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A piece of American Naturalism
Garland is an expert at capturing local color.This collection of short stories shows the brutal reality of farm and rural life in the Midwest.His characters are thrown around in the cruel world and have no real way of escaping.His women characters are strong and hold their own in world dominated by hard working men.This book shows how it was like to live in the West one hundred years ago.

A piece of American Naturalism
Garland captures the American West as it was at the end of the 19th Century.This collection of shorts stories is a slice of life in rural America.Garland is a true local colorist who portrays real, hard working farmers and the struggle to survive in the harsh landscape of the Midwest.Who is a true Naturalist who shows the brutal reality of American life and the lack of control people had on the conditions of their lives.These stories take you into the hardships of the countryfolk of one hundred years ago.

The best of American Realism.Short stories full of heart.
Hamlin captures the essence of American Realism.The vividly painted scenes full of grit and labor keep this book moving. The characters are solid and provide the reader with a painfully honest view of life and loveat the turn of the century. A necessary book for any decent collection ofAmerican Realism. Escape into the main traveled roads of humanity! ... Read more

Book Description
1923. Hamlin Garland was born near La Crosse, Wisconsin and lived in the area for nine years before his family moved to South Dakota. As an adult he lived in major cities throughout the United States but visited his birthplace often. In 1922 he received a Pulitzer Prize for A Daughter of the Middle Border, and was also director of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for a number of years. Garland wanted to write regional literature, and he is famous for his realistic portrayal of Wisconsin rural life. Son of the Middle Border is his autobiography and considered by some to be a masterpiece. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great Book
This is a great book from 2 angles: first, it's a great coming-of-age story. Second, as a reader in 2007, it's a wonderful window into the world of 1870-1900s America which was not so long ago, but worlds away.

The language is a little formal and flowery, which is funny in light of the fact that Garland broke ground in American literary circles as a gritty "realist" writer. But even that serves to draw a more complete picture of the era.

American Gothic
It is exciting to stumble upon this classic work and to ascertain it is absolutely readable and fresh.This work is constantly cited in support of regional factors constituting part of the experience of American writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.In 1863 Garland's father made the last payment on the mortgage on his farm and that same day he enlisted as a soldier in the Civil War.

The father was born in Maine.The family moved west via the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes, landing in Milwaukee.The children were told stories of the war and of the prairies of Wisconsin.The farm was near the LaCrosse River in western Wisconsin.

The author's grandfather was an Adventist, believing in the second coming.The McClintocks, maternal relatives, were farmers.The author's Grandfather Garland was a carpenter.Hamlin received his first literary instruction from his paternal, New England, grandfather.

To his father change was alluring.The father was eager to sell the farm in 1868 and push away onward to Iowa.The new farm was right on the edge of Looking Glass Prairie.When the family moved in February the children whined and the mother conveyed worry.His mother was in terror of the ice.At ten Hamlin was plowing at the family's third farm, located in Mitchell County near the Minnesota line.The name of the town was Osage.The schoolhouse was the center of social life on the bare prairie.The family rented land for their crops and broke sod and built a homestead on their new land.In addition to prairie there were hazel thickets.The curriculum pursued in the school was set forth in the McGuffey Readers.A singing school was started in Osage.Social changes were in progress.There were no more quilting bees and barn raisings.The women visited less often.Singing was confined to hymn tunes.

Garland tries to dispel the merry yeoman fantasy.The cowyard smelled of manure.Most farming duties require the lapse of years to seem beautiful.Haying was a season of charm.The author recalls buying his first deck of cards.

Growing up in the West were organizations called the Patrons of Husbandry, the Grange.The Lyceum took the place of the singing schools.Amusements had changed.The father was asked to become the official grain buyer for the country.He was to take charge of the new elevator in Osage.The family changed from farm to village, renting a house on the edge of town.

The family returned to the farm after a year. The wheat harvest was in jeopardy from the chinch bug.Hamlin went to Cedar Valley Seminary for two years.Grain buying had declined with grain growing and the border was moving.Many of the settlers were going to Dakota.

Hamlin and his brother Franklin went to Boston and various places on the East Coast.Broadway in New York seemed to be an abnormal congestion of human souls.Later Hamlin took a job being a school teacher in the Midwest.He was persuaded to go to Boston to study literature and found himself in a school for oratory, and with the passage of time, a teacher of literature himself.Returning West after seven years he saw that every house had its stamp of solid strugge.As to pioneering, the free land was gone.Garland was excited to meet William Dean Howells and to be considered by him a fellow writer.

Love of the Land
This is easily in my top ten list of books.Wonderful account of growing up in the upper Midwest after the War Between the States.Hamlin Garland writes with a great sense of place and a love of the land. ... Read more

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Book Description
Silet brings together an extensive, representative and easily accessible sampling of criticism of the work of the nationally known Midwestern writer and reformer, Hamlin Garland (1860-1940). ... Read more

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This bibliography intelligently arranges, thoroughly annotates, and usefully indexes over 1300 pieces of secondary comment on Pulitzer Prize winner Garland. ... Read more

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