Evening star., 1948-09-19
Reading and Writing
Reading and Writing
Catherine burlington, Local Authoress,
Writes Book About Normal Family
By Mary McGror

A BOOK about a NORMAL family?
No father studying Yogi, no dear
old Aunt Agnes raising snakes in.
the sun porch? Impossible. you say.
But according to Catherine Tur-
lington, who, being the author. ought
to know, Three to Make Ready"
which will appear tomorrow, is about
any family, any day
Frankly, Mrs. burlington said the
other day in pre-publication in
terview at her home on Warwick
Drive, Somerset, she wasn't so sure
about the appeal of story about
family group which included no
spectacular eccentrics. This. how
ever, may strike Star readers as
undue pessimism from the lady who
wrote over the Back Fence" (under
the pen name of Israel Hacketo i
one of the most popular features
ever to run in this paper. These
sketches, which ran for about a.
year and a half on the woman'si
page, provided the basis for the
book She stopped writing them,
she said, because her copy, meaning
two of her three teen-age daughters,
left home.
Sylvia, a junior at Swarthmore,
who provides the model for "the
eldest teen-ager" of the book, sat
sewing on her back-to-college ward
robe while her mother explained
what problem it is to be an author
while you're worrying about leaky
roof or the roast for dinner. Also
present was the Dalmatian of the
story, friendly, rather portly crea-
ture named Tammie.
Thought it Was Time.
She never really intended to write
book, Mrs. burlington explained
in her pleasant low voice. She is
a slender, clever-looking woman who
wore a plaid cotton dress with an
amber necklace.
She began the column at time
when her family was beginning to
break up (an era when other wom-
en- have been known to turn to
clubs, antiques or tatting) because
she decided that it was high time
for somebody to write about "a
plain old housewife"
The term is not too apt of Mrs.
Turlington Few suburban matrons
have her newspaper experience, few
er still her lightsome prose style.
A native of Boston who was trans
planted to Georgia at an early age,
and a graduate of Mount Holyoke
where her middle daughter Ellen
is now a SOPHOMORE, she spent the
first six years of the 20s here as a
member of the Christian Science
Monitor Washington bureau.
After her marriage to Edgar Turl-
ington, prominent international
lawyer, she did some free lance
writing, notably for the now defunct
Forum, and a few publicity jobs.
Another thing which induced her
to take up her pen again was the
way other people were writing about
teen-agers.
ut made me just sick. They were
treating them as if they were web
footed or not quite right. They're
not special group or race apart"
Her own teen-agers helped to
write her column. Sylvia spoke up
to remind her mother that bounty
of so cents was offered for ideas.
And Sylvia once took hand at
writing it herself. as did Ellen, who
worked at The Star library this sum-
mer. The youngest member. Bar
bara, who is a senior at Wilson
High School, never got into the act.
however. She was, and still is, too
busy with what her mother calls
Larger Issues, being very active in
the local chapter Of the United
World F'ederalists.
Whipping the column material
into final ictional book shape was
quite an ordeal, Mrs. burlington
says. She put in hours at her old
roll-top desk in the library sweat
ing it out
Why anybody ever writes second
book, I'll never know she said.
X X
He Played With