Miss Cornett's Courtship

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Summary: The letters are the real prize! ¿ Dallas Morning News
Review: Compiling great-grandfather's love letters in book is woman's tribute to her ancestors. Cathlynn Richard Dodson knew little of her great-grandmother, possessed the same heart-shaped face as hers, and even less of her great-grandfather, who died before her birth. Her desire to understand their story and where she came from sent her searching for answers a decade ago - from genealogy records in Dallas to the Appalachians. Eventually, the trail led her to the courtship letters that Samuel Patton Caudill penned to his "Darling Dora." These "missives" became the foundation for Ms. Dodson's novella, Miss Cornett's Courtship, set in Kentucky's Appalachian Mountains in 1904. From letters that were too fragile to handle, Ms. Dodson's mother transcribed them for her daughter. The resulting self-published book mixes her great-grandfather's heartfelt, old-fashioned letters with a somewhat fictionalized story line. The plot is no more complicated than a paperback romance novel - boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back - but the letters are the real prize. In a syntax long out of use, Patton's words are romantically overwrought by today's standards. But in the context of the time, they're charming. Such as this plea: "Say dear, how many moons must rise and set ere I can claim you as my own and my arms may entwine that supple waist, my eyes look squarely into yours and a love be exchanged between us that will remain unsevered through all eternity . . ." A 25-year-old Patton wrote this from his home in Whitesburg, Ky., to Dora, six years his junior, in Poor Fork, Ky. After reading the letters, Ms. Dodson knew a story lay in their words. The problem was, she knew so little about her great-grandparents. From her own visits as a youth, Ms. Dodson recalled an independent, gray-haired woman who spoke little and made brown-sugar candy. Her diminutive frame hardly looked strong enough to hold the cast-iron skillet slightly off the heat while she stirred the concoction. Her heart-shaped face was still evident, but her doe eyes were covered with thick-framed glasses. This image of her great-grandmother gave precious little insight into the coming-of-age woman captured in her 1905 wedding photograph, where the bride and groom stand shoulder to shoulder: she in her high-collar blouse and he with his Clark Gable ears poking out. Her great-grandfather was even more of a mystery. Because he died from a heart attack in his 40s, she couldn't find a living family member who remembered him. Patton had no more form than his flat images on the black-and-white stills. Ms. Dodson's journey to piece together her family story had begun long before learning of the letters. Every day, she'd spend her lunch hour in the genealogy department in the downtown Dallas Public Library, where she worked in the late '80s. Here, she'd search census and cemetery records to trace her family tree and to find the Kentucky cousins, whom she had heard about growing up but never met. She hoped they could tell her something about her great-grandparents and other family members. Then she placed an ad in the Harlan Daily Enterprise, which was the closest newspaper to the town where her great-grandmother grew up. A cousin responded with a letter. After several correspondences, Ms. Dodson and her mother traveled to Kentucky's Appalachian Mountains - to the valley cradled by Pine and Big Black peaks where Patton courted Miss Dora. She learned of the white mules, which pulled a flat-bed wagon carried Dora and her sisters over the hills for the education that her father insisted on. They visited the family cemetery and the home site where Dora grew up. Nothing remained of the two-story Victorian home with its wraparound porch and swing. Next door had once been her parents' store, which sold general merchandise, dry goods, groceries, shoes, stock feed, lumber and caskets. After returning home, her mother remembered about the faded courtship letters with the 2-cent George Washington stamps. The story of her maternal great-grandparents was now beginning to fill in. Still, when Ms. Dodson sat down to write Miss Cornett's Courtship, she knew time had claimed far too many details to create a truly nonfiction work. To reconstruct the story, Ms. Dodson used family memories and added a few might-have-beens. For example, no one knew where the couple met, but because Dora's father was very involved in church, Ms. Dodson felt they probably met in the chapel on Sunday morning. So that's how she wrote it. "The book was my way of creating a history for both of them since I didn't really know them," Ms. Dodson says. Letters mentioned socials they were to attend, and an apparent misunderstanding where Dora must have accused him of being a "naughty flatterer." Not knowing what a "naughty flatterer" meant, Ms. Dodson decided it could mean another woman had been in the picture. Since he mentioned a cousin Polly, who had given him a kiss (a Hershey's Kiss), Polly became the other woman and the incident with the chocolate was added. "I'm fascinated by where fact becomes fiction," says Ms. Dodson. Among the letters' most endearing moments was when Patton fretted about approaching her father for her hand. He chastised himself for having run away at his first attempt. About his second try, he proudly wrote: "I didn't back down the second time, did I dear? Your Papa's answer pleased me so well I haven't ceased thanking him yet." The first copy of the book, hand-bound, was a Mother's Day present from Ms. Dodson to her mother. After several requests, she made copies for other family members. It's based on a true story." Her mother has commented, "I know that must be just how it happened." Ms. Dodson says that when Dora, who lived until age 83, was asked why she never remarried after Patton died, she responded: " 'If I did, then I'd have to take care of him.' I tried to have that independence come through in the book."

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Summary: A charming and wonderful love story.
Review: I enjoyed the book very much. The actual love letters from Patton to Dora are charming, and it's a beautiful story of hope and growth for the two main characters. Miss Cornett's Courtship is like a sweeter and better version of the Bridges of Maddison County.

Rating:
Summary: A sweet, one-evening touch of romance
Review: I found this book, a lovely little story about courtship the old-fashioned way, quite delightful. It's a wonderful peek into a young girl's joy and anguish as she first experiences love-and the resulting hard decisions she must make about her future. You'll especially enjoy the emotion-filled letters from Miss Cornett's beau, Patton Caudill. This love struck young man's amorous letters would melt the heart of any young lady, even one being pushed by father to spurn this suitor's advances.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant way to spend an evening.
Review: Reading the novella based on the letters of the author's great-grandparents was a pleasant way to spend an evening. The epistolary form (with its built-in sense of reality) is very appealing to most readers. What I found most interesting, however, is how good the writing is--particularly the lack of authorial self consciousness that advertises inexperience, and is so hard to overcome in fiction. Karen Milan, Book Reviewer, Fort Worth, TX

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Summary: This one should be on Oprah's book list!
Review: This is a love story that is sweet and pure, and is an over-all wonderful story. The characters are real and the letters around which the story is woven are actual letters from a real family. Simply wonderful!