The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted — Text and Context

Catherine's Inspiration and the Library Project

The opening chapter, "Catherine's Inspiration," shows Smith grappling with composition, her difficulty in expressing love for Dexter College. This personal struggle quickly gives way to a communal project: starting a library. The preface frames the book as "frankly suggestive," aiming to "kindle" interest in literature. The library scheme, hinted at in the chapter titles, becomes the engine for the girls' summer in Winsted. Readers should note how the author balances individual character moments—like Catherine's creative block—with the collective endeavor, a pattern that recurs throughout the excerpts.

Contrasting Voices: Catherine and Frieda

The excerpts introduce two distinct perspectives. Catherine is described as "tall sweet-faced" with "red-gold hair," and her speech is warm and inclusive: "O, Hannah, my darling, I've been waiting ages for you! And for you, too, Frieda." Frieda Lange, by contrast, is introduced through her internal grumbling: "I hoped she would be homely." The narrative shifts to Frieda's point of view during the train journey, where her discomfort is rendered in visceral detail—she feels "shot from her seat" and anointed with milk. This contrast in voice and experience suggests the novel will explore friendship across temperaments.

Frieda's Train Journey: A Set Piece of Discomfort

The extended passage describing Frieda's first night in an American sleeping-car is a standout. Her homesickness manifests as a "mighty" wave, and her fear of the dark takes on racial overtones: she imagines "pink fingernails and gleaming teeth and eyeballs." The author uses sensory details—the "close warm atmosphere," the "subdued rustlings"—to build claustrophobia. Frieda's misery is contrasted with Hannah's cheerful ease: "slept like a top." This episode, while specific to Frieda, also serves as a comic set piece, ending with her disheveled arrival in Winsted. It demonstrates Barrett's ability to blend psychological realism with light humor.

Structure and Pacing: From Porch to Platform

The excerpts move from Catherine's porch to Frieda's train to the Winsted platform, showing a deliberate shift in setting and focus. The table of contents reveals a balanced structure: early chapters on planning ("Getting Started," "Organization") give way to action ("Landing," "Brookmeadow") and later chapters on specific themes ("Journalism," "The Three R's"). The preface's mention of "kindling power" suggests the book aims to inspire readers to seek out the poems and stories referenced. First-time readers should pay attention to how each chapter advances both the library project and the girls' personal growth.

These excerpts reveal a novel that balances purposeful plot with character-driven moments. The library project provides a clear through-line, but the real interest lies in the contrasting voices of Catherine and Frieda, and in set pieces like the train journey that showcase Barrett's descriptive range. Readers approaching the full text will find a story that rewards attention to both its stated mission—to introduce new poetry—and its quieter observations of friendship and discomfort.

Rereading the opening of The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted, I felt that particular hush of a library being born—how a room becomes a place just by shelving one book beside another. It reminded me, oddly, of the quiet domestic urgency in Hildegarde's Home — Context and Discussion, where home itself is assembled, gently, from attention and small choices. Both feel like flowers pressed between pages—preserved, still faintly sweet.