EAU CLAIRE – The local newspaper plays such a significant role in Patricia A. Hawkenson’s new novel “Born with a Tarnished Spoon,” it’s practically “a character in the story,” she recently told the Leader-Telegram.
Hawkenson said she incorporated sources like The Eau Claire Leader to add background and historical accuracy to the story set in the 1930s. (The Leader merged with the Daily Telegram in 1970 to form the Leader-Telegram.)
The historical novel tells the story of Cassie Clark, daughter of a socialite mother and lumber baron father, who finds herself worrying about things previously unimaginable following the financial devastation of the Great Depression. Clark also happens to be an avid reader of the “Beautify Yourself” column in The Leader.
“People at that time, their newspapers were hugely important to their lives,” Hawkenson said in the story published this week. “They woke up in the morning, and they had to find out what was in the paper, what happened to their neighbors. That was their way of finding it out.”
Prior to her time as an author, Hawkenson spent 33 years as a teacher in Eau Claire public and private schools. She began writing her novel in 2011, shortly before retiring from teaching.
