Tobacco Road.

CALDWELL, Erskine (Eleanor Roosevelt).

Item Number: 74007

New York: Grosset & Dunlop, Publishers, 1932.

First Grosset & Dunlap edition of Caldwell’s classic work. Octavo, original cloth. Inscribed by Eleanor Roosevelt on the front free endpaper, “To H.B.D., May you enjoy this sweet little story of one of the South’s forgotten men, as much as I did. With kindest regards. Eleanor Roosevelt.” Some mottling to the cloth, good in a very good dust jacket. An exceptional presentation copy.

Unsentimentally realistic, this classic novel is a reflection of the effects of poverty on tenant farmers in the South during the Great Depression. It focuses on the Lester family, former cotton farmers who continue to live on their ancestors' plantation even though it has long ceased to be prosperous. Jeeter and Ada Lester have 17 children, two of whom still live at home: Ellie May, their only unmarried daughter who has a cleft lip, and Dude, their youngest son who is mentally handicapped. The family's antics, while at times vile and perverse, depict the racism and moral ambiguity that existed among some impoverished Southerners at that time and represent Erskine Caldwell's critique of the failed economic system and its consequences.