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Erskine Caldwell (1903–1987)

Author of Tobacco Road

241+ Works 4,299 Members 96 Reviews 7 Favorited

About the Author

Erskine Caldwell has been called one of the most banned and censored authors in the United States. The son of a traveling minister, born in White Oak, Georgia in 1903, Caldwell received little formal education, as a young man, Caldwell took odd jobs and worked in the Southern states. He attended show more briefly Erskine College, Due West, South Carolina, and the Universities of Virginia and Pennsylvania for some semesters. Yet he became a prolific writer whose novels explore the seamy side of life in the American South. At the age of eighteen he went on a gun-running boat to South America, he played professional football and worked as mill-hand, cotton-picker, and in other such occupations. For a time Caldwell was a cub reporter on the Atlanta Journal. In the 1920s Caldwell moved to Maine to devote himself to writing. After several Spartan years, he had three stories accepted for publication. In 1930 Caldwell destroyed all his unpublished work from previous years. 'Country Full of Swedes' was published in the Yale Review, and it received $1,000 award from the journal in 1933. American Earth, a collection of short stories about petty passions and little lecheries, was published in 1931. Some of the stories had first appeared in such magazines as The American Caravan, Blues, Frankfurter Zeitung, Front, The Hound and Horn, Nativity, Pagany, Scribner's Magazine, This Quarter, and transition. The title of one of his novels Tobacco Road (1932) became slang for poverty and degeneracy. The book was made into both a movie (1941) and a long-running Broadway show (1933-1941). Other novels, some of which were made into later films, include The Bastard (1929), Poor Fool (1930), and God's Little Acre (1933). By the late 1940's, Caldwell had sold more books than any writer in the nation's history. Caldwell became a reporter for the Atlanta Journal in 1925, worked as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and was a newspaper correspondent in Mexico, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Russia and China. In 1984, Caldwell was elected, along with Norman Mailer, to the fifty-chair body of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Caldwell is the author of 25 novels, 150 short stories and 12 nonfiction books. He died in Paradise Valley, Arizona on April 11, 1987. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Carl Van Vechten

Works by Erskine Caldwell

Tobacco Road (1932) 1,528 copies
God's Little Acre (1933) — Author — 667 copies
Georgia Boy (1943) 130 copies
A House in the Uplands (1946) 122 copies
You Have Seen Their Faces (1937) — Author — 113 copies
Trouble in July (1940) 111 copies
Journeyman (1935) 93 copies
Tragic Ground (1944) 66 copies
Place Called Estherville (1949) 64 copies
This Very Earth (1948) 56 copies
Tobacco Road [play] (1952) — Original novel — 48 copies
In Search of Bisco (1965) — Author — 43 copies
Jenny By Nature (1960) 41 copies
Miss Mamma Aimee (1967) 39 copies
The Sure Hand of God (1947) 37 copies
Gretta (1955) 34 copies
Claudelle Inglish (1958) 34 copies
Piñon Country (1941) 33 copies
Say, Is This the U.S.A (1941) 33 copies
All Night Long (1942) 33 copies
Kneel to the Rising Sun, And Other Stories (1951) — Author — 31 copies
The Last Night of Summer (1963) 29 copies
The Bastard (1929) 28 copies
We Are the Living (1933) 25 copies
Gulf Coast Stories (1956) 23 copies
A Swell Looking Girl (1950) 23 copies
Episode in Palmetto (1950) 21 copies
Love and Money (1954) 20 copies
Summertime Island (1969) 20 copies
Close to Home (1962) 19 copies
A Lamp for Nightfall (1952) 19 copies
The Courting of Susie Brown (1952) 18 copies
Certain Women (1957) 18 copies
Annette (1974) 14 copies
Southways (1938) 11 copies
The Weather Shelter (1969) 11 copies
A Woman in the House (1949) 10 copies
North of the Danube (1977) 9 copies
Around About America (1963) 9 copies
Men and Women (1962) 8 copies
When You Think of Me (1959) 8 copies
38 racconti (1953) 6 copies
Il fiume caldo 5 copies
Midsummer Passion (1948) 4 copies
The Earnshaw Neighborhood (1971) 4 copies
The Deer at Our House (1966) 4 copies
The Best from Manhunt (1958) 3 copies
Muerte lenta 3 copies
Man and Woman 3 copies
Una luz para el anochecer (1986) 3 copies
UNA CASA EN LA COLINA (1900) 3 copies
Lovers (1968) 2 copies
Medora (1971) 2 copies
Some American People (1935) 2 copies
Molly Cottontail (1958) 2 copies
Najlepsze nowele (1984) 2 copies
A Small Day 2 copies
La ruta del tabaco (2020) 2 copies
38 racconti 1 copy
MISAFIR 1 copy
Le quartier de medora (1976) 1 copy
Daughter 1 copy
Тихоня 1 copy
Noveller 1 copy
TUTUN YOLU 1 copy
Tämä maa 1 copy
Tepedeki Ev 1 copy
SICAK NEHIR 1 copy
Dcht bij hui 1 copy
El predicador (1900) 1 copy
YAZ SONU 1 copy
Tupakkatie 1 copy
Warm Water 1 copy
Southways, etc (1960) 1 copy
Warm River 1 copy

