Talk:Erskine Caldwell

Chronological Rearrangement Necessary?

The article would be improved if the section on Works were rearranged according to the first year they were published. As it stands, God's Little Acre may have earned him the greatest fame or notoriety, but it was far from the first book of his that was published.

It appears that some of his publishers reassembled works from earlier years, and reprinted them as new works. For instance, the book When You Think of Me is a compendium of short stories and character sketches dating back, variously, to years 1936, 1941, 1944, and 1933 and 1959 - series of copyrights for every other section in the book. The first section, for instance, has the following short stories: The Light, A Visit to Mingus County, The Story of Mahlon, and a Message for Genevieve. These appear to have been copyrighted in 1936, though the last may have been copyrighted in 1944. The second section of the book contains the following character sketches: The Barber of the Northwest, After Eighty Years, Grandpa in the Bathtub, The Man Under the Mountain, A Short Sleep in Louisiana, and A Country that Moves. All copyrighted in 1941. The third section of the book contains the following "Czechoslovakian" sketches: Bread in Uzok, Wine of Surany, and The Dogs of Ceske Budejovice. Those were copyrighted in 1933, 1935, and 1939 by Erskine Caldwell himself. The book, as a whole, takes its name after the fourth part, a story about a war hero returning home, When You Think of Me. - copyrighted in 1959.

When, exactly, was the short story Bread in Uzok penned? The story is accusatory in nature, implying that a "Prince of Czechoslovakia" (and not the nearby workers' paradise of Soviet Russia) was really responsible for the mass-starvation experienced by the villagers of Uzok, and the dire want of bread there. The taxicab driver had to carry a gun, and several cases of bullets before going there. Apparently a propaganda piece, it appears to have been prompted by the peculiarly close relation Erskine was having at the time with Soviet sympathists just prior to the outbreak of WWII. This serves to date it to the 1930s, just prior to Caldwell leaving for the USSR to work as a journalist.

Since Erskine Caldwell had a lucrative time re-packaging and selling stories previously assigned to other publishers, presumably after their assignments expired, it makes it difficult rearranging the list of works chronologically. It makes a lot of sense to arrange them according to their significance, or according to their impact on society. With that in mind, the two works that he is most famous for, are Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre.

I went ahead and rearranged the list of literary works (for the most part) according to the years the works were published. Please check the list and correct any errors you might find.

Another way the mass of his works can be organized, is according to publisher. Although Caldwell's fortune came chiefly from paperbacks (such as those sold by Signet), many of his hottest sellers were first made available in hardback form through Little, Brown and Company.

Enlisted by the Soviets?

His second marriage came to an end in 1942 when he traveled to the Ukraine in the Soviet Union to serve the Soviets there as a foreign correspondent in their war effort against the Germans. Some disillusionment in the reality of this one-sided work arrangement may have led him to write his short story Message for Genevieve. In that story, published in 1944, a journalist writes home, recounting the execution of a notorious Mata Hari type female journalist known only as Genevieve. Day after day, month after month, the journalists in the story reside at the Majestic Hotel but then, one day, Genevieve is missing. At first, this is not so strange because she was considered a highly successful "lone wolf" journalist, both independent and aloof, and yet regarded by all as competent, with her own line of inside connections, able to get the stories faster than any of the other journalists could. Word gets out that she was rounded up, interrogated, and shot for espionage.

Was this story based partially on a personal experience that Erskine Caldwell actually had, or is it completely fictitious? Did Erskine's relationship with a mysterious Genevieve have anything to do with Erskine's 1942 divorce?

There is at least one account of his wife traveling to Russia as a photographer, presumably to supplement her husband Erskine's journalist activities. However, there is also an account of them getting a divorce in 1942.

If it was first published in 1944, another version was published in 1959.

Hotel Majestic may be a common name for ritzy hotels, but it was also employed to much good effect in the 1969 film Army of Shadows where French compatriots sympathetic to the French Resistance assembled to plan forbidden political activities under the guise of having dinner. In the film, there is a clear shot of the building from the street, and the camera lingers on the name Hotel Majestic, emphasizing its role in the French Resistance. The buildings in this film all appear to be authentic, and reflect the architectural style of the 1930s and 1940s. If that is the case, it is possible that Message for Genevieve relates to journalists living in Vichy France, and not Stalinist Russia. Taken in that light, it is also possible that Joseph Kessel's 1943 memoirs inspired Caldwell to write his four page story.

Wives and Children

Erskine Caldwell had at least three wives in the course of his lifetime. He had a son from his first wife, Helen.

According to the Times-Herald newspaper, one of his sons was D.W. Caldwell, a geologist at Boston University, who had retired prior to November 24, 2003, when he attended a centennial (100th birthday) celebration in honor of his father's birthday. This celebration included, beside his widow, such noted luminaries as Dr. Robert McDonald, Dr. Wayne Mixon, Dr. Edwin Arnold, and Dr. Sylvia Jenkins.

Did he have any other children?

Jay Caldwell is one of his sons.

Virginia Caldwell is an honored illustrator in some of his works from the 1950s. Was she his third wife?

The same account in the Times-Herald newspaper (see above) lists Virginia Caldwell Hibbs as Erskine Caldwell's widow.

I have just completed a biography about Erskine Cauldwell. He was actually married 4 times. Helen, Margaret Bourke-White, Joy, and then his wife for thirty years, Virginia.

He acutally has 4 children. 2 boys and a girl from Helen and Jay from Joy.

New York law

He countersued. Did he win? Trekphiler (talk) 20:18, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Buried in Ashland, Oregon

Why is Erskine Caldwell buried in Oregon?

"Caldwell’s stepson, Drew Fletcher, has lived in Ashland since 1975. Fletcher’s mother, Virginia, who was Caldwell’s fourth wife, moved to the Rogue Valley Manor in Medford after Caldwell’s death in 1987. The family felt it only fitting that Caldwell be buried close by." Jefferson Public Talk Radio

References

Speculative use of epithet

I removed "(perhaps on the basis of the title alone, as bastard can be taken for an epithet),". Apart from being speculative, this meaning of the word epithet is contested and infrequently used. For a reader following the link to the wikipage on it, there would be only confusion until they reached the small description at the end of an otherwise unrelated article. Glacialfury (talk) 12:43, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

A message for Genevieve

A message for Genevieve; a brief story Author: Erskine Caldwell Publisher: Mount Vernon, Me., 1933. Replenished: 1970 WorldCat --Pawyilee (talk) 12:17, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Message for Genevieve

A message for Genevieve : a brief story by Erskine Caldwell was first published 1933, Mount Vernon, Me., republished in 1977.WorldCat

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