A fragment of a diary, 1908

         What did a pretty, talented, young woman do for fourteen months in Europe? Here is where the mystery begins.

        

         In the Hogg papers in Austin are three folders of picture postcards Ima Hogg bought in cities all over Europe on her travels in 1907. She did not mail them, but kept them as a record of the sights she saw. She visited England, Scotland, France, Italy, and Germany. It was there, in December 1907, that she took up residence with a German family who lived in Charlottenberg, a suburb of Berlin, and began to study piano. At that time, she hoped to become a concert pianist.

         There is a fragment of a diary she kept there, in the winter of 1908. She was twenty-six years old.

         

         The diary is a small leather-bound volume with a lock. Ima wrote faithfully in it from Jan 1 to Feb. 29, 1908--and there the diary ends. Why did she stop writing?

        

         After all these years, no one really knows Ima’s story. She kept much of it with her until her death in 1975.