Associated Works

Fifty Great American Short Stories (1965) — Contributor — 430 copies
75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World's Literature (1961) — Contributor — 296 copies
A Treasury of Short Stories (1947) — Contributor — 291 copies
The Golden Treasury of Children's Literature Set (1961) — Contributor — 209 copies
This Is My Best (1942) — Contributor — 186 copies
An Anthology of Famous American Stories (1953) — Contributor — 137 copies
The Signet Classic Book of Southern Short Stories (1991) — Contributor — 121 copies
Bedside Book of Famous American Stories (1936) — Contributor — 71 copies
Great Esquire Fiction (1983) — Contributor — 70 copies
200 Years of Great American Short Stories (1975) — Contributor — 68 copies
Desert Island Decameron (1945) — Contributor — 57 copies
Great Baseball Stories (1979) — Contributor — 47 copies
The Bedside Tales: A Gay Collection (1945) — Contributor — 45 copies
100 Best True Stories of World War II (1945) — Contributor — 29 copies
50 Best American Short Stories 1915-1939 (1939) — Contributor — 28 copies
American short stories, 1820 to the present (1952) — Contributor — 26 copies
Great Short Stories of the World (1965) — Contributor — 25 copies
Desert Country (1941) — Editor, some editions — 25 copies
The Bedside Playboy (1963) — Contributor — 23 copies
Studies in Fiction (1965) — Contributor — 22 copies
Modern American Short Stories (1945) — Contributor — 15 copies
All verdens fortellere (1990) — Contributor, some editions — 15 copies
The Story Pocket Book (1944) — Contributor — 13 copies
American Short Stories, Vol.5, The Twentieth Century (1957) — Author, some editions — 11 copies
The best of the Best American short stories, 1915-1950 (1975) — Contributor — 10 copies
A Treasury of Doctor Stories (1946) — Contributor — 9 copies
Modern American Short Stories (1941) — Contributor — 7 copies
Our lives : American labor stories — Contributor — 6 copies
Avon Bedside Companion (1947) — Contributor, some editions — 5 copies
The Do-It-Yourself Bestseller: A Workbook (1982) — Contributor, some editions — 4 copies
New World Writing : 15 (1959) — Contributor — 4 copies
O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1938 (1938) — Contributor — 4 copies
The Bathroom Reader (1946) — Contributor — 3 copies
God's Little Acre [1958 film] (2013) — Original novel — 3 copies
Let's Go Naked: Love and Life in a Nudist Camp (1952) — Contributor — 2 copies
The Avon Annual 1945: 18 Great Modern Stories (1945) — Contributor — 1 copy
The Avon Annual: 18 Great Story of Today (1944) — Contributor — 1 copy
Modern British and American short stories (1982) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tobacco Road [1941 film] — Original novel — 1 copy
Modern American short stories (1963) — Contributor — 1 copy
America through the short story — Contributor — 1 copy
O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1934 (1934) — Contributor — 1 copy
Stories of Sudden Truth (1953) — Contributor — 1 copy
15 Great Stories of Today (1946) — Contributor — 1 copy

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Reviews

 
Flagged
AnkaraLibrary | Feb 23, 2024 |
God’s Little Acre (1933) is offered for free with Amazon Prime as an e-book along with a couple of other stories as a classic-novels boxed set written by Erskine Caldwell. The other two stories: Tobacco Road (1932), I read in 2019, and Estherville (1949), I have yet to read. Erskine Caldwell was quite the imaginative writer. You will pretty much find all things today considered politically incorrect inside these novels. I guess that’s why I find them so fun and interesting. He loves making fun of the “deep south”.

God’s Little Acre is also a 1958 film, starring Robert Ryan as Ty Ty Walden, Aldo Ray as Will Thompson (Ty Ty’s son-in-law) who gets a little action from both his sister-in-laws; Buddy Hackett as the fat, lazy Pluto Swint running for sheriff and has his eyes and fat hands on Ty Ty’s youngest, slutty daughter, Darling Jill, played by Fay Spain; Jack Lord played Ty Ty’s hot-headed son, Buck, married to the most beautiful woman in the whole wide world, Griselda, played by Tina Louise; and Michael Landon played, Dave, the albino from the swamps who gets a little action with Darling Jill. Can watch for free on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlRAXiMS0bA

This novel is set in the depression-era in rural Marion, Georgia, about 15 miles outside of Augusta. Each character has strong, obsessive traits, which you will see hints of in real life in some folks down south, and maybe in the hillbillies up in the northeast mountains. It’s all about sex and finding that gold.

