Sydney Stevens at Redmen Hall

August 23, 2007

Sydney Stevens will be at Redmen Hall for a book signing on Saturday.

Stevens, author of Dear Medora, is from Oysterville on the Long Beach peninsula.

The reading and signing after will be 1-3 p.m. with refreshments provided by the Friends of Skamokawa.

Medora Espy, Stevens' aunt and oldest sister of the late writer Willard Espy, was a child in Oysterville during its "forgotten years," the time between its boom town flourishing and much later modest revival. Yet she spent many of those years separated from her family, especially during secondary school, since Ilwaco High School was too far away for daily attendance by north peninsula students.

Medora accompanied her state senator father to Olympia for a year, then went on to boarding school at the Portland Academy. She faithfully exchanged almost daily letters with her mother, up until her death at 17. Those letters, along with excerpts from her diary, form the basis of this lively account of a young girl in early 20th Century rural Washington State.

Stevens has enhanced the book with many historical photos and much background information, giving the reader a thorough picture of Oysterville in the early 1900s.