I could now surmise that my mother was given the book at some point before 1930, when she was perhaps 10 or 12. Below her address, she had written a poem:I pity the riverI pity the brookI pity the oneThat steals this book! Most likely this was something my mother had seen in an autograph book upon graduating elementary school. This was the home of my mother’s older brother, Dr. George Kanner, and his family. Rather than travel some circuitous route through multiple owners before landing on eBay, the prayer book had been in my family all along, in a house where I had spent many childhood sleepovers with my cousin David.

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Persons: ” Eager, Tallis, Dr, George Kanner, David Organizations: Hewes Street, Jos, Schlesinger Library, Departed, eBay Locations: Brooklyn, Lafayette, Vienna, Garden City