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S. Leo Ruslander never explains why he called his memoir a “quasi-autobiography.” What about it felt less than purely autobiographical to him?
The two likeliest possibilities are both unsatisfying.
The first is the large section of appendices containing archival materials from throughout his life. Some of these materials can now be found in his papers, held at the University of Pittsburgh's Archives and Special Collections. Perhaps he felt these materials stood outside the typical autobiographical endeavor.
The second is the extended descriptions of other people.
Ruslander was born in Bradford, Pa. in 1879. He was raised between that small town and the rural countryside around it. His parents were both iconoclastic.
His father Moses was committed to Jewish identity, not necessarily Jewish ideas: he fasted every Yom Kippur as an annual test of personal endurance. He was an itinerant businessman, quickly starting ventures and quickly tiring of them. The craziest days of the oil rush were well over by the 1880s, but boom and bust cycles still animated the regional economy. Businessmen often made fortunes and often lost them. He encouraged his son to choose a profession, believing it promised a more stable life than the business world.
Ruslander’s mother Phoebe rode horseback without a saddle, was elected to the local school board, and campaigned for women’s suffrage. She helped found what is now called Blind & Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh. She went to Titusville High School with the future muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell. They were the two top ranking students and became friends for life.
It is common for memoirists to describe the influence of their parents. But Ruslander goes beyond that convention. He spends entire chapters discussing the people who made great and small impressions of him, personally and professionally. Of particular note is a long description of his apprenticeship under the legendary lawyer and political reformer A. Leo Weil, who also came from the oil regions and later gave young Ruslander his start as a lawyer.
As you read “The Life and Times of S. Leo Ruslander,” you gradually start to understand how all these people contributed to Ruslander’s “so-called Philosophy of Life,” as he dismissively puts it. In a concluding chapter, he describes this philosophy. He says it is not enough to be a good partner, a good parent, a good child, and it is not enough to be successful professionally.
“Over and above these you should have rendered unselfish and unpaid service to communal work, no matter in what fields, be it religious, charitable, professional, educational, public welfare, or like activities, too numerous to mention. These services must be rendered without the measurement of, what will I get out of this, but by what can I give. Often we turn aside by reason of what we believe to be lack of appreciation, too seemingly small results from our efforts, envy, misunderstandings, and other discouragements, which must be met and overcome. I admit that often such discouragements have from time to time caused me to give up or reduce such efforts and to say, ‘What is the use?” These paths to service are not always easy to follow but my philosophy is that such difficulties should not unduly retard our efforts and progress.”
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