Louis Bromfield (1896–1956)

When the approach of war forced bestselling novelist Louis Bromfield to leave France in the late thirties, he chose to settle with his family in the area where he had grown up, near Mansfield, Ohio. In this book he writes about the group of farms he bought to live on and work, and his approach to restoring the soil from the erosion and damage caused by the non-sustainable farming techniques of some of his predecessors there. There is a lot about mulch and legumes and water management and the evils of deep ploughing, but there are also Bromfield’s lyrical reflections on the nature of Ohio, and on some of his less destructive neighbours (plus some distinguished fore-runners, like the semi-legendary Johnny Appleseed), as well as some rather less measured reflections on the evils of mid-20th century American society (as compared to France, for instance).

Sometimes Bromfield seems to forget that he’s a wealthy and well-connected man who can afford to do experimental agriculture at a time of food and labour shortages, and sees himself as though he were some kind of peasant revolutionary, so the book can be a bit irritating, but elsewhere it is very interesting to see his way of working, always taking a close look at what might be going on when something they have done on the farm produces a surprisingly good or bad result. It’s not quite rigorous scientific testing, but obviously a worthwhile attempt at bringing scientific methods into everyday work. Bromfield’s key mantra seems to be about alertness to the specific local factors that often mean a textbook technique may not be the most appropriate for the place where you happen to be farming.

I’m not an expert on organic farming, but I found this very interesting, and I enjoyed sharing the great pleasure Bromfield obviously took in doing a good job in a lovely place.… (more)

The book is a mix of farm dairy passages during WWII and editorialized editions from a few years later. It’s interesting that many of the arguments made are still being made today (not abusing the land and soil, the struggles of small family farms to compete with large companies, etc). The political commentary is also interesting (lots of discussion about the New Deal). The comments about black folks not being stupid but just not having been ‘civilized’ properly might have sounded almost progressive to white northerners, but now just sound racist. Without the racism, I’d probably give the book four stars (I found the agriculture parts really engaging) but one can’t ignore parts of a work that we find reprehensible. As a piece of history, it’s worth reading, but only through a modernized lens. I’ve chosen not to rate it at all.… (more)

Louis Bromfield can be rather fun. In this book we follow the fate of a young dancer from the wrong side of Evanston, Indiana's tracks. Back home, she was Irma Peters, but her stage name in Paris was Roxie Dawn. She'd been a headliner in a Paris night club for about ten years when the book begins, a quite successful one.

But, the Nazis have just taken Paris and people are fleeing. Should Roxie go back to America, or should she stay in Paris where she'd had a successful life? Her boss convinced her to stay with the show. Then too, her lover, Nicholas Stejadze was there.

Her boss convinces her to befriend a Nazi Major in hopes that she might "learn something". It seems the boss and Nicholas are working to set up an underground resistance to the Nazi occupation. Roxie isn't sure she hates Germans enough to help, but she keeps her options open.

It's a fascinating look at a perilous time and how people coped with uncertainty and oppression.

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