A MODERN MOTHER'S EXPERIENCE.
New York: Al Malsin, 1913. Item #43311
No Date [1913]. 1st edition. Original wallet-style limp leather binding, with ‘popper’ closer on flap and upper cover, marbled endpapers, and gilt edges. 16mo (pocket-sized), 166 + [16] pages, plus 3 unnumbered leaves of plates with illustrations. 4 1/8 x 2 7/8 inches. Includes index and "baby record" forms at rear for recording vital birth and growth information for the parent's first four children.
Early mother’s pocket guidebook by Belle Israels Mosowitz (née Lindner, 1877-1933), whom the New York Times, at the time of her death, dubbed the most powerful woman in U.S. politics.
Date is inferred from text reference to the author's book "The child", which first appeared in 1913. Features maternity products by Lane Bryant, Inc.
“Belle Moskowitz’s career is unique in American politics. After two decades as a settlement worker, social and civic reformer, and labor mediator, in the early 1920s she became one of New York governor Alfred E. Smith’s closest advisers. She organized his campaigns and served as a strategist in his “kitchen cabinet.” When he ran for president in 1928, she was by far the most powerful woman in the national Democratic Party—the only Jewish woman and the only woman unconnected to a prominent family to achieve such standing” (Jewish Women’s Archive).
”A Modern Mother’s Experience” is full of practical information, gathered first-hand by Belle, then a mother of three, and presented in two sections--health and care of the expectant mother, and health and care of the newborn child.
Publisher Al Malsin notes in his introduction that the book “gives not only all necessary advice and guidance, answering many intimate, perplexing questions (e.g., what kind of corset to wear), but gives hundreds of ‘mother-know-hows’ which will prove invaluable aids to every young wife or mother." Wearing the right corset was apparently important enough that the author included two photos as illustration.
Moskowitz “was a Jewish-American progressive reformer and political advisor in the early 20th century….[B]orn…in Harlem…She was raised in an Ashkenazi Jewish family; her parents were Isidor Lindner and Esther Freyer… religious immigrants from East Prussia….
Isidor was a cantor at Temple Israel, the first synagogue in Harlem. As a young girl, Belle Lindner would have been exposed to the charitable activities of the temple's female Sisterhood, a group which collected money, organized sewing for the poor, and worked with United Hebrew Charities. The Sisterhood also organized a ‘Working Girl's Vacation Fund’ and a ‘Working Girl's Club’ to improve the qualities of life for women living in the city. These activities have much in common with Lindner's later advocacy for young working-class women and recreational opportunities….
In 1900, at the age of 23, Belle Lindner became a social worker at the Educational Alliance, an organization whose primary focus was cultural assimilation for Jewish immigrants. She held various appointments there, eventually becoming director of entertainments and exhibits.
After leaving the Alliance, Lindner (now Belle Israels) wrote for the United Hebrew Charities and Charities, a social work journal, for which she later became an editorial assistant. She also joined the New York section of the Council of Jewish Women, another organization that helped Jewish immigrants. With her role as chair of the philanthropy committee, her focus was welfare work. She oversaw sick and poor children at a hospital on Randall’s Island and visited troubled girls in reformatories. In 1907, Belle Israels joined the first board of directors for the New York branch of the Travelers’ Aid Society, an organization formed with the aim of protecting solo female travelers from trafficking and other situations that threatened their safety.
Her first effort at social reform was to clean up and license the city's commercial dance halls, which she saw as places that got young working girls into trouble. Working through the Council of Jewish Women-New York Section, by 1910 she had won laws that regulated dance hall conditions, including fire and safety and the selling of alcoholic drinks. The New York Times stated, ‘These laws did more to improve the moral surroundings of young girls’ than any other single social reform of the period….her first major project [was]: The Lakeview Home for Girls, which opened for permanent use 1911. The Lakeview was located on Staten Island and gave young women temporary shelter, as well as aid in finding work.
In the 1912 presidential election, [Belle] Israels publicly aligned with the platform of Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party, which emphasized labor protections and occupational safety. In a letter to fellow reformer Lillian Wald, she stated that ‘social reform has the services of America’s first publicity man [Roosevelt] and our ideas will become common currency’....
