The author's grandfather, Sam Stone, placed an ad in the Canton, OH, newspaper shortly before Christmas in 1933, offering cash gifts to seventy-five families in distress. Readers were asked to send letters describing their hardships to a benefactor calling himself Mr. B. Virdot. The author investigates a suitcase full of letters responding to these ads as he learns more about his grandfather's hidden past as well as the suffering and triumphs of strangers during the Great Depression. -- From publisher's description.
- ISBN10 1594202702
- ISBN13 9781594202704
- Publish Date 28 October 2010 (first published 1 October 2010)
- Publish Status Remaindered
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Penguin Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 384
- Language English