Like all children, Judith Marcia Sussman, born in 1938, dreamed of what she would be when she grew up. Judy knew that she would be a wife and a mother. If she decided to get a job, maybe she would be a movie star, like her beloved Esther Williams, the swimming starlet, who always emerged from her underwater acrobatics with her hair and lipstick intact, a broad, toothy smile on her face. If Hollywood never called, Judy could be a teacher, which was a job that women could do. And maybe, she thought, she could be a librarian. Because the library was where the books were.

There were books in Judy’s house, too, lots of them. But they were almost entirely books for grown-ups. Judy’s father, Rudy—only his wife called him Rudolph—a prosperous dentist, liked to unwind after a day of cavities and crowns by sitting in his easy chair, smoking one of his Camels—he went through three packs a day, on his way to a coronary and an early grave—and reading a mystery. It was the golden age of American mystery fiction, and Rudy could choose from Dashiell Hammett’s noir novels, such as The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1934), or Erle Stanley Gardner’s courtroom dramas, featuring the tenacious defense attorney Perry Mason, who made his debut in 1933’s The Case of the Velvet Claws. The year that Judy turned 1, mystery lovers like her dad were reading Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, the classic that introduced detective Philip Marlowe.

Rudy’s wife, Essie, was a full-time homemaker with no college education, but she read more than her husband, and more widely. Her principal love was historical fiction, but she could also have talked knowledgeably about John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, and many other authors.

","freeContentEncoded","textContent","published","strategy","curl-ready","locked","deletedAt","isSyncedFromOwnBlog","original","duplicatesCount","duplicateVersion","originalArticleId","errorsCount","appearance","color","backgroundColor","shortSummary","A look back at children's dreams and the reading habits of a family in the mid-20th century.","summary","Born in 1938, Judith Marcia Sussman envisioned a future as a wife, mother, or potentially a movie star or teacher. Her childhood home was filled with books, primarily adult literature, reflecting her father's preference for mystery novels by authors like Dashiell Hammett and Erle Stanley Gardner. Her mother, a homemaker, enjoyed historical fiction and also read authors such as John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway.","bullets",[183,184,185],"Judith Marcia Sussman was born in 1938 and dreamed of being a wife, mother, movie star, teacher, or librarian.","Her father, Rudy, a dentist, enjoyed reading mystery novels by Dashiell Hammett and Erle Stanley Gardner.","Her mother, Essie, read historical fiction and authors like John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway.","persons",[188,189,190,191,192,193,194,195,196,197,198,199,200],"Judith Marcia Sussman","Judy","Esther Williams","Rudy","Rudolph","Dashiell Hammett","Erle Stanley Gardner","Perry Mason","Raymond Chandler","Philip Marlowe","Essie","John Steinbeck","Ernest Hemingway","places",[],"words",336,"sentiment","subject","unknown","meta",{"_210":211,"_212":213,"_241":222},"type","bee:get-index-of-articles","schedule",{"_14":214,"_37":-5,"_215":216,"_67":-5,"_217":218,"_219":220,"_221":222,"_223":73,"_70":71,"_206":24,"_224":-5,"_225":71,"_164":165,"_226":227,"_39":227,"_228":229,"_230":73,"_231":232,"_41":227,"_233":71,"_69":100,"_234":235,"_236":-5,"_237":238,"_239":-5,"_240":-5},"c32a8ed6-d5e3-4f42-9d28-4fec19f02a32","npub","npub1fpeutvxxvhz7jwz9d36tq98g7cv2uddszzaz82dluzy8r0awv0kqn94fz3","jobId","156df168-843a-4428-b31f-02d6bc21f338","order",1,"rssUrl","https://thedispatch.com/","system","userRef","autosign","syncedAt","2025-12-15T19:39:28.724Z","frequency","daily","isOwnBlog","nextRunAt","2026-03-07T19:45:21.095Z","autopublish","sourceVariant","rss","systemVariant","scheduleVariant","scraping-bee-classic-proxy","retryArticlesIds","ownershipConfirmedAt","dataSourceUrl","eventId","6f48b752fd670187dd84d40d610499f630bf69d76f774e7ce35b60910ffbcd54","nostrRootEvent","event",{"_14":243,"_247":248,"_249":220,"_67":250,"_262":261,"_157":263,"_264":265},"sig","186d3ec9a8d067bf74a2bac46b2bd9850cd78fbb1a08d2396b76d83e4a97b19771da589155c5dc95d8b6f28c74c26de6e75f3e892d3423d3c8b8210937e1e6f7","kind",[251,252,253,257,259],[206,143],[29,150],[254,255,24,256],"a","30023:4873c5b0c665c5e938456c74b014e8f618ae35b010ba23a9bfe08871bfae63ec:439211ce-c8a2-439a-aed2-c95a51a5e7c1","mention",[258,24],"client",[260,261,24],"p","4873c5b0c665c5e938456c74b014e8f618ae35b010ba23a9bfe08871bfae63ec","pubkey","Judy Blume Never Stops\nTurn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening.\n\n\nnostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzqjrnckcvvew9ayuy2mr5kq2w3asc4c6mqy96yw5mlcygwxl6uclvqqjrgveexgcnzcm9943nscfj956rxwtp94sk2epj943njdtpx5ckzdt9xa3nznel23r ","created_at",1772912849,"authorNPub","markdown","Like all children, Judith Marcia Sussman, born in 1938, dreamed of what she would be when she grew up. Judy knew that she would be a wife and a mother. If she decided to get a job, maybe she would be a movie star, like her beloved Esther Williams, the swimming starlet, who always emerged from her underwater acrobatics with her hair and lipstick intact, a broad, toothy smile on her face. If Hollywood never called, Judy could be a teacher, which was a job that women could do. And maybe, she thought, she could be a librarian. Because the library was where the books were.\n\nThere were books in Judy’s house, too, lots of them. But they were almost entirely books for grown-ups. Judy’s father, Rudy—only his wife called him Rudolph—a prosperous dentist, liked to unwind after a day of cavities and crowns by sitting in his easy chair, smoking one of his Camels—he went through three packs a day, on his way to a coronary and an early grave—and reading a mystery. It was the golden age of American mystery fiction, and Rudy could choose from Dashiell Hammett’s noir novels, such as _The Maltese Falcon_ (1930) and _The Thin Man_ (1934), or Erle Stanley Gardner’s courtroom dramas, featuring the tenacious defense attorney Perry Mason, who made his debut in 1933’s _The Case of the Velvet Claws_. The year that Judy turned 1, mystery lovers like her dad were reading Raymond Chandler’s _The Big Sleep_, the classic that introduced detective Philip Marlowe.\n\nRudy’s wife, Essie, was a full-time homemaker with no college education, but she read more than her husband, and more widely. 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Her childhood home was filled with books, primarily adult literature, reflecting her father's preference for mystery novels by authors like Dashiell Hammett and Erle Stanley Gardner. Her mother, a homemaker, enjoyed historical fiction and also read authors such as John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway.\n - Judith Marcia Sussman was born in 1938 and dreamed of being a wife, mother, movie star, teacher, or librarian.\n - Her father, Rudy, a dentist, enjoyed reading mystery novels by Dashiell Hammett and Erle Stanley Gardner.\n - Her mother, Essie, read historical fiction and authors like John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway.\n",1772869500,"publishedToNostr","htmlContentKind30023","

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