The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio : How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio introduces Evelyn Ryan, an enterprising woman who kept poverty at bay with wit, poetry, and perfect prose during the "contest era" of the 1950s and 1960s. Stepping back into a time when fledgling advertising agencies were active partners with consumers, and everyday people saw possibility in every coupon, Terry Ryan tells how her mother kept the family afloat by writing jingles and contest entries. Mom's winning ways defied the Church, her alcoholic husband, and antiquated views of housewives. To her, flouting convention was a small price to pay when it came to securing a happy home for her six sons and four daughters. Evelyn, who would surely be a Madison Avenue executive if she were working today, composed her jingles not in the boardroom, but at the ironing board. By entering contests wherever she found them -- TV, radio, newspapers, direct-mail ads -- Evelyn Ryan was able to win every appliance her family ever owned, not to mention cars, television sets, bicycles, watches, a jukebox, and even trips to New York, Dallas, and Switzerland. But it wasn't just the winning that was miraculous; it was the timing. If a toaster died, one was sure to arrive in the mail from a forgotten contest. Days after the bank called in the second mortgage on the house, a call came from the Dr Pepper company: Evelyn was the grand-prize winner in its national contest -- and had won enough to pay the bank. Graced with a rare appreciation for life's inherent hilarity, Evelyn turned every financial challenge into an opportunity for fun and profit. From her frenetic supermarket shopping spree -- worth $3,000 today -- to her clever entries worthy of Erma Bombeck, Dorothy Parker, and Ogden Nash, the story of this irrepressible woman whose talents reached far beyond her formidable verbal skills is told in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio with an infectious joy that shows how a winning spirit will triumph over the poverty of circumstance.

meet Evelyn Ryan, Mother Of Six Sons And Four Daughters, Who Kept Her Family Afloat During The Contest Era Of The 1950s And 1960s By Writing Jingles And Entering Tv, Radio, Newspaper, And Direct-mail Contests.

publishers Weekly

in The 1950s, The Ryan Family Struggled To Make Ends Meet. Ten Kids And A Father Who Spent Most Of His Paycheck On Booze Drained The Family's Meager Finances. But Mom Evelyn Ryan, A Former Journalist, Found An Ingenious Way To Bring In Extra Income: Entering Contests On The Backs Of Cereal Boxes And The Like. The Author, Evelyn's Daughter, Tells The Entertaining Story Of Her Childhood And Her Mother's Contest Career With Humor And Affection. She Is Not A Professional Narrator, But Her Love And Admiration For Her Mother Come Through In Every Sentence. Evelyn Won Supermarket Shopping Sprees That Put Much-needed Food On The Table, Provided Washing Machines And Other Appliances The Family Couldn't Afford, And Delivered Cash To Pay The Mounting Pile Of Bills. This Well-told, Suspenseful Tale Is Peppered With Examples Of Evelyn's Winning Poems And Slogans, Taken From The Years Of Notebooks That She Saved And Passed On To Her Daughter, And Has A Fiction-worthy Climax That Will Keep Listeners Laughing Even As They're Glued To Ryan's Tale. Simultaneous Release With The Simon & Schuster Hardcover (forecasts, Feb. 5). (apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

A woman describes her mother Evelyn's struggles with poverty in the 1950s as she tries to build a happy home for her ten children, with the help of wit, poetry, and prose during the contest era of the 1950s and 1960s. Reissue. 150,000 first printing. (A DreamWorks film, releasing Fall 2005, starring Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, & Laura Dern) (Biography) The author describes her mother Evelyn's struggles with poverty in the 1950s as she tried to build a happy home for her ten children, with the help of wit, poetry, and prose during the contest era of the 1950s and 1960s. Evelyn Ryan was an enterprising woman who kept poverty at bay and turned advertising slogan contests into opportunities for fun and profit