Erskine Preston Caldwell carved a monumental career as one of America's bestselling authors out of a dogged desire to reveal "the inner spirit of men and women as they responded to the joys of life and reacted to the sorrows of existence"(With All My Might: An Autobiography).
Criticized and censored by the complicating intellects of literary centurions on one side and by the misapprehending loyalties of sentimental Southerners on another, Caldwell persevered to outlive (and outwork) his detractors and to earn the highest accolades of his profession and his fellow Southerners.
Between 1929 and 1984, Erskine Caldwell published 26 novels, 16 collections of stories, 15 books of nonfiction, two children's books, and a collection of poetry. Two of his novels are easily among the most well-known works in twentieth-century America, either through the sheer number of copies sold or due to the many adaptations that they have inspired. Tobacco Road, the enduring depiction of impoverished Georgia tenant farmers, was included in The Modern Library's list of the 100 most influential novels in English since 1900. God's Little Acre, another Georgia-based novel of the rural poor, has sold over fourteen million copies and was recently reprinted (with Tobacco Road, Georgia Boy and others) by The University of Georgia Press.
His aggressive, adventurous journalism and his craft as a short-story writer are often overshadowed by the fame (or notoriety) of his novels. However, New Deal-era reforms of the Southern tenant farm system were bolstered by his nonfiction attacks on the tenant system - in pamphlet form, in New York Post articles, and in his collaborative effort with photographer Margaret Bourke White, You Have Seen Their Faces (1937). And no less than seven Caldwell stories were included in the Best American Short Stories anthology series, and four were included in the annual O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories series.
In 1984 Erskine Caldwell was elected to the fifty-chair body of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. At last count, his books had sold more than 80 million copies and have been translated into 43 languages.
Photo courtesy of Drew Fletcher and Mrs. Virginia Caldwell Hibbs.
The following titles are held by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library:
The Bastard. New York: Heron Press, 1929.
Poor Fool. New York: Rariora Press, 1930.
American Earth. New York: Scribners, 1931.
Tobacco Road. New York: Scribners, 1932.
God's Little Acre. New York: Viking, 1933.
We Are the Living. New York: Viking, 1933.
Kneel to the Rising Sun. New York: Viking, 1935.
Journeyman. New York: Viking, 1935.
Tenant Farmer. New York: Phalanx Press, 1935.
Some American People. New York: McBride, 1935.
The Sacrilege of Alan Kent. Portland, Maine: Falmouth Book House, 1936.
You Have Seen Their Faces. New York: Viking, 1937.
Southways. New York: Viking, 1938.
Journeyman. New York: Viking, 1938.
North of the Danube. New York: Viking, 1939.
Jackpot. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1940.
Trouble in July. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1940.
Say, Is This the U.S.A. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1941.
All night Long. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1942.
All-Out on the Road to Smolensk. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1942.
Georgia Boy. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1943.
Tragic Ground. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1944.
A House in the Uplands. New York: New American Library, 1946.
The Caldwell Caravan. Cleveland & New York: World, 1946.
Georgia Boy. London: Falcon Press, 1947.
A House in the Uplands. London: Falcon Press, 1947.
The Sure Hand of God. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1947.
This Very Earth. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1948.
Place Called Estherville. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1949.
Episode in Palmetto. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1950.
American Earth. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1950
Jackpot. London: Falcon Press, 1950.
A Swell-Looking Girl. New York: New American Library, 1950.
Call It Experience. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1951.
Caldwell, Erskine with Robert Cantwell, ed. The Humorous Side of Erskine Caldwell. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1951.
A Lamp for Nightfall. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1952.
The Courting of Susie Brown. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1952.
The Courting of Susie Brown. New York: New American Library, 1953.
Gretta. Boston & Toronto: Little, Brown, 1955.
Gulf Coast Stories. Boston & Toronto: Little, Brown, 1956.
Gulf Coast Stories. Melbourne, London & Toronto: Heinemann, 1957.
Certain Women. Boston & Toronto: Little, Brown, 1957.
Certain Women. London, Melbourne & Toronto: Heinemann, 1958.
Claudelle Inglish. Boston & Toronto: Little, Brown, 1958.
Claudelle. London: Heinemann, 1959.
When You Think of Me. Boston & Toronto: Little, Brown, 1959.
Jenny By Nature. New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1961.
Jenny By Nature. London, Melbourne & Toronto: Heinemann, 1961.
Men and Women; Twenty-two Stories. Introd. by Carvel Collins. Boston, Little, Brown, 1961.
Close to Home. New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1962.
Close to Home. London, Melbourne & Toronto: Heinemann, 1962.
The Bastard and Poor Fool. London: Bodley Head, 1963.
The Last Night of Summer. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1963.
Around About America. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1964.
.In Search of Bisco. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965.
The Deer at Our House. New York: Collier, 1966.
Miss Mamma Aimee. New York: New American Library, 1967.
Writing in America. New York: Phaedra, 1967.
Deep South. New York: Weybright & Talley, 1968.
Summertime Island. New York & Cleveland: World, 1969.
The Weather Shelter. New York & Cleveland: World, 1969.
The Earnshaw Neighborhood. New York: World, 1971.
The Earnshaw Neighborhood. London: Joseph, 1972.
Annette. New York: New American Library, 1973.
Afternoons in Mid-America. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1976.
God's Little Acre. Savannah, Ga.: Beehive Press, 1977.
Trouble in July. Savannah, Ga.: Beehive Press, 1977.
Tragic Ground & Trouble in July. New York: New American Library, 1979.
Deep South : Memory and Observation. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1980.
In Defense of Myself. Palemon Press Limited, Winston-Salem, N.C., 1982.
Stories of Life, North & South: Selections From the Best Short Stories of Erskine Caldwell. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1983.
The Black & White Stories of Erskine Caldwell. Atlanta, Ga.: Peachtree Publishers, 1984.
With All My Might : An Autobiography. Atlanta, Ga.: Peachtree Publishers, 1987.
Georgia Boy. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995.
God's Little Acre. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995.
In Search of Bisco. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995.
Call it Experience: The Years of Learning How to Write. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
Journeyman. Athens : University of Georgia Press, 1996.
The Stories of Erskine Caldwell. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
Il bastardo. traduzione di Francesco Mei. [Milano]: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1997.
Rachel and other stories. Tokyo : Nan'un-do 1997.
Il piccolo campo. nota introduttiva di Elio Vittorini. Milano: Bompiani, 1998.
Caldwell, Erskine with Robert L. McDonald, ed. Erskine Caldwell: selected letters, 1929-1955. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1999.
VIDEO RECORDINGS / MOVIES
In search of Caldwell's Georgia [videorecording :] three early short stories by Erskine Caldwell with commentary. Department of Drama, University of Georgia and WGTV; Athens, Ga. : The Univeristy of Georgia Dept. of Drama c1980.
Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College houses the largest collection of original Caldwell manuscripts.
Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia houses one of the more extensive collections of Caldwell's books, correspondence, scrapbooks of memorabilia, manuscripts, and photographs.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia also has a number of Caldwell manuscripts.