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Jo Maeder

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Recent Posts

  • 2020: The Ups and Downs, a New Year’s Eve Invitation, and Wedding Photos!
  • Q&A: Jill McCorkle on dolls, dollhouses, tiny objects and what they have to do with writing and life
  • How My French Work Exchange Journey Led to a New Life and Love
  • Chapter 1 of Zerk ‘Em and Pull the Push Rods: A Wry Squint at Aviation in the Mid-20th Century
  • The Tale of the Squirrel-proof Bird Feeder

Archives

Q&A: Jill McCorkle on dolls, dollhouses, tiny objects and what they have to do with writing and life

September 9, 2020 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

    “I have always loved dolls. And yes, there are still within the love, those that have creeped me out!” – Jill McCorkle Jill McCorkle is a bestselling, award-winning author of unforgettable novels and short stories. She was a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Fiction at Harvard, where she also chaired the department of creative writing. […]

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Filed Under: Author Q&A, Blog, Dolls, Entertainment, Family, Love, Pop Culture Tagged With: Baby Thumbelina, Charlie McCarthy, Danny O'Day, dollhouses, Dolls, Dr. Ruth, Japanese wig doll, Jill McCorkle, Liddle Kiddles, Nancy Anne Storybook. Wednesday's Child Doll, Thoreau dollhouse

Mother’s Day without Mama

May 7, 2016 by Jo Maeder 4 Comments

This Mother’s Day, 2016, marks the eleventh one without Mama Jo. It’s always been tinged with sadness since her passing, but this one will be particularly hard. I recently completed reading and editing the audiobook of When I Married My Mother. I read it once. Didn’t like the way I did my mother’s parts. Re-read them […]

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Filed Under: Books by Jo, Dolls, Essay, Family, Grief, Love Tagged With: Gain, Loss, Mother's Day

Shirley Temple: The girl, the woman, the dolls

February 19, 2014 by Jo Maeder 2 Comments

I’ve now been in the doll adoption business about 18 months. If I had to pick the one with the most universal, indestructible appeal, it would be Shirley Temple in all her various sizes and outfits. Barbie is too polarizing. Madame Alexander dolls too prissy. No one dislikes Shirley Temple. She appeals to a goodness and […]

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Filed Under: Dolls, Essay, Family, Pop Culture Tagged With: grief, Mama Jo's House of Dolls, Shirley Temple autobiography, Shirley Temple Black, Shirley Temple dolls, The 700-doll question

THE 700-DOLL QUESTION

May 8, 2013 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

Just in time for Mother’s Day, here’s my essay on the laughter and tears of selling my mother’s dolls that I wrote for The New York Times. Be sure to check out the slideshow as well as the short video made by the very talented Jacob Rosdail. Mama Jo had several Mother & Child dolls in her collection. Here are two that I […]

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Filed Under: Dolls Tagged With: Dolls, grief, Jacob Rosdail, Magge Head Kane, The 700-doll question, The New York Times, Wake Forest University documentary program

The First Top 10 Forever Home Photo Contest Winners!

April 7, 2013 by Jo Maeder 7 Comments

Photos of me by Mama Jo To commemorate the anniversary of my mother’s heavenly ascent, I’m introducing the Forever Home Photo Contest using photos sent to me by new “moms” and “dads” of her dolls. Mama Jo loved to take photos. Many were of her/our dolls. Whimsy was never in short supply in her world, nor […]

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Filed Under: Contest, Dolls

YES! WEEKLY VISITS MAMA JO’S HOUSE OF DOLLS

October 5, 2012 by Jo Maeder 2 Comments

Do you think dolls are cute or creepy? Most people fall in one camp or the other. Yet every culture has dolls. Why? My theory is they go back to when a cave woman made one to amuse her kid while she rubbed two sticks together to make a fire. Or perhaps she lost a […]

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Filed Under: Dolls, Pop Culture

A BURIED TREASURE, A NEW ADVENTURE

September 13, 2012 by Jo Maeder 4 Comments

He almost went into the freebie pile. He stands 7 1/2 inches tall. I should say he measures that tall because he can’t stand on his own. His clothes are moth-eaten. His feet look too wide and big for his short legs. Yet there was something about him that intrigued me. Mind you, it took […]

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Filed Under: Dolls, Essay, Family, Pop Culture Tagged With: collecting, Dolls, grief, hoarding

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