Gone and forgotten

How could he be remembered if he could not be described?

Dan B. Miller, Erskine Caldwell: The Journey from Tobacco Road

Erskine Caldwell: The Journey from Tobacco Road by Dan B. Miller was published in 1994. Thirty years later it seems unlikely that anyone would bother to write — or read (except me, of course) — a biography of this man who was once one of the most famous writers in America.

William Faulkner, Saul Bellow and others considered Caldwell one of the best writers of the 20th century..

His paperbacks outsold those by every other writer of his time.

He was married to one of the most glamorous women in the country, the photographer Margaret Bourke-White.

His short stories were once a staple of most college courses on contemporary American literature.

Yet today few people recognize Caldwell's name, and even his most notable novels, Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre, are difficult to find, assuming there is anybody looking for them.

This was all true in 1994, and is even more true today.

Caldwell may have been his own worst enemy. He tended to burn bridges, whether it was with his wives, his friends, his agents or his publishers.  He was often paranoid, believing everyone was out to get him, while failing to recognize his own faults.

Caldwell strived for art, yet wrote sleaze, often at the same time. And it is this that makes him hard to describe and thus hard to remember. In which category does he ultimately belong? The main reason his paperbacks sold so many copies was the sleazy covers, which usually promised more than his books actually contained, though even his best work contained enough. Eventually his reputation suffered, although the sales certainly padded his bank account for many years.

Perhaps the most admirable thing about Erskine Caldwell is that he never burned the bridge connecting him with his beloved father, a preacher, just as his father never stopped loving and believing in his wayward son.