By Marion Roach Smith
IN THE SUMMER of 1924, five sisters worked in Washington, and happily someone had the great good sense to snap their photo. Don’t you just love them? I found this on Flickr, and then did a little research, and found out that they are (left to right) Goldie, Jeane, Marge, Belle, and Vera, all of whom worked as secretaries for five members of Congress from various states. Here they are, having their lunch. Read on, sisters.
From the category archives:
Younger and Older Sisters
ARTIST, EDUCATOR AND YOGI Karen Arp-Sandel is on a mixed-media mission. Whether “getting gluey” constructing mixed-media collage and assemblage pieces, sketching landscapes, or instructing students in the finer points of downward dog and sun salutations, Karen wants everyone she encounters through her art to embrace her mantra: “Art is NOT separate.” Art, for Karen, is daily, and in particular, it is the warp and weave of the various sisterhood experiences she’s come to treasure. Meet Karen now.
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‘MY SISTER’S GARDEN is famous,” our Marion says about Margaret’s place. “My sister’s garden is almost as amazing as she is. My sister’s garden is (almost) as eccentric as she is. My sister’s garden is not mine, but because of hers I do have a hand-me-down collection of some wild and crazy plants.” Get the dirt.
IT STARTED FOR TSP’S MARION WITH a single photo, glimpsed on the Library of Congress site while she was researching something else entirely. A picture of three beautifully dressed women simply stopped her, made her change direction, and abandon one train of thought for another. This happens to writers; it’s a hazard, as well as a joy, of the profession. Want to talk about joy? “Meeting” the Brox sisters gave Marion plenty, which she’ll share with you in this slideshow and a video.
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TSP’S MARION ROACH SMITH CALLS IT “OUR GREAT EXPERIMENT.” Big sister Margaret calls it “Why not, and can-do.” It’s the release today (on the occasion of her “29th” birthday) of Marion’s fourth book by none other than big sister Margaret-turned-publisher. (Happy birthday, Marion. I think that’s the most unusual gift I ever got you.) :) It’s also a must-have for anyone doing any memoir-style writing–whether in print or on a blog–since that’s what Marion’s been teaching to sold-out classes for 13 years. Get the details (and the book) from our engaging red-headed expert and birthday girl.
TSP SISTERS MARGARET AND PAIGE have been lucky to know writer, stylist, crafter and all-around super-duper sister-friend Kari Chapin for several years now, and we couldn’t be more excited to feature her and her new book, The Handmade Marketplace, here on TSP. Get the scoop on Kari and her take on sisterhood, and a chance to win a signed copy of her book! It’s all here.
SISTER PAIGE WAS COMPLETELY CHARMED the other morning by a profile she heard on NPR of Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar. Three guesses as to who they are. And if you’re a Bollywood connoisseur, sorry, you’re disqualified. Get the scoop from Paige.
I LOVE THIS SONG BY RICHARD THOMPSON, called “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” after the bike model, and every time I hear it, I think of my red-haired sister, Marion. I don’t even know if she knows the song (or Richard Thompson, or his ex-wife, Linda Thompson, or their son, Teddy Thompson, glorious musicians all). Do you, Marion? But as Richard’s cult hit says…Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme…(Get all the lyrics…)
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WE ARE SAD TO LEARN OF THE DEATH OF LUCILLE CLIFTON, an American treasure, a prolific poet and author, and a recipient of just about every major poetry award or fellowship we can think of. Some months back TSP’s Sister Paige posted Clifton’s poem “sisters,” saying it “just made me want to cry, dance and sing.” Let’s cry, dance and sing today for the loss of Clifton, 73, by reading it aloud: [click to continue…]
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SISTERLY devotion is the theme to so much of what we write about here at TSP, and our Sister Marion says it’s perhaps never better illustrated than by the December 16th birthday girl, Jane Austen (1775), and the astonishing act of sisterhood performed by her sister after the death of the famous writer. Read Marion’s take.
CREEPY SISTER FICTION is not that hard to come by, TSP’s Sister Marion says. Sisters, after all, provide great territory for things to go seriously wrong, she points out, and watching them go there has that certain can’t-take-your-eyes-off-this quality. So it is with the masterful psychological thriller The Sister, by Poppy Adams, a debut novel written in the voice of older sister Ginny. Read more about it.
MARION’S SHE SAID, SHE SAID BLOG is one year old, and in its short life has taken on everything from the precious to the red hot between her older sister, Margaret, and herself. If you’ve been reading along you’ve learned that they don’t see most things the same way, and that on some topics—their mother, for instance—there is no seeing eye-to-eye. That behavior does not extend to their other parent. Read a love letter of sorts.
THIS SISTER CAN REALLY WIELD A NEEDLE AND ALSO THE LOVE, whether in her practice as a small-town country doctor in Canada or in her nature-inspired crafting—weblike crochet work, charming embroidery on thick, colorful felt, and all manner of sewing and knitting creations. Margie (short for Margaret) Oomen is the gentle genius behind the popular blog Resurrection Fern, and a force of nature herself online among the web’s most creative pairs of hands. Meet her in the TSP Galleries’ latest show.
First time here? Here's the idea: TSP is a network of blogs about the many facets of the word sister, and the concept of sisterhood. A sisterhood of sister blogs, you could say. Whatever sister means to you, from identical twin to sister-in-law (or in-friendship or in-feminism), we’ll make room to listen in about it or express it on TSP. Like the slogan up top says, “Don’t you have something to say to your sister?” We've got galleries of art and literature by and about sisters, and a Sisterpedia of sisterly trivia...but now we're getting ahead of ourselves. The quick study: 
As the suffix of its name suggests, 
No surprise, really, that sisterhood, often life’s longest relationship and always one of its most important, has been the Muse for so much creative self-expression by women, and also by men. 
