This Friday, May 19th, 2023, we will release the first two episodes of our new production, the Elizabeth Robins Diary Podcast. It is a humanities-based look at diary entries ranging from the 1870s through the 1950s covering multiple continents and an unfathomable number of world events.

Elizabeth was the owner of Chinsegut Hill, an estate in Brooksville, Florida I’ve been affiliated with since 2015. In 2017 I began working on a book on one – yes just ONE – incident in Elizabeth’s brother Raymond’s life. I’m still working on it. Friends and enemies both routinely ask me the status of it and I’m always glad to report that I’m still working on it.

In fact I was contentedly working on the book when I had my seizure a few weeks ago. In 2022 I felt the book was nearly ready to publish. It’s about 250 pages long (which in print will be over 300 and frankly needs to be cut down some), so I’d given the first third to some other docents at Chinsegut Hill Historic Site for advice. I thought I was in the Home Stretch and would be handing out signed copies as Christmas gifts to all my lucky friends.

“Yes, Yes, it took awhile, but it was worth it.”

“Yes, your grandfather is referenced on page 145.”

“Yes, the story legitimately includes Al Capone, FDR, JC Penney, Charles Sheldon, the Lindbergh baby, and Russian Imperialists. And your grandfather. That’s why it took so long to write.”

But the book was being written in my free time; the podcast was part of my job. We’d received a grant from Florida Humanities for the podcast and took a trip to FALES Library at NYU to study Elizabeth’s diaries for podcast research. Piles of documents I’ve never seen reviewed in any discussion of “Raymond’s incident” came to light and I sat in the library crying over the emotion expressed in the letters before me. To make matters worse the guy at the table next to me was laughing out loud. Like guffaw-laughing. In the library. To be fair, I don’t think crying is any more acceptable in the library than guffawing but it made me reconsider my research choices. I asked Guffawer what he was studying only to find out he was writing a book on McCarthyism.

Anyway, the FALES Files (I feel like that sounds like a TV Show) revealed my book was not remotely done. In fact I had to go back and rewrite entire portions of the beginning, including parts that had previously been my some of my favorite sections. I had completely neglected Elizabeth’s perspective as well as that of all the people’s whose letters sat in front of me and Truth demanded Remedy.

But before Remedy, we had a podcast to produce. Turns out that is easier than a book – or at least can be done in six months instead of six years. This first podcast season will have ten episodes – with subject matter as varied as human trafficking and tangerines. It’s been fun and thought-provoking and personally stretching. Our spreadsheet has eight seasons planned with so many more possible as diary entries continue to be transcribed (p.s. if you can read cursive and enjoy detective work like figuring out which human in all of Europe and America “L” is as well as all the other abbreviations Elizabeth makes, feel free to contact me. It actually is fun).

You’ll be able to get more content on our website erdiary.com which will also launch Friday and was designed by my fabulously talented friend Allisa. I hope you’ll listen and that it will make you think too – I’ll be taking some vacation in June to hide away and work on the book and make sure Raymond’s story is told in as true a way as I am able. My husband bought me this puzzle a couple years ago and as the kids and I finished it I was bothered initially that a piece was missing, but now I kind of like it. We are not omniscient – we are not omnipresent – whether in a podcast, a book, or in life, our job is to do the best work we can and then put it out there. So here goes!