Riding like the wind, p.41
Riding Like the Wind, page 41
Smith, Corabel (“Cora”): and Jennie’s social circle, 58; running the Elkhart Tri-State News, and SB’s start in newspapers, 52–53, 65, 70; and the Spanish flu epidemic, 65; taking in SB as family, 52, 60; and Walt’s gambling addiction, 60; and World War I, 61, 306n53
Smith, Patricia Clark, 287
Smith, Patti, 1
Southern Kansas Railway, 9
Soviet Union: non-aggression pact with Germany (1939), 186; Steinbeck’s trip to, 315n24. See also Soviet Union tour group (1936)
Soviet Union tour group (1936): appendicitis of SB, 147–48, 316n41; the arts as social value, 145, 154; curated experiences as blinding the Americans to the atrocities behind the idealized façade, 145–46, 151, 154; in fascist Germany and Berlin, 143–44, 149, 151, 152, 154, Fig. 14; in fascist Poland and Warsaw, 144–45, 149, 151; gender equality observed by SB, 146, 147–48, 150, 154–55; hair cut in Paris, 149–50; hospitals and medical system tours, 146; and Howe, SB’s correspondence during, 146–47; Howe’s insistence on SB’s return from, 148, 149, 151; Howe’s money paying for, 139, 143; Intourist (Soviet company) as organizing, 139, 145–46, 315n12; invitation to SB to join, 136–37; in Kiev, 144, 145–46, 147–48, Fig. 15; Herb Kline as guide, 136, 143, 145, 148–49; Kline meeting with Howe prior to, 139; Leningrad theater festival, 147, 148; model farm tours, 145–46, 150–51, 155, 160, Fig. 15; in Moscow, 146, 148–49; in Paris, 143, 149–50, Fig. 13; pregnancy scare of SB, 147, 316n38; Red Scare FBI investigation of SB and, 222; SB’s friendship with Dr. Fera, 147–48; SB’s friendship with Helen Riesenfeld, 143, 147, 149, 150
Spanish Civil War, 151–52, 195
Spanish influenza epidemic, 63–65
“Spring Wooing,” 117
Stalin, Joseph, 146, 151, 222
Stanford, Ann: Magellan, 254; reading with SB at the Unicorn, 254, 327n20; and SB as presenter at Associated Writing Programs Conference (1985), 287, 330n1; on SB as representing the truth about life, 3
starvation: conditions of SB’s family in Eastern Colorado, 21–22, 27, 29, 37–41, 43–44, 47, 195; as dispensing with “rugged individualism,” 29; of Dust Bowl refugees, 161, 165, 169–70, 175–76; health problems of SB due to childhood history of, 22, 195; newspaper work saving SB in Salt Lake City, 134; Whose Names Are Unknown depictions of, 175–76
Stegner, Wallace, 1
Steinbeck, Carol, as deeply involved in creating Grapes of Wrath, 177
Steinbeck, John: articles published on the plight of Dust Bowl refugees, 171; character based on, in SB’s Whose Names Are Unknown, 183–84, 320n45; death of, 183; “How Edith McGillicuddy Met Robert Louis Stevenson,” 293; Of Mice and Men, 171, 180; and positionality of the researcher, 1; previous accusations of borrowing women’s stories and ideas, 293; A Russian Journal, 315n24; “Their Blood Is Strong,” 171. See also Grapes of Wrath, The (John Steinbeck)
Steinbeck Review, 293–94
Stetson, G. Henry: abusive relationship with SB, 110–11, 114, 116; gift of luxurious solo travel to Central America, 111–13
Stevenson, Philip, 227
Stevens, Wallace, “the intelligence of the soil,” 92
Stewart, James, 272
stock market crash (1929), 97–98, 99
“Storyteller’s Street,” 264
“The Stranger.” See The Lost Traveler
Taggard, Genevieve, 196, 209, 215, 225, 226
Tauroq, Norman, 153
“The Tea Party,” 245–46, 326n15
television, An Owl on Every Post publicity tour, 280
Temple, Miss (and school in Elkhart), 54–55
“The Terror,” 128–29, 136, 151
Thalberg, Irving, SB turning down offer from, 102–3, 104–5, 311n21
“That Presence Out There,” 267, 329n34
theater. See plays and the theater
The Dark Earth and Selected Prose from the Great Depression (short story collection, 2021), 146, 287, 296
Thomas, Dylan, Under Milkwood, 237, 238
Timmerman, Elizabeth, 228–29
“To L___,” 90
Told in the Seed (poetry collection published by West End Press), 290
Told in the Seed and Selected Poems (poetry collection), 296
Tolstoy, Leo, 86
“To Toby,” 92
