The Dark Earth And Selected Prose From The Great Depression

A collection of short stories and journalism by Sanora Babb, written between 1932 and 1949, that brings to life the painful period of the Great Depression. Arranged chronologically, from early autobiographical short fiction to her leftist journalism and later more innovative fiction, Babb's work interweaves fiction and non-fiction into her characteristic storytelling, lyrical style.Offering unique insights, Babb writes with a passion and empathy gained through personal experience. From her work with the Farm Security Administration and as a labor organizer, Babb was eyewitness to the lives of displaced farmers and immigrant laborers, striking miners and refugees. She recorded their experiences of food insecurity, of jailings and beatings by sheriffs and strike-breakers with a sympathetic ear and an unblinking eye. Whether real or fictional, the people in these pages may suffer within a system that fails them more often than not, but they are also bursting with potential and desire. Here are a former prostitute, fully trained and working as a surgeon in a Moscow hospital in the early days of the Soviet Union; an ambitious proto-feminist war worker creating her own business; a reformed gambler looking forward to one last honest game. Babb advocates for workers in her journalism and in her short stories she expresses the beauty and pain of struggling individuals. While some of Babb's stories may seem quaint to modern readers, they survive the test of time through their powerful evocation of a sense of place, sensitivity to complex family relationships, and environmental or even eco-feminist sensibility Included are short stories published in literary and progressive journals as diverse as Kansas Magazine and The Anvil, reportage written for New Masses, The Clipper, and New Theater, as well as a small selection of previously unpublished fiction and reportage. One of Babb's most frequently republished short stories, "The Wild Flower," completes the selection. This new collection includes Babb's preface to her four-story collection The Dark Earth and a new introduction by Erin Royston Battat.

• | Author: Sanora Babb
• | Publisher: Muse Ink Press
• | Publication Date: 25-Aug-21
• | Number of Pages: 195 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 0985991577
• | ISBN-13: 9780985991579