Domestic Novelists in the Old South: Defenders of Southern Culture Book

I've lived in the Chicago area most of my life and worked in the Loop for over 20 years. In that time, I ran across Hamlin Garland's name twice. The first time was when attending a wedding reception that was held in the room where the Cliff-dwellers met, a literary group formed by Garland. The second time was when I noticed a building on Wabash Street in the Loop called The Garland Building.

My curiosity was aroused and I read his marvelous "A Son of the Middle Border" some years ago, before joining Goodreads.

Then, browsing in a bookstore (remember those?) I came across this book and expected it to be an account of his wife. Actually, it picks up where the earlier book left off. Though his wife, Zulime, is definitely a part of this book, it reveals very little of her character and presents her in an almost stereotypical way as the dedicated spouse who endlessly and selflessly follows in the path of her husband. Garland makes it a point to let us know he sees her as his equal and doesn't expect an obedient helpmate, yet he never gets beyond the surface of her behavior, probably because she was still alive (and much younger than he) when he wrote this book. He may have felt it would be presumptuous on his part to hold up a magnifying glass to her.

For this reason, the title is puzzling and misleading.

Be that as it may, this book is a jewel. Garland is a most sensitive and tenderhearted writer. He doesn't hide has feelings about either himself or others and he frequently pauses to look at life - its challenges, expectations for it, regrets about it, that pulse with an authenticity to which any reader should be able to relate. His relationships with his parents and his eldest daughter are closely examined and he freely admits that his heart was not captured by his younger daughter as it was with his first-born, something perfectly understandable and human. Emotions are never far below the surface and the book is appropriately sprinkled with his poetry.

Garland shares his moods, his doubts and the sense of melancholy that stands just behind consciousness ready to assert itself after even the most exciting and exhilarating experiences. He is preoccupied with what it means to be successful in life and is particularly abashed at falling short of the material success that several of his friends and acquaintances achieve. He realizes the trade-offs that disregarding others to make success the top priority would bring. His unquestioned achievement is the admiration and respect he has in the eyes of his entire family (I will give him the benefit of the doubt re his wife!). He freely admits he has much more than most. His honesty with himself is refreshing, there is no pretense and dry self-deprecating humor often comes to his aid.

Anyone interested in writing would find this book interesting since Garland's motivations for his writings are given. He tells us of the ups and downs, the conditions that he finds conducive to work and what blocks him from writing. His relationship to nature and his friends is wide open and receptive as one would expect of a good writer. His empathy is evident in his feelings for the Indian, the mountain-men, the pioneer and the soldier which he is careful to sympathetically portray in his books. He wants to be their chronicler; putting down a history that they would if they could.

His adventures in search of experience and the people he meets provide one interesting chapter after another. Early on I was reminded of Teddy Roosevelt in Garland's love of the rugged outdoors. No sooner did I note this, than Roosevelt comes into the story as a new-found friend offering a relationship that continues into the White House. Though not like Forrest Gump, who was always on the scene of historic events, Garland had an uncanny way of being introduced to or running into important people.

He is wonderfully thoughtful about everything he does. His stated goal in life is only to make the world a little better place and to secure the future for his family. In that he succeeds, the book is his testament to it and so much more satisfying to this reader than the empty, flattering accounts of fame and fortune that are so common with autobiography. Garland presents a vivid, sincere account of a life well lived.

If you haven't read "A Son of the Middle Border", read that first. This book is very enjoyable, but "Son" is Garland's masterpiece, a part of the soul of America.