Conversations with Erskine Caldwell

Publisher Marketing: "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.

Contributor Bio:  Arnold, Edwin T Edwin T. Arnold and Dianne C. Luce are editors of "Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy" (University Press of Mississippi). This new volume is an admirable companion to "Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy", bringing McCarthy scholarship into the 21st century. Contributor Bio:  Caldwell, Erskine Erskine Caldwell (1903-1987) is the author of twenty-five novels, numerous short stories, and a dozen nonfiction titles, most depicting the harsh realities of life in the American South during the Great Depression. His books have been published in forty-five languages and have sold tens of millions of copies, with "God's Little Acre" alone selling more than fourteen million. Caldwell's graphic realism and unabashedly political themes earned him the scorn of critics and censors early in his career, though by the end of his life he was acknowledged as a giant of American literature.