Traven, B. (aka Hal Croves), 223–24, 283; in California Quarterly, 224, 227–28; “A Legend of Huehuetonoc,” 224; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 223
Trumbo, Dalton, 221, 224; in California Quarterly, 227–28
Turner, Frederick Jackson, 31–32, 50
Two Buttes, Colorado: Doctor Verity, 35, 37, 42; and journey to Baca County, 20–21; J. V. Sayler’s general store and pharmacy, 31, 35, 44; Mrs. Denny’s Royal Café, 35; as nearest town to Alonzo’s homestead, 26, 30–31
Two Buttes Mountain, 20–21, 24, 25, 97
Unicorn (coffeehouse), 254, 327n20
United Nations Literary Pool, 226
University of California at Los Angeles, SB teaching short-story classes, 254–55, 263, 264
University of Nebraska Press, as publisher of The Cry of the Tinamou (short story collection), 290
University of New Mexico Press: republishing The Lost Traveler (1995), 289; republishing An Owl on Every Post (1994), 289
University of Oklahoma Press: Unknown No More: Recovering Sanora Babb (eds. Joanne Dearcopp and Christine Hill Smith, 2021), 297; Whose Names Are Unknown (2004), 175, 291–92, 293, 296
Unknown No More: Recovering Sanora Babb (eds. Joanne Dearcopp and Christine Hill Smith, 2021), 297
Van Dyke, W. S., 115
Van Riper, Kay, 100–101, 106, 130, 141
Vanzetti, Bartolomeo, Nicola Sacco, execution of, 88, 100
Vidor, Charles, 260
Vienna, Austria: arrival of SB in, 257, 258–59; Howe on location for Song without End: The Story of Franz Liszt, 257, 258–59, 260; and Mozart, SB’s interest in, 259; renting a typewriter, 259; writing work of SB, 259–60
Villa, José García, 109, 312n51
“The Vindication of Sanora Babb” (Ed Vulliamy, 2021), 297
“The Vine by the Root Embraced,” 215
voting rights for women: interwar attainment of, 85–86; Kansas (1912), 52; “suffragette” used as derogatory term, SB’s rejection of, 93–94
Vulliamy, Ed, “The Vindication of Sanora Babb” (2021), 297
Wagner, Edith, 293
Wald, Alan, 136, 222, 224, 288; essay accompanying SB’s short story collection (The Cry of the Tinamou), 290
Waldeen (Waldeen von Falkenstein): as “American Communist Group in Mexico” (ACGM), 224–25; friendship with SB, 215, 224; Mexico City national ballet and school of modern dance, 215, 220–21; SB staying with husband Asa Zatz and, 225, 227, 325n15; social circle of, 224, 283; translator of Pablo Neruda, 221, 324n1
Ward, Mary Jane, The Snake Pit, 231
Warner Brothers building (Los Angeles), employment of SB via: Film Daily reviews, 101, 103, 104–6; ghostwriting screenplays from the public domain, and sale of Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman, 107–8, 311–12n30; stories sold to Talk of the Town, 101; Irving Thalberg, turning down offer from, 102–3, 104–5, 311n21, Fig. 10. See also KFWB radio, employment of SB
Warner, Sam, 100
Warsaw, Poland: arrest of SB’s tour group, 144; fascism and anti-Semitism (1936), 144–45, 149, 151
Waynoka, Oklahoma, 16–17, 20, 31, 59, Fig. 5. See also Red Rock, Oklahoma
Webb, Walter Prescott, The Great Plains, 26
The Week (London), SB as co-editor challenging fascism, 151–52, 154–55, 195
West End Press, as publisher of Told in the Seed (poetry collection), 290
the West, SB as writing against the grain of the myths of: and Kit Carson stories, exposure to, 31–32; “land ethic” of SB, 29, 287, 302n14; rugged individualism, starvation as dispensing with, 29; women’s agency and voice and, 32, 136. See also gender norms challenged by SB; women’s agency and voice, SB as centering
Wharton, Marian, 125
