Erskine Caldwell: Selected Letters, 1929‐1955

Erskine Caldwell (1903‐1987), the Georgia‐born bestseller novelist and short story writer, is today a largely forgotten figure. Obscure at home in the southern States, he is even less well‐known abroad. His novels and short stories reveal an obsession with racial inequality and bawdiness. His Second World War novel A Lamp for Nightfall, published in 1942, set in Russia, focuses on guerrilla warfare. A nymphomaniac is the central figure of Greta. A novel published in 1968, Sometimes Island, examines the friendships and conflicts between blacks and whites while on a fishing trip. His collections of short stories include...