Ty Ty, the father, is obsessed with gold-fever even though there’s nothing in the world says there’s gold on his property. For the past 15 years, he and two of his boys, Buck and Shaw have dug huge holes 20-30 feet deep and twice as wide throughout his 3-acre piece of land searching for gold. He set aside one little acre for growing cotton to sell, tended by two black sharecroppers, to help get a little money to feed the family over the winter. But, there hasn’t been time for that because they’ve been busy…digging for gold. Ty Ty won’t break dirt on God’s one little acre. That proves to God he’s in it for the good and it proves to God that he has a good heart. But, he also will move that one acre if he feels it’s time to dig there and look for gold. After all, he don’t want to go giving the church the mother-lode. Ty Ty does not believe in magic. He is strictly a “scientific” man, so when they hear about an albino man (played by Michael Landon) living in the swamps nearby that can divine a gold-dig, he sets out to capture him. They are so close to finding that gold, a little divining never hurt, and it was scientific, nothing against God.
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MissysBookshelf | 12 other reviews | Aug 28, 2023 |
Originally written in 1932, and set in the depression era, today's social climate would find this classic with its over exaggeration of the extremely poor and simple-minds of a southern sharecropper, Jeeter Lester, and his family extremely offensive and degrading. And if this was 1932, I would even say that this family may have been a bit "retarded"...but that's no longer politically correct. So, I would say they seem to be a bit mentally challenged or else they are very naive.

Jeeter had lived and been tenant farmers of this land all his life, as was his father and his grandfather, who had started out growing tobacco. His father found the soil more suitable and prosperous for growing cotton. Jeeter barely squeezed out just enough dollars to survive each year growing cotton until the owner of the land gave up farming, himself, altogether and moved to the city. The Lesters were allowed to remain in their homes on the land rent free, but the loans for farming were cut off and repairs to the homes would be left up to the tenants, which the tenants didn't give much thought about.

This story is a crazy twist on some peoples reactions to the realities of life. But, the fact is, the basis of how they thought and behaved during those times, even the wasteful, mindless spending of some of the poorest of poors, I believe to be true. We see it even today...all the time, everywhere.

This novel shows, in an exaggerated way, of course, the degree Jeeter was willing to stoop for survival. It was always a selfish motive, even though it really was about money for food. He thought of himself first before the other family members. The problem was he was lazy, always talking the talk, and never took any action. This was the year he would burn the fields, rent a donkey and plow and plant seed-cotton and purchase the guano. But, year after year, all he did was sit on the porch and blame the rich man or God for his woes for not lending him the money. He was not flexible, and he was unwilling to change with the times. All of his children, except two, Dude and the hair-lipped Ellie Mae, had left home for the city to carve out livings for themselves.

In this twisted story, an older widowed preacher woman, Bessie, age 39, marries the 16 year old, Dude Lester. Dude readily agrees because Bessie's husband had left behind $800 in the bank, which she used to purchase a brand new car and dangled before him, even though her house was so dilapidated and leaking everywhere because the roof was caving in and they had no food and no money to even put oil or gas in the car to keep it running. No one sees anything unusual in this. Afterall, they all see they may get a little piece of the pie. The car was trashed within the first week. But hey, they were proud. It was still purchased brand new and still ran, and she had her Dude, who she was going to turn into a preacher man.
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MissysBookshelf | 49 other reviews | Aug 27, 2023 |
A classic first published in 1949 - Kathyanne Bazemore and her brother, Ganus, are mulattos who work for ignorant, dominating whites in a fictitious town called Estherville.

Ganus works for the Singfield's, who are the most prominent and wealthiest in Estherville. One problem..they've got a whack-o-doodle daughter, Stephena, making eyes at the handsome mulatto. One day the parents left for church and she stayed behind. Stephena came downstairs and started her advances on poor Ganus, making eyes and talking seductively. He held firm. So she became stern and yelled at him to obey her. She told him to stand on his head. He did. And when he stood back up, she slapped him snd told him she didn't say he could quit.

She returned to her bed where she undressed and Ganus finished cooking her breakfast and brought it up. The girl is out of control. She advances. He backs away. Then suddenly, they are on the floor her on top and she's biting his wrist, drawing blood. He's screaming. The only way to get her off is to put her in a choke hold. She finally releases. Next thing, she's in bed crying that all she wanted was for him to hug her, and she got him to do that...even if it was a choke hold.

Meanwhile, Kathyanne works for George Swayne and his wife, Norma, who has left for the weekend to visit family. George has never been allowed to walk around barefoot in his home. Now that Norma is gone, his plans are to kick off his shoes and lay around all weekend with the freedom of just wearing his socks. But, Kathyanne is suddenly on his mind and he realizes just how pretty the seventeen year old is. He begins his advances on her and he thinks she's flattered.

You can see where this is going. Erskine loves to make fun of white people in the south. His stories are just off the wall and outrages. This is about as racist as you can get. It's too bad authors today don't feel the freedom to openly express themselves as Erskine does.
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MissysBookshelf | 3 other reviews | Aug 27, 2023 |

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