A semi-autobiography of the childhood of Alan Kent, from early manhood to artist. The text includes brief, graphic sketches which illustrate the struggle against various hardening effects of a brutal and seemingly indifferent world.
Erskine Caldwell Boeken
17 december 1903 – 11 april 1987
Erskine Caldwell was een Amerikaanse auteur wiens geschriften zich richtten op armoede, racisme en sociale problemen in het Zuiden van zijn geboortestreek. Zijn onverbiddelijke beschrijvingen van het leven in de regio leverden hem kritische erkenning op, hoewel zijn werk ook controversieel was onder medezuidelingen die vonden dat hij de regio belachelijk maakte. Caldwells stijl wordt gekenmerkt door zijn rauwe eerlijkheid en zijn vermogen om de onderliggende spanningen binnen de Amerikaanse samenleving bloot te leggen. Zijn schrijven blijft relevant vanwege zijn onderzoek naar blijvende sociale uitdagingen.
Focusing on his journey as a writer, the memoir highlights Erskine Caldwell's intense dedication and the challenges he faced during his early career. It delves into his struggles to discover his unique voice, alongside his diverse experiences from arduous labor to prestigious roles in radio, film, and journalism. Caldwell's narrative provides a vivid account of his formative years, emphasizing the perseverance required to become one of the most prominent and controversial authors of his era.
In 1965, more than five decades after his forced estrangement from his black boyhood friend Bisco, Erskine Caldwell set out across the South to find him. On the journey, which took him from South Carolina to Arkansas, Caldwell spoke to many people on the pretense of asking Bisco's a black college professor in Atlanta, Georgia; a white real estate salesman in Demopolis, Alabama; a black sharecropper in the Yazoo Basin of the Mississippi Delta; a transplanted white New England housewife in Bastrop, Louisiana; and others. Eighteen of those conversations, with Caldwell's commentary, make up this book.Caldwell made his journey at the zenith of the civil rights movement. Bisco, whom Caldwell never found, becomes a symbol for the South's race problem, to which he sought an answer in the emotions, experiences, and attitudes of those he encountered.
Set during the Depression in the depleted farmlands surrounding Augusta, Georgia, this is the story of the Lesters, a family of destitute white sharecroppers. Debased by their poverty, they fear they will descend to a lower rung on the social ladder than the black families who live near them. číst celé
Erskine Caldwell's work captures the stark realities of Southern life, depicting characters like impoverished sharecroppers and repressed farmwives with unflinching honesty. His unique vision sparked intense reactions, earning him both acclaim from literary figures such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and criticism for his provocative themes. Despite being labeled a sensationalist, Caldwell was once celebrated as "America's most popular author." Today, however, his reputation has faded, leaving him in the shadows of literary history.
