Books in Brief: Voices of Kensington

Voices of Kensington: Vanishing Mills, Vanishing Neighborhoods, by Jean Seder (Whitmore, 86 pp., $6.96). Their lives can be see in their faces: tough, weathered, yet capable of enormous kindness. Jean Seder is eminently qualified to transcribe their lives on paper—the daughter of the textile-mill owner who has employed them for generations—she has lived, worked, laughed, and cried with these workingclass people all her life. Mrs. Seder felt their stories needed to be preserved: (Kensington, the secton of Philadelphia in which they live, is undergoing tremendous change, due to time and technology, and these people are part of a way of life rapidly becoming extinct. Mrs. Seder allows her subjects to speak freely, without subjecting their remarks to ideological whitewashing. Yet the secret of the book’s success lies in Nancy Hellebrand’s photographs, which eloquently depict the people, their homes, and their lives. The value of voices of Kensington extends beyond Philadelphia and its own history. It records a way of living that is losing ground in many industrialized parts of the nation. But it provides considerable hope: if such people represent the backbone of America, perhaps its future is not so dismal after all.

GE

About the Author

Gerard Einhaus

Featured Tags

Voices of Kensington: Vanishing Mills, Vanishing Neighborhoods, by Jean Seder (Whitmore, 86 pp., $6.96). Their lives can be see in their faces: tough, weathered, yet capable of enormous kindness. Jean Seder is eminently qualified to transcribe their lives on paper—the daughter of the textile-mill owner who has employed them for generations—she has lived, worked, laughed, and cried with these workingclass people all her life. Mrs. Seder felt their stories needed to be preserved: (Kensington, the secton of Philadelphia in which they live, is undergoing tremendous change, due to time and technology, and these people are part of a way of life rapidly becoming extinct. Mrs. Seder allows her subjects to speak freely, without subjecting their remarks to ideological whitewashing. Yet the secret of the book’s success lies in Nancy Hellebrand’s photographs, which eloquently depict the people, their homes, and their lives. The value of voices of Kensington extends beyond Philadelphia and its own history. It records a way of living that is losing ground in many industrialized parts of the nation. But it provides considerable hope: if such people represent the backbone of America, perhaps its future is not so dismal after all.