{"id":745,"date":"2016-11-30T19:10:56","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T19:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.lib.luc.edu\/wla\/?p=745"},"modified":"2026-01-12T21:33:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:33:58","slug":"collections-highlight-the-bowling-poet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/2016\/11\/30\/collections-highlight-the-bowling-poet\/","title":{"rendered":"Collections Highlight: The Bowling Poet"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently pulled some materials for a food ways class visit and I stumbled across a fascinating woman whose papers we have in our collection.\u00a0 While retrieving copies of World War II food stamps<\/a> from her file, I was introduced to Dr. Eleanor Risteen Gordon.\u00a0 Dr. Gordon was born in Wisconsin in 1935, and grew up during the war years.\u00a0 Her surviving childhood letters in the collection little reflect this difficult time, but they do reveal a youthful appreciation for hot dogs, as well as a humorous hint at her later profession.<\/p>\n

\"gordon001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"gordon002edit\"<\/a>\"gordon003\"<\/a>As I delved into Dr. Gordon\u2019s papers, I quickly learned she loved words and language, and used them to communicate in unique and thought-provoking ways.\u00a0 She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Chicago, and taught rhetoric and composition.\u00a0 In addition, she published poetry that touched on nature, art, and everyday life with sensitivity, realism, and humor.\u00a0\u00a0 In this sample of her poetry, she describes a seemly mundane action, eating an orange, with an infusion of passion and sensory language.<\/p>\n

\"oranges-really\"<\/a>

\u201cMy sister has given the orange \u2018voice,\u2019 enabled the everyday to \u2018speak.\u2019\u201d \u2013 Betty Risteen Hasselkus, Dr. Gordon\u2019s sister describing this poem<\/p><\/div>\n

It seems the wordsmithing apple didn\u2019t fall far from the tree with Dr. Gordon; her father was a renowned crossword puzzle creator, who published regularly to the New York Times<\/em>.\u00a0 I can only imagine the level of competition on family Scrabble nights!<\/p>\n

Digging deeper through the collection, I found that when Dr. Gordon wasn\u2019t composing poems or teaching, she enjoyed a diverse range of hobbies and interests.\u00a0 Amongst papers and letters I found numerous bowling awards and pins.\u00a0 In 1986 she even bowled a perfect 300 game during league play.\u00a0 In her obituary<\/a> (Dr. Gordon passed in 1996), Henry Gordon, her husband of 37 years, shared that a fellow poet once told her \u201ca bowling poet is a contradiction in terms,\u201d but that \u201cshe never let that bother her.\u201d<\/p>\n

As if that wasn\u2019t enough, I was surprised to find another of Dr. Gordon\u2019s interests was antique, plastic jewelry.\u00a0 An expert on the subject, she published articles that explored the impact of the development of plastic as a new material on style and culture.\u00a0 She focused on how it made fashion more accessible and spawned whimsical and colorful styles while also being used to replicate and produce traditional styles for mass-wear.\u00a0 As Dr. Gordon wrote, \u201cPlastics provided fashion for everyone to laugh at, to enjoy, to wear.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A photo of a collection of vintage and modern plastic jewelry Dr. Gordon took for use in one of her articles.<\/p><\/div>\n

At first glance, it may seem like Dr. Gordon\u2019s interests were pretty eclectic.\u00a0\u00a0 I think however that they reflect a woman with a witty and playful personality who thought deeply about the culture around her.\u00a0 Her body of work suggests to me that Dr. Gordon wanted to call attention to the beauty in everyday life, and show that the mundane could be celebrated.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to leave you all with one last material from the collection that reveals another of Dr. Gordon\u2019s hobbies: a knitting pattern!\u00a0 For those skilled with needles and yarn, please enjoy Dr. Gordon\u2019s own pattern \u2013 \u201cEleanor\u2019s Beret\u201d.\u00a0 As the holiday season approaches, it might make a fun and unique gift!\u00a0 For those of us who\u2019ve not yet conquered the intricacies of knitting and purling \u2013 may your takeaway from this post be to pursue what interests you, even if it makes you a \u201cbowling poet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click the following link to view the knitting pattern created by Eleanor: Eleanor’s Beret Pattern<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Eleanor Gordon and Jean Nerenberg, \u201cEverywoman\u2019s Jewelry: Early Plastics and Equality in Fashion,\u201d The Journal of Popular Culture <\/em>13 (1980): 643.<\/p>\n

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Kate is a Graduate Assistant at the WLA and in the first year of her M.A. in Public History at Loyola University Chicago. \u00a0A Colorado gal, she enjoys classic films, bike riding, and all things museums.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Loyola University Chicago’s Women and Leadership Archives Blog is designed to provide a positive environment for the Loyola community to discuss important issues and ideas. Differences of opinion are encouraged. We invite comments in response to posts and ask that you write in a civil and respectful manner. All comments will be screened for tone and content and must include the first and last name of the author and a valid email address. The appearance of comments on the blog does not imply the University’s endorsement or acceptance of views expressed.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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I recently pulled some materials for a food ways class visit and I stumbled across a fascinating woman whose papers we have in our collection.\u00a0 While retrieving copies of World War II food stamps from her file, I was introduced … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9908],"tags":[9992,9994,9991,9993,9990,9926],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2710,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions\/2710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/wla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}