Erskine Caldwell (1903-1987) was an American writer, known for his portrayals of poverty, racism, and social problems in the South. His novels Tobacco Road (1932) and God's Little Acre (1933) won him critical acclaim. He wrote a total of 25 novels, 150 short stories, twelve nonfiction collections, two autobiographies, and two books for young readers.
Published in 1930, Poor Fool was Erskine Caldwell's second novel. Like most of his fiction, it revolves around a gallery of grotesque characters motivated by the basest urges. The novel's central figure is Blondy Niles, a down-and-out boxer who exists at the very fringes of society. The garish nighttime world of bars and prostitutes, con men and petty crimes is the milieu in which he moves. When he is approached by Salty Banks to be an unwitting fall guy in a rigged boxing scheme, a calamitous chain of events is set in motion, and death is the inevitable result. Caldwell himself likened Poor Fool to a "diabolical dream." Written early in his career, it foreshadows many of the themes that were to characterize his later novels.
New York: Rariora Press, 1930. Limited edition, no. 210 of 1,000, illustrations by Alexander Couard. No dust jacket; blue cloth with gilt on cover and spine; spine and outer edges faded; endpapers lightly browned. Binding tight; text clean and bright. G+
Erskine Caldwell (1903-1987) was an American writer, known for his portrayals of poverty, racism, and social problems in the South. His novels Tobacco Road (1932) and God's Little Acre (1933) won him critical acclaim. He wrote a total of 25 novels, 150 short stories, twelve nonfiction collections, two autobiographies, and two books for young readers.
Published in 1930, Poor Fool was Erskine Caldwell's second novel. Like most of his fiction, it revolves around a gallery of grotesque characters motivated by the basest urges. The novel's central figure is Blondy Niles, a down-and-out boxer who exists at the very fringes of society. The garish nighttime world of bars and prostitutes, con men and petty crimes is the milieu in which he moves. When he is approached by Salty Banks to be an unwitting fall guy in a rigged boxing scheme, a calamitous chain of events is set in motion, and death is the inevitable result. Caldwell himself likened Poor Fool to a "diabolical dream." Written early in his career, it foreshadows many of the themes that were to characterize his later novels.
New York: Rariora Press, 1930. Limited edition, no. 210 of 1,000, illustrations by Alexander Couard. No dust jacket; blue cloth with gilt on cover and spine; spine and outer edges faded; endpapers lightly browned. Binding tight; text clean and bright. G+
