Anastasia's Album

by Penny Wilson

Twenty-seven years ago, a small book was published by Hyperion Press called Anastasia’s Album: The Last Tsar’s Youngest Daughter Tells Her Own Story. It was written by Hugh Brewster and was intended for children around nine or ten years old. I have a copy in my own library, though I honestly don’t remember how it got there – whether I bought it myself or if it was a gift. It’s not a bad introduction for a ten-year-old to the very real Russian Grand Duchess who lived out her life never knowing that she would become a major cultural icon for future generations of girls and boys. And though this book elbowed its way into my memory this morning, it wasn’t so much because of its content – it was because of its title. It could easily be applied to a recent discovery in an obscure Fond in the Russian State Library.