author
Esther Sayles Root
1894–1981
A vivid eyewitness to World War I, she turned her experiences in Paris into a book of letters that brings everyday wartime life close and human. Later remembered as adventurous and outspoken, she also moved in feminist and literary circles in the 1920s.
1 Audiobook
Over Periscope Pond : Letters from two American girls in Paris October 1916-January 1918
by Esther Sayles Root, Marjorie Crocker
About the author
Born in 1894, Esther Sayles Root is best known as the co-author of Over Periscope Pond: Letters from Two American Girls in Paris, October 1916–January 1918. The book grew out of letters she wrote while doing relief work in wartime France, giving readers a firsthand view of Paris during World War I.
Contemporary records and later accounts describe her as more than a memoirist. She was noted as a feminist, and a 1925 issue of Equal Rights identified her as a writer and member of the National Woman's Party. Local historical writing about her later life also remembers her as energetic, unconventional, and deeply engaged with the world around her.
She later became Esther Root Adams, and sources place her life from June 4, 1894, to December 23, 1981. Even with a small surviving bibliography, her work endures because it captures history at ground level—through personal letters, sharp observation, and the voice of someone living through extraordinary events.