ABOUT THE BOOK 

Dictionaries contain definitions, some are more frequently useful than others, but all the details have to be there. In families, it’s the same thing. Some details remain on yellowed pages of uncommon tales, while others spoken of again and again. This dictionary tells the story of three sisters growing up in small town, middle America during the Depression, World War II, and the post-war 50’s. Like a dictionary, these entries are arranged alphabetically from Aunts to Chickens, from Dad to Mama, from Christmas through Thanksgiving, to Scooters, Skates, and Swings. These sisters teach lessons of deprivation, simple joys, humiliation, love, recognition, and redemption. One entry at a time. Dictionary of a Family has all the elements of nostalgia, often contrasting sharply with the way the world is now.  It is a book that documents a time, a culture, and a way of thinking that seems to have all but disappeared. This book is a call for families everywhere to heal their own wounds and recognize their own special histories before the memories are beyond recall.

About the Author 

The three sisters are: Georgia Thurman, Sara Elmore, and Anne Dimopoulos. Georgia Thurman has done much writing and editing in her time for newspapers and newsletters of purpose. She has owned a garden shop in Galena and has served on the Chicago Diocesan Episcopal Women's Board. Sara Elmore has been involved in theatre for as long as she can remember. She wrote for the university newspaper during her academic years and completed an oral history of her father, which is in the archives of the University of Illinois at Springfield library. Anne Dimopoulos retired in 1997 following a 34-year career in the Editorial Department of Encyclopedia Britannica where she helped create a new 60-volume edition of Great Books of the Western World. She also played a key role in the conversion of the encyclopedia to electronic media.