BETWEEN: Ray and Eva 1938-39 was inspired by ten months of daily letters exchanged between Carolyn Locke’s parents beginning in April of 1938. Just six months after they were married, Ray contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to a sanatorium where he underwent pneumothorax treatments until February of 1939. Weaving a variety of forms and styles, this collection offers intimate glimpses into the lives of two young people confronted with this deadly disease that killed an estimated five million people in the first half of the twentieth century. It is a testament to the love, humor, and generosity that carried them through their separation during the time of the Great Depression and the years leading up to the Second World War.
Praise for BETWEEN: Ray and Eva 1938-39:
In BETWEEN: Ray and Eva 1938-39, Carolyn Locke gives us the voices of her newlywed parents dealing with separation, as Ray writes from the sanatorium where he’s being treated for TB, while Eva writes from their home where she works as a nurse and figures out how to keep the household afloat. Part of the brilliance of this book is the way Locke presents their intimate voices in the context of history, history not through the movement of armies, but through real people in their daily struggles. Against the backdrop of the Depression and the rise of Hitler, we hear young lovers using pet names, teasing and longing for each other, critiquing the bureaucracy, dealing with loneliness, boredom and the ever-present possibility of “the black wagon.” Locke uses an elegant mix of forms and free verse, lyric and document to create a multifaceted and totally engaging world, one even more urgent for our own recent reckonings with plague and crisis. As soon as I finished these pages, I started reading them again, wanting to remain in this world of bravado and humor, tenderness, and a love that keeps the wolf far from the door.
—Betsy Sholl, Maine Poet Laureate 2006-2011, and the author of ten books of poetry, most recently As If a Song Could Save You
Reading these pages, we pass through an extraordinary portal into the past—an intimate glimpse of two young lovers separated by illness. This book is so beautifully layered with letters and poems, family history and world history. I found myself cheering for the young couple and holding my breath as their story unfolds for them in real time; and I also felt the thrill and wonder of their daughter as she met these young versions of her parents. A glorious interweaving of story, poetry, hardship, and enduring love.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, author of The Unfolding and host of The Poetic Path
BETWEEN: Ray and Eva 1938-39 is the tenderest and most matter-of-fact exposé of absence, fear, resilience and hope. Full of love, humor, steadfastness, and “We knew it happened but they never talked about it.”
—Karin Spitfire, Belfast Poet Laureate, 2007-2008, and author of The Body in Late Stage Capitalism and Standing with Trees
There are always bundles of silence inside any history. What is left out of the story we hear about what happened? Carolyn Locke poetically dives headlong into these historical silences in her graceful, tender portrait of her parents during the ten months they spent apart for her father’s TB treatment. BETWEEN: Ray and Eva 1938-39 is many things—a testament to the startling courage of young love; a window into the world of TB treatment in the beginning half of the 20th century; and most of all, it is a celebration of the love letter. Through Locke’s careful curation, Ray’s and Eva’s letters are at once heartening, incredibly sad, and surprisingly funny (read the section about the mustache!). I especially loved Locke’s deft handling of poetic forms in this book—how fitting to use a pantoum’s dizzying repetition to portray this couple’s disorienting situation. The lucky reader of this book will find a wide variety of riches to appreciate and celebrate!
—Jefferson Navicky, archivist and author of four books, most recently Head of Island Beautification for the Rural Outlands
As the author of this powerful new book, BETWEEN: Ray and Eva 1938-39, Carolyn Locke is part daughter, biographer, historian, storyteller, and all poet, threading together ten months of her parents’ lives. It was a time not intentionally kept secret, but only made real years later in their saved letters. They were deeply challenging months that defined the necessary strengths of Ray and Eva and the extraordinary foundation of their marriage. This story is uniquely told in beautifully blended genres. A testament to the power of familial discovery, devotion, and the reach of Locke, a highly skillful writer always rooted in the deep land of a poet’s perspective.
—Barbaria Maria, author of CELESTIAL EARTH—We Are Here . . . but When?, Palace Boulevard, and Crossing Time
A collage of intimate letters and striking poems, BETWEEN navigates the challenge her parents endured in 1938-39 and Locke‘s reaction to their journey through her lyrical imagination. This collage of her parents’ letters with her own vivid poems written during the Covid pandemic bears witness to Locke’s search for both the urgent and consoling “As in, union/ the opposite of separation.”
—Kathleen Ellis, author of several books of poetry, most recently Body of Evidence
BETWEEN: Ray and Eva 1938-39 is a powerful account of one couple’s struggle with uberculosis in the 1930’s. For much of this short collection, Carolyn Locke uses her parents’ words, drawn directly from their daily letters while Ray was a patient in a sanitorium. Such personal narrative set against the backdrop of the depression and Hitler’s rise in Europe creates an authentic and moving story. The poet’s voice is equally powerful. “I never expected to meet you this way,” she writes. “Caught in the swirl of the then-before-I-was, the now-in-which-I am,” Locke holds her breath for the young couple who will become her parents, inviting the reader to do the same.
—Jeri Theriault, author of Self-Portrait as Homestead, Radost, My Red,and In the Museum of Surrender