Most Popular Books by Erskine Caldwell

Originally published in 1932, Caldwell''s novel told the story of the Lester family, poor Georgia sharecroppers who no longer farmed the land, but lived by whatever means possible. Caldwell''s picture of the rural South challenged notions of the dignified and polite Antebellum South and depicted an image that was grotesque, violent, and morally bankrupt. Southern readers immediately found Caldwell''s novel needlessly exaggerated and offensive, while Northern critics read his story as an indictment upon a failed Southern economic system in dire need of reform.

Short stories about the twentieth-century South by the national bestselling author of Tobacco Road. Author of some of the most widely banned fiction of the twentieth century, Erskine Caldwell had a talent for striking a nerve. In this collection of nearly one hundred stories, the full depth and scope of his talent is on display, including his trademark biting satire as well as his skill at rendering deeply moving portraits of his native South. In a career that spanned over six decades, Caldwell produced stories that serve to document a changing society, from the dehumanizing trials of the Great Depression through the transformative battle to desegregate the South. Taken together, his short fiction reveals a voice that remains essential for readers hoping to understand the American experience. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erskine Caldwell including rare photos and never-before-seen documents courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library.

Boxx''s younger, daughter, does he finally free himself from the clutches of this demonic, madwoman. Yet freedom proves elusive, for by the end of this surreal, phantasmagoric adventure, Blondy and everyone he cares for have come to a bloody end.

In this candid view of the hardships and rewards of the writer''s life, Erskine Caldwell recalls his first thirty years as a writer, with special emphasis on his long and hard apprenticeship before he emerged as one of the most widely read and controversial authors of his time. All the while conveying the enormous amount of drive and dedication with which he pursued his calling, Caldwell tells of his struggles to find his own voice, his travels, and his various jobs, which ranged from backbreaking manual labor to much sought-after positions in radio, film, and journalism. Including a self-interview, Call It Experience offers a wealth of insights into Caldwell''s imagination and his writing habits, as well as his views on critics and reviewers, publishers, and booksellers. It is a source of information and inspiration to aspiring writers.

A small Southern town lynches a falsely accused man in "some of the most . . . human and terrifying pages Caldwell has written" (Richard Wright, author of Native Son). When word spreads through Julie County that Sonny Clark, a black man, has assaulted Katy Barlow, a white woman, the man''s fate is sealed. With frightening speed, authorities and an outraged mob align to apprehend Clark and condemn him without trial. By the time Barlow confesses that no crime occurred, it is too late. Told from the multiple perspectives of victim and victimizers as well as passive onlookers, Trouble in July depicts in harrowing detail the tragic ignorance of individuals who fail to understand their roles in a hateful miscarriage of justice. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erskine Caldwell including rare photos and never-before-seen documents courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library.

In 1965, Erskine Caldwell sets out across the South to find his black boyhood friend, Bisco, whom he has not seen in 50 years. Eighteen of those conversations with folks from South Carolina to Arkansas make up this book.

With a true American voice, Caldwell presents a searing view of the tragic struggles of a black brother and sister in their attempt to survive the racism and perverse sexuality of their brutal Southern employers.

In the middle years of the Great Depression, Erskine Caldwell and photographer Margaret Bourke-White spent eighteen months traveling across the back roads of the Deep South--from South Carolina to Arkansas--to document the living conditions of the sharecropper. Their collaboration resulted in You Have Seen Their Faces, a graphic portrayal of America''s desperately poor rural underclass. First published in 1937, it is a classic comparable to Jacob Riis''s How the Other Half Lives, and James Agee and Walker Evans''s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which it preceded by more than three years. Caldwell lets the poor speak for themselves. Supported by his commentary, they tell how the tenant system exploited whites and blacks alike and fostered animosity between them. Bourke-White, who sometimes waited hours for the right moment, captures her subjects in the shacks where they lived, the depleted fields where they plowed, and the churches where they worshipped.

Conversations with Erskine Caldwell contains thirty-two interviews with this major writer, who during his long career enjoyed both the celebrity and the controversy that his books generated. These collected interviews include what is apparently his first, given in 1929 before the publication of The Bastard, to one of the very last, given only weeks before his death in April 1987. Caldwell was a lifelong outspoken opponent of censorship and an early advocate of racial equality. His ideas were reflected in a number of important interviews and portraits, often in newspapers or small journals not easily obtained today. In his later years he became a kind of elder statesman, celebrated as the last of that extraordinary generation of American writers which included Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Wolfe, and Steinbeck and which changed the face of American literature. The interviews in this collection reveal Caldwell''s attitudes toward the profession of writing. He describes his early years of struggle, his determination to prove himself as a writer, and his tremendous success as the author of Tobacco Road and God''s Little Acre, two American classics. He explains his attitude toward the South and his desire to bring about social reform through his writings. He is also candid about his own personal trials, his doubts and beliefs, and the state of his critical reputation.

In this appealing collection of fourteen interrelated stories, twelve-year-old William Stroup recounts the ludicrous predicaments and often self-imposed hardships his family endures. Playing on the tension between his hardworking, sensible mother and his disarmingly likable but shiftless and philandering father, William tells of Pa''s flirtation with a widow, his swapping match with a band of gypsies, his battle of wits with a traveling silk-tie saleswoman, and his get-rich-quick schemes based on selling Ma''s old love letters and collecting scrap iron.

Like "Tobacco Road," this novel chronicles the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia. Exhorted by their patriarch Ty Ty, the Waldens ruin their land by digging it up in search of gold. Complex sexual entanglements and betrayals lead to a murder within the family that completes its dissolution. Juxtaposed against the Waldens'' obsessive search is the story of Ty Ty''s son-in-law, a cotton mill worker in a nearby town who is killed during a strike. First published in 1933, "God''s Little Acre" was censured by the Georgia Literary Commission, banned in Boston, and once led the all-time best-seller list, with more than ten million copies in print.