THE OLD LADY OF VINE STREET REVEALED These days the notion of a free press is almost an entirely foreign concept, and its ever-diminishing presence in our society has shown itself to be a thief of true democracy. The Old Lady of Vine Street is the story of a small band of reporters who had the courage to risk everything they had for their belief in the importance of a free and independent press. They had the audacity to fight the powerful Taft family for the right to buy their own newspaper, the Cincinnati Enquirer. The story unfolds in January 1952 in Cincinnati and moves on to the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. Reporters Jim Ratliff and Jack Cronin head the list of major players that also includes the former United States Senator who chaired the Senate investigation of Joseph McCarthy in 1950, two of the wealthiest men in the United States, the most famous family in America, the trust company that sold the Washington Post to Eugene Meyers for $833,000, and over 800 Cincinnati Enquirer employees who risked their homes and lifes savings for a chance to own their paper, affectionately known as the Old Lady of Vine Street.

In the midst of the United States' immense economic growth in the 1850s, Americans worried about whether the booming agricultural, industrial, and commercial expansion came at the price of cherished American values such as honesty, hard work, and dedication to the common good. Was the nation becoming greedy, selfish, vulgar, and cruel? Was there such a thing as too much prosperity? At the same time, the United States felt the influence of the rise of popular mass-circulation newspapers and magazines and the surge in American book publishing. Concern over living correctly as well as prosperously was commonly discussed by leading authors and journalists, who were now writing for ever-expanding regional and national audiences. Women became more important as authors and editors, giving advice and building huge markets for women readers, with the magazine Godey's Lady's Book and novels by Susan Warner, Maria Cummins, and Harriet Beecher Stowe expressing women's views about the troubled state of society. Best-selling male writers--including novelist George Lippard, historian George Bancroft, and travel writer Bayard Taylor--were among those adding their voices to concerns about prosperity and morality and about America's place in the world. Writers and publishers discovered that a high moral tone could be exceedingly good for business. The authors of this book examine how popular writers and widely read newspapers, magazines, and books expressed social tensions between prosperity and morality. This study draws on that nationwide conversation through leading mass media, including circulation-leading newspapers, the New York Herald and the New York Tribune, plus prominent newspapers from the South and West, the Richmond Enquirer and the Cincinnati Enquirer. Best-selling magazines aimed at middle-class tastes, Harper's Magazine and the Southern Literary Messenger, added their voices, as did two leading business magazines.

After receiving his discharge from a two year stint in the army during the Korean War, Spencer Corbin moves to southern California, gets a job and spends his free time going to bars and movies. Not long after he arrives he begins having a series of related dreams about a beautiful woman called Lavender. He falls in love with her because she is "safe"---Spencer has no interest in marriage nor steady girl friend. One Saturday morning two beautiful women, Stefanie and Joanna, who are lesbians, move into a bungalow next to his. Stefanie is a free lance painter. Spencer asks her to paint a portrait of Lavender from his description of her. Soon Spencer falls in love with Stefanie but regards her, as with Lavender, a "safe" situation because she is in a relationship with Joanna. Ultimately, the relationship between Stefanie and Joanna cools and Stefanie falls in love with Spencer. However, Spencer never becomes aware of that and does not declare his love for her. Stefanie, who has never ever had any feelings for a man, does not declare her love for Spencer because she does not understand those feelings, and because she believes he might eventually dump her as he has done with other women. He has always made it very clear to her that he is not interested in anything smacking of a permanent relationship with a woman. The Lavender dreams continue unabated throughout the novel and after a while even Stefanie begins having Lavender dreams. No matter who dreams them the same three people (Lavender, Stefanie and Spencer) are always in them. Sometimes Spencer finds it difficult to separate his dreams from the real world in which he lives. Toward the end of the novel Spencer turns his wasteful life around and, thanks in large part to his love for Stefanie, pursues and obtains his Ph.D. in History from USC (he had obtained a Masters degree in History prior to his army service). Then he is hired as a professor at USC. This is the happiest time of his life and he finally decides to tell Stefanie that he loves her regardless of how she might take the news. But something intervenes to delay that confession. In the end do the two worlds, that of the dreams and that of the real existence, merge as one, or is one world shed in deference to the other?