North Salem Road. It was an impressive residence. It was a large multi-roomed house with servant quarters, a four-car garage and thirty-one acres of land. O’Neill even purchased an Irish wolfhound to enhance his role as lord of the manor. It was a very compatible site for his writing. He wrote Desire Under the Elms as well as All God’s Chillun Got Wings, Marco Millions, The Great God Brown, Lazarus Laughed and Strange Interlude.