Help Me Scratch My Early-20th-Century-American-Midwest Itch!
March 14, 2021 10:04 AM Subscribe
Looking for recommendations of books that will let me dive into the culture of the American Midwest circa 1890-1940.
I just finished reading Mrs. Bridge by Evan Connell. It was wonderful from start to finish, but an unexpected benefit was the detailed evocation of everyday life in Kansas City in the 1930s. I've read a lot of books about people in cities in the early 20th century, and a lot of books about smaller towns and suburbia starting in the 1950s, but this felt a bit new.
Other books I've enjoyed for similar reasons recently were O Pioneers! and My Antonia (which both dive deep into the lives of Swedish and Czech immigrants), Joy in the Morning, and even, very unexpectedly, the Betsy-Tacy series, which takes some neat detours into ethnic minority cultures of the early 20th-c upper midwest, including one of the most vivid descriptions of German Milwaukee I've encountered. What I like about these is the focus on earlier waves of European migration to America that I didn't hear so much about as a kid, combined with a fine-grained look at daily life in early 20th-century America, especially burgeoning middle-class culture. I am not so interested in pioneer stories or books like Gilead or A Thousand Acres, which are great but have more of an elegaic, meditative feel than I'm craving right now. I've also loved books like Cheaper By the Dozen and Beverly Cleary's memoirs, which focus on the same time period on the coasts, and recommendations along these lines are also welcome. And I'm especially intrigued by the lives of German migrants and the enclaves they built in America pre-WWI, but I can barely find any books at all addressing this.
I just finished reading Mrs. Bridge by Evan Connell. It was wonderful from start to finish, but an unexpected benefit was the detailed evocation of everyday life in Kansas City in the 1930s. I've read a lot of books about people in cities in the early 20th century, and a lot of books about smaller towns and suburbia starting in the 1950s, but this felt a bit new.
Other books I've enjoyed for similar reasons recently were O Pioneers! and My Antonia (which both dive deep into the lives of Swedish and Czech immigrants), Joy in the Morning, and even, very unexpectedly, the Betsy-Tacy series, which takes some neat detours into ethnic minority cultures of the early 20th-c upper midwest, including one of the most vivid descriptions of German Milwaukee I've encountered. What I like about these is the focus on earlier waves of European migration to America that I didn't hear so much about as a kid, combined with a fine-grained look at daily life in early 20th-century America, especially burgeoning middle-class culture. I am not so interested in pioneer stories or books like Gilead or A Thousand Acres, which are great but have more of an elegaic, meditative feel than I'm craving right now. I've also loved books like Cheaper By the Dozen and Beverly Cleary's memoirs, which focus on the same time period on the coasts, and recommendations along these lines are also welcome. And I'm especially intrigued by the lives of German migrants and the enclaves they built in America pre-WWI, but I can barely find any books at all addressing this.
Harry Truman grew up in Missouri in the timeframe you mention. I remember reading part of his memoirs, which was about his earlier life, and it was interesting enough (and you can skip over the parts that aren’t). Or you could read McCullough’s biography of him.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 10:44 AM on March 14, 2021
posted by Huffy Puffy at 10:44 AM on March 14, 2021
How about poetry? Vachel Lindsay is great.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:51 AM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by kevinbelt at 10:51 AM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury and Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe.
posted by Rash at 11:10 AM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 11:10 AM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
The Golden Name Day by Jennie Lindquist is about a girl who goes to live with Swedish relatives - I can't remember if it's set in the midwest.
You might enjoy the All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor, which is about a family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 20th century.
posted by mogget at 11:19 AM on March 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
You might enjoy the All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor, which is about a family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 20th century.
posted by mogget at 11:19 AM on March 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
Apologies if this is too obvious, but the sequel, Mr. Bridge.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:32 AM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:32 AM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
Dawn Powell's semi-autobiographic Ohio novels, My Home is Far Away and Dance Night come to mind, are good depictions of small town Ohio at the turn of the 20th century.
Sherwood Anderson's follow-up to Winesburg, Ohio, Poor White is the story of a small Ohio town transforming into a manufacturing center. I bought a copy from Belt Publishing out of Cleveland, which has several titles in their revival series which may be of interest.
