Stated First Edition. Gift dedication from author. Clean and unmarked. Not a remainder. Deckle edge. Satisfaction guaranteed! In 2003, Koppel, a novice writer for the New York Times, stumbled upon an amazing discovery: the decades-old diary of a privileged teenaged Manhattanite penned between 1929 and 1934. Fascinated by entries detailing theater expeditions, shopping sprees, love interests, and grand ambitions, she put her journalistic skills to good use, tracking down the original owner of this faded and cracked red-leather treasure. Elated to discover 90-year-old Florence Wolfson alive, alert, and eager to share her memories of a bygone time and place, Koppel began interviewing Florence, interweaving the brief diary entries with more detailed personal anecdotes infused with the type of glamour and sophistication associated with a 1930s romantic comedy. After a front-page story appeared in the New York Times Sunday City section, interest in Florence’s fascinating story prompted the author to write a full-length book that works as both a biography and a spellbinding glimpse into a vanished era. --Margaret Flanagan “Skillful reporting, fine prose and [an] excellent eye for period detail. . . . A story about not one but two lovable characters—and the city that brought them together.” - New York Times Book Review “Combining the diary entries as well as Kopple’s intimate interviews with Howitt, the book paints a glamorous and poetic picture of what life was like for a young woman of that era whose love of exploration, writing, music, and theater put her at odds with her mother’s hopes for her future. . . . THE RED LEATHER DIARY reinforces the lesson that it’s never too late to forge new relationships, or simply regain your easily forgotten teenage ambitions.” - Ladies’ Home Journal “[An] amazing story. . . . A highbrow fairy tale. . . . Much of the book’s emotional power derives from the drama of an old woman reclaiming a past that was almost lost to her. . . . Koppel writes with flair.” - Chicago Tribune “Mesmerizing. Koppel evokes 1930s Manhattan nicely, but it’s Wolfson herself who makes the book remarkable. For readers whose experience of the Deco era is limited to movies starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the story of the free-spirited Wolfson may read like a trial run for the sexual revolution of the 1960s.” - Richmond Times-Dispatch “In The Red Leather Diary , Lily Koppel finds an old journal in a Dumpster, gets lost in its rich take on 1930s New York and, improbably, tracks down the now-90-year-old woman whose life—real and imagined—fills its worn pages.” - Reader's Digest (Editors' Choice) “Koppel’s love of New York is obvious in the details she draws from Florence’s diary, which show how the city has changed in ways both big and small. An entertaining and enjoyable work.” - Library Journal “A world straight from the pages of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. . . . The Red Leather Diary is Koppel’s tribute to both the tempestuous girl she came to know on paper and the older, more even-tempered women she grew to love in real life. It’s an extraordinary story about coming of age, following your dreams and discovering (or rediscovering) who you are, were and want to be.” - Parade “Offers a glimpse of a bygone era in Manhattan—all the lovelier because Koppel was able to track down the writer, now a glamorous-looking Connecticut resident in her 90s.” - New York Times “A novelistic biography. . . . Conjures up a romantic version of the Manhattan of Howitt’s youth.” - Washington Post Book World “ New York Times writer Lily Koppel’s The Red Leather Diary melds three life-affirming subjects—Florence Wolfson’s journal of life in 1930s Manhattan, Koppel’s discovery of it in a Dumpster decades later, and the meeting of the two women—into one enchanting memoir.” - Elle “A window into a fascinating and privileged world. . . . Rewarding.” - Publishers Weekly “Sparked by a felicitous discovery in an Upper West Side dumpster, New York Times writer Lily Koppel spins an enthralling true fairy tale about a Depression-era ingénue.” - Vogue “A fascinating book—inventive and inspiring.” - Erica Jong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fear of Flying “After a front-page story appeared in the New York Times Sunday City section, interest in Florence’s fascinating story prompted the author to write a full-length book that works as both a biography and a spellbinding glimpse into a vanished era.” - Booklist Rescued from a Dumpster on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a discarded diary brings to life the glamorous, forgotten world of an extraordinary young woman. For more than half a century, the red leather diary lay silent, languishing inside a steamer trunk, its worn cover crumbling into little flakes. When a cleaning sweep of a New York City apartment building brings this lost treasure to light, both the diary and its owner are given a second life. Recovered by Lily Koppel, a you