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Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White: You Have Seen Their Faces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

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Extract

In 1937, Erskine Caldwell, the noted Southern author of Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre, and Margaret Bourke-White, the famous photographer for Fortune and Life magazines, published You Have Seen Their Faces. The documentary was a devastating broadside on Southern delinquencies. Right from the opening paragraph, Caldwell began painting an image of the South as a benighted region.

Type
General Essays
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

NOTES

1. Caldwell, Erskine and Bourke-White, Margaret, You Have Seen Their Faces (New York: The Viking Press, 1937), passim.Google Scholar

2. New York Times, 11 10, 1937, 29Google Scholar; “Books In Review,” New Republic, 93 (11 24, 1937), 78Google Scholar; “The Book Forum,” Forum, 98 (12, 1937), viiGoogle Scholar; “Book of the Future,” Current History, 47 (12, 1937), 8.Google Scholar

3. Conrad, David E., The Forgotten Farmers (Urbana: University of Illinois, 1965), 8, 16.Google Scholar

4. Coyne, John B. to Bourke-White, Margaret, 12 5, 1941Google Scholar; Mallet, Robert W. K. to Bourke-White, , 02 17, 1939Google Scholar; Smith, H. Bowen to Bourke-White, , 10 13, 1938Google Scholar; MrsWhiting, Royal G. to Bourke-White, , 02 23, 19, 39Google Scholar; and Gardner, Katherine to The Viking Press, 03 31, 1938Google Scholar-Margaret Bourke-White Papers, The George Arents Research Library, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. Hereafter the Margaret Bourke-White Papers will be referred to as Bourke-White MS SU.

5. Davidson, Donald, “Erskine Caldwell's Picture Book,” The Southern Review, 4 (1938/1939), 1525.Google Scholar Consult Kirby, Jack Temple, Media-Made Dixie (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978), 5963Google Scholar, and Stott, William, Documentary Expression And Thirties America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), 5960, 211224Google Scholar for an overview of the criticism directed at the documentary.

6. Newspaper clippings in Bourke-White MS SU.

7. Korges, James, Erskine Caldwell (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969), passim.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. See, for example, “‘God's Little Acre’ Freed From Obscenity Charge,” Publishers' Weekly, 123 (05 27, 1933), 1702Google Scholar; “Caldwell's Novels Banned,” Publishers' Weekly, 125 (03 19, 1934), 1045Google Scholar; “Mr. Caldwell Protests,” New Republic, 79 (06 27, 1934), 184185Google Scholar; “Chicago Bans ‘Tobacco Road,’” Publishers' Weekly, 128 (10 26, 1935), 15551556Google Scholar; “Detroit Closes ‘Tobacco Road,’” Publishers' Weekly, 128 (11 9, 1935), 1757Google Scholar; “Exclusion of ‘Tobacco Road’ From Chicago,” New Republic, 84 (11 6, 1935), 348Google Scholar; “‘Tobacco Road’ Exonerated But Chicago Keeps It Closed,” Publishers' Weekly, 128 (11 2, 1935), 1670Google Scholar; “Court Protection For ‘Tobacco Road,’” Publishers' Weekly, 134 (12 3, 1938), 1979–1980.Google Scholar

9. U. S. Congress, Congressional Record, 2d Session, 74th Congress (Washington, D. C., 1936), Vol. 80, Pt. 5, 5009–5010.Google Scholar

10. Erskine Caldwell Flyer in William A. Sutton Papers, Special Collections, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Hereafter the William A. Sutton Papers will be referred to as Sutton MS.

11. Caldwell, Erskine, Call It Experience (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1951), 163Google ScholarNew York Post, 02Google Scholar 18, 19, 20, and 21, April 17,18,19, and 20, 1935; Augusta Chronicle, 03 4, 5, 12, 13, 14, and 27, 1935.Google Scholar Liv Smith, to Caldwell, Erskine, 12 20, 1937Google Scholar; Caldwell, to Smith, , 12 29, 1937Google Scholar; New School for Social Research Course and Syllabus–in Erskine Caldwell Papers, The George Arents Research Library, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. Hereafter the Erskine Caldwell Papers will be referred to as Caldwell MS SU.

12. Bourke-White, Margaret to Caldwell, Erskine, 03 9, 1936Google Scholar, Caldwell MS SU; typescript for Journal-American article in Caldwell MS SU; Bourke-White, Margaret, Portrait of Myself (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963), passim.Google Scholar

13. Caldwell, , Call It Experience, 162171Google Scholar; Bourke-White, , Portrait of Myself, 122139Google Scholar; typescript for Journal-American article in Caldwell MS SU.

14. Newhall, Beaumont, The History of Photography (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1981), 137142.Google Scholar

15. Caldwell, and Bourke-White, , You Have Seen Their Faces, 164168.Google Scholar For the point of view that the authors were detached and uncommitted observers, rather than activists and socially conscious, consult Hurley, F. Jack, Portrait Of A Decade (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972), 137.Google Scholar

16. See, for example, Ward, Harry F. to Bourke-White, Margaret, 06 2, 1933Google Scholar; Pomerance, M. W. to Bourke-White, , 04 13, 1936Google Scholar; Young, Harriet to Bourke-White, , 05 4, 1939Google Scholar; Golden, Nan to Bourke-White, , 08 3, 1939Google Scholar; Wohl, Harry D. to Caldwell, Erskine, 03 21, 1939Google Scholar; Smith, Margaret to Wohl, , 04 11, 1939Google Scholar; Smith, to Milgrim, Morris, 03 31, 1939Google Scholar; Caldwell, to Kennedy, Stetson, 002 26, 1940Google Scholar-Bourke-White MS SU; Manual, Alvin to Sutton, William A., 02, 1970Google Scholar; Cody, Morril to Sutton, , 11 10, 1970Google Scholar; Cowley, Malcolm to Sutton, , 10 15, 1971Google Scholar; Mumford, Lewis to Sutton, , 10 14, 1971, Sutton MS.Google Scholar

17. See, for example, U. S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Propaganda: Investigations of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States, Hearings, 75th Congress, 3d Session, August 12–23, 1938 (Washington, 1938), Vol. 1, 379, 541, 554, 561, 875.Google Scholar

18. In Washington, D. C, the FBI maintained a file on Margaret Bourke-White, Bufile 100–3518, and Erskine Caldwell, Bufile 100–427589, and the CIA maintained a file on Erskine Caldwell designated according to his surname.

19. See, for example, Hoover, J. Edgar to Smith, L. M. C., 04 9, 1941Google Scholar; Hoover, to Special Agent in Charge, New York, 01 29, 1942Google Scholar, and March 12, 1943; Simons, R. H. to Hoover, , 04 24, 1943Google Scholar; and Conroy, E. E. to Hoover, , 05 10, 1943Google Scholar-Bufile 100–3518; J. Hoover, Edgar to Smith, L. M. C., 08 20, 1941Google Scholar, and Hoover, to Special Agent in Charge, New Haven, 09 4, 1941-Bufile 100–427589.Google Scholar

20. Letter, Sutton MS.

21. Caldwell, Erskine and Bourke-White, Margaret, You Have Seen Their Faces (n. p.: Arno Press, 1975), introduction.Google Scholar