The time span is a bit earlier than you mention but Raintree County by Ross Lockridge, Jr. is a long and curious book in which the narrator recalls his life in Indiana from the perspective of a single day in 1892.
posted by plastic_animals at 11:57 AM on March 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
Sherwood Anderson's follow-up to Winesburg, Ohio, Poor White is the story of a small Ohio town transforming into a manufacturing center. I bought a copy from Belt Publishing out of Cleveland, which has several titles in their revival series which may be of interest.
The time span is a bit earlier than you mention but Raintree County by Ross Lockridge, Jr. is a long and curious book in which the narrator recalls his life in Indiana from the perspective of a single day in 1892.
posted by plastic_animals at 11:57 AM on March 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
I mean Wisconsin Death Trip is a classic but it might not be the kind of thing you're looking for right now. Similarly, Under a Flaming Sky. But keep them in mind if you want something doom-laden.
posted by Hypatia at 12:01 PM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Hypatia at 12:01 PM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
The Children's Blizzard, by David Laskin
posted by RedEmma at 12:18 PM on March 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by RedEmma at 12:18 PM on March 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
I think you might enjoy Edna Ferber's So Big, which focuses on Chicago and a Dutch farming community nearby.
posted by eponym at 12:42 PM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by eponym at 12:42 PM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
Oh gosh I think you would SO LOVE Molly Gloss's book The Hearts of Horses which is about a woman who breaks horses, but in a kind of gentle way, not really a violent abusive way. She spends some time wandering around rural Oregon, right at the start of WWI, so 1917 I think. There's some interesting looks at stuff like anti-German sentiment and how people around that time met and dated one another.
posted by jessamyn at 12:49 PM on March 14, 2021
posted by jessamyn at 12:49 PM on March 14, 2021
Sinclair Lewis. Theodore Dreiser. James T. Farrell.
posted by scratch at 12:54 PM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by scratch at 12:54 PM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
Anything written by Wallace Stegner, particularly Angle of Repose
posted by SinAesthetic at 1:16 PM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by SinAesthetic at 1:16 PM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
Main Street, Sinclair Lewis.
Winesburg, Ohio, as above.
Old Home Town, Rose Wilder Lane (great feminist stuff).
posted by Melismata at 2:27 PM on March 14, 2021
Winesburg, Ohio, as above.
Old Home Town, Rose Wilder Lane (great feminist stuff).
posted by Melismata at 2:27 PM on March 14, 2021
I’m excited I get to be the first to recommend The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington.
posted by mskyle at 3:08 PM on March 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by mskyle at 3:08 PM on March 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
A Long Year of Silence by Kathryn Adams Doty
posted by verity kindle at 3:40 PM on March 14, 2021
posted by verity kindle at 3:40 PM on March 14, 2021
Oh, you want the utterly charming The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.
posted by gideonfrog at 4:49 PM on March 14, 2021
posted by gideonfrog at 4:49 PM on March 14, 2021
This is a fascinating ask.
I can recommend The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields' 1995 Pulitzer winner that tracks the life of a woman born in rural Ottawa in 1905 who marries and lives in Bloomington, Indiana in the 1920s.
posted by minervous at 5:09 PM on March 14, 2021
I can recommend The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields' 1995 Pulitzer winner that tracks the life of a woman born in rural Ottawa in 1905 who marries and lives in Bloomington, Indiana in the 1920s.
posted by minervous at 5:09 PM on March 14, 2021
A Girl of the Limberlost is a good coming-of-age portrait of everyday, turn of the century Indiana and an interesting one given the early environmental themes (logging and oil extraction threats to the local swampland). It's a charming read if you like nature writing.
posted by veery at 5:31 PM on March 14, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by veery at 5:31 PM on March 14, 2021 [7 favorites]
The Betsy-Tacy series of children's novels, written in the 1940s and set in the 1890s-1910s in a fictionalized version of the author's Minnesota hometown.
posted by Theiform at 10:09 PM on March 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Theiform at 10:09 PM on March 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
meet me in st Louis was adapted from Sally benson's stories
posted by brujita at 4:18 PM on March 15, 2021
posted by brujita at 4:18 PM on March 15, 2021
« Older What are these weird structures on the roof of a... | Toggle specific app notifications on iPhone based... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by eotvos at 10:26 AM on March 14, 2021 [6 favorites]