Gup, Ted.  1950- <br/><br/>
A secret gift :  how one man's kindness--and a trove of letters--revealed the hidden history of the Great Depression / 
 How one man's kindness--and a trove of letters--revealed the hidden history of the Great Depression. 
Ted Gup. 
 - New York :  Penguin Press,  2010. 
 - 365 p., [16] p. of plates :  ill. ;  24 cm. 
<br/><br/> Includes index. 
<br/><br/>A Christmas carol -- In consideration of the white collar man -- The bread of tomorrow -- If I would accept charity -- Families: the crisis that brought them closer -- Families: the crisis that pulled them apart -- An opportunity to help -- A merry and joyful Christmas -- True circumstances. 
<br/><br/> 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. 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9781594202704  16.00 1594202702 
<br/><br/><label>LCCN: </label>2010017302 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Personal Names: </label><br/>Stone, Samuel, 1887-1981. 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Benefactors--Ohio--Canton--Biography.<br/>Benevolence--History--Ohio--Canton--20th century.
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Geographic Terms: </label><br/>Canton (Ohio)--Biography.<br/>Canton (Ohio)--Economic conditions--20th century.<br/>Canton (Ohio)--History--20th century.
<br/><br/><label>LC Class. No.: </label>F499.C2  / G87 2010 
<br/><br/><label>Dewey Class. No.: </label>977.1/62