So my new personal crusade is to bring Erskine Caldwell back into the fold of literary studies. Apparently, he was purposefully kicked out of the canon, along with Steinbeck somewhere in the 60s and 70s.. Liberals didn't think he was liberal enough, conservatives thought he was too racy. God's Little Acre is something like the best-selling American book in Tokyo and Russia or something ridiculous like that. Faulkner and Fitzgerald loved him. He almost won the Pulitzer in the 60s, but thats when he went out of style. And he's amazing. I also haven't come across a writer yet, except for Baldwin, who attempts to narrate black and white characters or to narrate any sort of interracial community without one race or the other just being cast as the scenic and atmospheric Other. (I guess you could argue for Faulkner doing this, but I dont' really think that's true) And also, he needs to be back in the canon because his books have the best covers.
