River of Earth is a novel, published in 1940

1940 in literature

The year 1940 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Aldous Huxley is a screenwriter for the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.*Jean-Paul Sartre is taken prisoner by the Germans....

, by Appalachian author James Still

James Still

James Still was an American poet, novelist and folklorist. He lived most of his life in a log house along the Dead Mare Branch of Little Carr Creek, Knott County, Kentucky...

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Plot synopsis

The book focuses on three years in the life of an Appalachian family as told from the viewpoint of a young boy. The boy watches as his parents are pulled between their meager but independent life as farmers, and the uncertain promise of prosperity offered by the mining camps in Appalachia.

Publication

The book was published in 1940, within a year of The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962....

, and by the same publisher.
The cabin that appears on the cover of the newest edition was located in Knott County, Kentucky

Knott County, Kentucky

Knott County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1884. As of 2000, the population was 17,649. Its county seat is Hindman. The county is named for James Proctor Knott, Governor of Kentucky . It is a prohibition or dry county. Notable inhabitants include U.S....

, where Still lived for about 50 years....

Criticism

Many issues arise from a discussion of the differences and similarities between River of Earth and Grapes of Wrath. Critic Dean Cadle notes that these are the only books chronicling the demoralizing Depression years; Steinbeck’s novel about the dust bowl/1929 crash/depression era, while Still is writing about traumas that span the existence of mountain people in America. Similarly, Ted Olson suggests the work relies on the theme of working class families vs. socio-economic political systems. Douglas Reichert Powell claims that national epics are about the inevitability of displacement and nomadism. Place is then reduced to being stopped, giving up, or resting; while River of Earth is concerned with (even) the “possibility of place”.