Random Thoughts

By the mid-1930s, Erskine Caldwell was a well-known and acclaimed novelist and short story writer. He was also quite controversial for his discussions of sex and race as well as his portrayal of Southerners – particularly those who were Caucasians.

Caldwell readily criticized those who were rich and powerful for their brutal and consistent mistreatment of African Americans, noting that whites could abuse, rape, and even murder blacks without fear of reprisals.

Others objected to Caldwell’s characterization of many poor, white Southerners as lazy, naïve, sex-driven degenerate buffoons!

In his fifth novel, “Journeyman,” Caldwell upset many in the Bible Belt by portraying an itinerant white preacher as a lying, gambling, womanizing, whiskey-guzzling charlatan.

Consequently, several Caldwell works were banned in various localities from New York City to Caldwell’s hometown in Georgia and numerous places in between!

Such negative reactions, however, served only to increase sales of Caldwell’s books while propelling his status as an important literary figure to staggering heights. His novels and short story collections would typically sell a million copies – and often many more than that.

Many critics believe, however, that as time passed Caldwell sought to make his succeeding works more salacious and controversial than previous ones. Thus, while his sales numbers remained high, the literary quality of his fiction declined greatly.

All of this success – financial and otherwise – make one of the tales Caldwell told about himself in his autobiography that much more charming.

In 1930, a naïve Caldwell was trying to sell short stories to editor Maxwell Perkins of Scribner’s Magazine. Perkins told the young writer that he wanted to publish two stories and would pay Caldwell “two fifty” for both.

A hesitant Caldwell reluctantly assented but said he thought that that was not much compensation for two stories, so Perkins upped his offer to “three fifty.” Caldwell agreed but, again, was not excited, saying that three dollars and 50 cents was not much money.

Perkins, amused, informed Caldwell that he wasn’t offering him $3.50 but rather $350!