In 1913, after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire [and the year of this work’s publication] ….[She and her] second husband, Henry Moskowitz….work[ed] closely together in the investigations following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire….[In addition,] Israels began working to promote the grievances of workers. She mediated disputes between the Garment District unions and employers as a grievance clerk for the Dress and Waist Manufacturing Association. She was fired from this role for ruling in favor of labor unions in a majority of cases….
In addition to her work as a labor mediator in the Garment District, Israels also worked privately as an industrial mediator, writer, and advisor. In a flyer for her business, she offered counseling for factory planning and employment management that would benefit both employees and employers. She wrote, ‘Discontented or poorly trained workers, unsuited to their jobs, threaten the peace of the shop. Whatever threatens peace threatens profit.’ She was said in the New York Times to have resolved over 10,000 grievance cases.
Following America’s entry into World War I in April 1917, Belle Israels (now Moskowitz) observed that there was no female counterpart to the all-male Mayor’s Committee on National Defense to coordinate the wartime efforts of various women’s groups across New York City. She successfully proposed such a group to Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, leading to the formation of a Committee of Women on National Defense. Moskowitz served as group secretary and thought through plans for the mass entry of women into the workforce in the event of a loss of male labor due to the draft.
In the 1918 New York gubernatorial election, Belle and her second husband Henry Moskowitz pivoted…to backing Democratic candidate Al Smith for governor. Although Smith had ties to the Tammany Hall machine, which the Moskowitzes had opposed in their previous political advocacy, his support of labor issues aligned with their own. For example, following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a push for factory safety standards legislation (which both Belle and Henry had helped lobby for) led Smith to co-sponsor the bill that established a Factory Investigating Commission. Belle Moskowitz's work during this election began her partnership with Smith, which lasted for over a decade.
Smith connected with Moskowitz through her work as an industrial mediator and writer. She became one of Smith's most intimate advisors, and also worked as his publicist, and he kept her close at hand throughout his eight years as governor of New York State. Visitors would note her presence in the corner of his office during critical meetings. Witnesses reported that Smith would even defer to her on major legislative proposals, waiting for her approval before making final decisions. She advised him throughout the process of enacting broad reforms for the state of New York that would later inspire and direct Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the development of the New Deal during his presidency in 1932.
During her time working with Al Smith, Moskowitz mentored both Robert Moses and a young Anna M. Rosenberg in the art of wielding power behind the scenes.
When Smith became the Democratic Party candidate for President in 1928, Moskowitz worked as his campaign manager. In this role, she has been proposed as the first woman to manage an American presidential campaign. She later worked as his press agent during his attempt for renomination in 1932.
In 1928, following Smith's unsuccessful run for the presidency, Moskowitz opened her own public relations firm, Publicity Associates, one of the first firms independently founded by a woman.”
Her son, “Josef would go on to become Ethiopian emperor Halie Selassie’s public relations counsel….
Moskowitz's funeral at New York's Temple Emanu-El was attended by more than 3,000 people. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, delivering her eulogy, said that Moskowitz would ‘stand out in the history of American life and politics as the woman citizen never selfish and never unwise….’
Edward Bernays, the ‘father of public relations,’ considered Moskowitz a pioneer in the field; the two had a friendly rivalry over who was first to use the title ‘public relations counselor’ to describe their professional role.] He names her among a group of influential publicity figures in women’s organizations in his book Propaganda.
In 2009, the National Jewish Democratic Council gave its first ‘Belle Moskowitz’ award to Ann Lewis” (Wikipedia).
For more on Moskowitz, see, Perry, Elisabeth Israels (1987). Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith. Oxford University Press.
Other sources are listed in the Wikipedia entry.
OCLC: 907213297. OCLC locates only 2 copies worldwide (UCLA, Harvard). Rare.
Previous owner's notes in form at rear at rear. Excellent condition, a beautiful copy of a very rare book showing both personal and professional insights from the most politically powerful American woman, Jewish or otherwise, of the early 20th Century. Touch of light worming to rear endpapers, otherwise Very Good Condition. Very Rare and Very Important. (BK5) (AMR-72B-8-XX).
Price: $1,500.00