Recordings

RECORDINGS (to hear a sample click here!)

"Spy! The Story of Civil War Spy Elizabeth Van Lew"
Written and performed by Storyteller Lynn Ruehlmann

This recording won a Storytelling World 2002 Honor Award
and a Parents' Choice Fall 2001 Recommended Audio Award

CDs of "Spy!": $15.00 + $3.00 S&H = $18.00
Cassettes of "Spy!": $12.00 + $3.00 S&H = $15.00

To order, e-mail: ruehlmann@erols.com
or call: (757) 625-6742

or order with credit card at http://www.cdbaby.com/ruehlmann

Reviews:

Writer and performer Lynn Ruehlmann has tackled a very difficult event and complex historical character, producing a well-crafted story that will hold the attention of both teenagers and adults. Listeners come to realize the hardships endured by those who dared oppose the political feelings of the time. Students will be motivated to delve deeper into their history books after hearing this true story about slavery. Perhaps they will also draw a parallel to events in their own lives. An exciting breath of fresh air.
-Flora Joy
for Parents' Choice

Lynn Ruehlmann's fans, who have long recognized her to be a storyteller's storyteller, will be delighted to know that she has recorded Spy! The Story of Civil War Spy Elizabeth Van Lew. Her telling of this story has been heralded by Virginian as being an enthralling tour de force, and bringing the story to the recorded medium should serve to broaden its appeal and introduce it to new audiences who will delight in this marvelous piece of story-theater.
Ruehlmann's theater background is evident throughout the story as she uses a variety of voices and inflections to differentiate characters, time changes, and moods. She could not have chosen a more dramatic tale to showcase her considerable talent.
Ruehlmann wrote Spy! After a great deal of research, much of it coming from the diary that Elizabeth Van Lew kept during the war. The story reveals the details of the life of a remarkable southern woman from Richmond, Virginia, who became an abolitionist after witnessing the consequences of a baby being sold out of the arms of its slave mother.
When the War Between the States erupted, Van Lew, whose anti-slavery views were well-known, was urged by her brother to flee Virginia and return after the war was over. Replying that she was "a Southerner and a Virginian," she refused to leave.
Van Lew and her mother were drawn into the spy business after the Battle of Bull Run in 1861, when their caring for union prisoners and wounded led to the passing of coded messages and other acts of espionage. Ruehlmann, assuming the persona of Van Lew's neice, the story's narrator, carefully details the tricks and devices that Van Lew used to get messages to the union army. The listener cannot help but admire Van Lew, who risked everything, including her life and the respect of her community, to bring justice to the social landscape of the country.
Van Lew did not mind being ridiculed to accomplish her goal. Overhearing neighborhood children refer to her as "Crazy Bet," she reasoned that if people thought that she was really crazy, they would not suspect her of being a spy. Thereafter, she set about convincing the populace of Richmond that she was, indeed, crazy. They bought her deception lock, stock, and barrel. Meanwhile, Van Lew was hiding escaped Union soldiers in her attic and creating her own version of the Underground Railroad.
That Van Lew made it through the war as a spy without being caught is testimony to both her genius and her acting ability. Ruehlmann relates her journey with humor, respect, and enthusiasm.
Lynn Ruehlmann has given us a story that is well-researched, well-written, and masterfully delivered. It belongs in every story-lover's library.
-Linda Goodman
In Tale Trader October 2001

to contact Lynn Ruehlmann

email: ruehlmann@erols.com

phone: (757) 625-6742