Whose Names Are Unknown: overview, 301n28; agency of women portrayed in, 173, 176, 197; Baca County, Eastern Colorado as source for, 21; as bestseller, 296; Melissa Blake typing new copy and encouraging publication, 236; Tom Collins–based character in, 175; comparisons of Grapes of Wrath to, 177, 180, 182, 197, 293–94; diversity of refugees and, 174; “Dry Summer” as introducing characters Ronny and Myra, 117–18; The Dustbowl documentary by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan featuring extensive excerpts from SB’s notes and reports, 2, 294–96; dust storms returning to the Panhandle area and relevance of, 239, 243–44; editing final version for publication, 290–91; Ralph Ellison critique of, 194, 196–97, 236; Pauline Hodges and, 295; images constructed with words, 160; Kansas Magazine publishing excerpt from (1942), 194; Michigan Quarterly Review publishing excerpt from (1990), 288; miscarriage of pregnant refugee, 42, 176, 197; multicultural and multiethnic environment, and their interracial class struggle, 176–77; New York City sojourn to finish writing, 179, 319n35; plot based on SB’s firsthand experiences, 42, 167–68, 175–76, 183–84; plot of, 167–68, 173–77; and positionality of the researcher, 2–3, 4; prejudice and hate toward refugees (“Okies”), 175, 176, 183–84, 294; realization that she must depict the farmers prior to the disaster (humanization), 160–61, 175; research for (See Dust Bowl refugees looking for work; Farm Security Administration); return from her Soviet Union tour and commitment to, 155; review in Steinbeck Review, 293–94; and solution of labor banding together, 176–77; starvation depictions, 175–76; Steinbeck-based character in, 183–84, 320n45; Steinbeck’s lack of knowledge of, 183; title of, 158, 173; University of Oklahoma Press as publisher (2004), 175, 291–92, 293, 296; as upending conventional pieties of American identity, 175; writing while also volunteering with FSA, 166, 170
—PUBLICATION DIFFICULTIES OF: and confidence stripped from SB as writer, 182, 187, 194, 285, 287–88, 290; Crown interest with request for rewrite (Millen Brand), 239; depression of SB due to loss of Random House contract, 186; and erasure of SB’s varied perspective, 185, 236, 285, 286, 298; and new novel, difficulty of working on, 194; new revision, plans for, 243; persistence of SB in seeking support for, 184, 193, 194, 285; publisher interest in, 118–19, 132, 158, 167, 180, 287–88, 290, 312n51; publisher refusals after Grapes of Wrath published, 181–82; Random House contract for, and cancelation, 173, 179–81; recovery from writer’s block and writing short stories, 194; Reynal & Company (Eugene Reynal), revision suggestions for, 253–54; SB as downplaying the extent of damage done by Steinbeck’s use of her notes, 285–86; SB as nearly giving up on, 197; “she deserved better” (Dayton Duncan), 296; success of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and inability of SB to publish, 180–82, 184, 193, 285–86. See also Grapes of Wrath, The (John Steinbeck)—appropriation of Babbs’s material
Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway, 65–66
Wichita people, 7
Wilder, Laura Ingalls, On the Banks of Plum Creek, 22
“The Wild Flower,” 226
“William Shakespeare,” 89–90, 225–26
Williams, Tennessee: The Rose Tattoo, 242; This Property Is Condemned, 272
“Winter in Town,” 142, 151
Wixson, Doug: on gender norms for women, 249; introduction to The Lost Traveler, 56, 249, 289; and leftist politics of SB, 100; on little magazines, 109; on SB as growing away from the Communist Party, 254; on SB as participant observer, 167; SB on Stanley Rose’s Bookshop, 311n28; SB on the First Writers’ Congress and journey, 128, 130; on SB’s earliest essay (“How to Handle Men”), 56; on SB’s power of observation, 70; supporting publication of Whose Names Are Unknown, 290–91; on trust of migrants for SB, 169; Worker-Writer in America, 289. See also On the Dirty Plate Trail: Remembering the Dust Bowl Refugee Camps (Doug Wixson)
Wolfe, Bonnie, and the writing group, 323n26
Wolf, Harriet, as SB’s literary agent: closing her business and ending relationship with SB, 246; hiring of, 208; introducing SB to London agent Patience Ross, 246; and The Lost Traveler, 210, 218, 236–37, 239, 240–41, 246; and short stories, 208, 214–15, 245; and Whose Names Are Unknown, 239. See also Abbot, Mary; Ross, Patience
women’s agency and voice, SB as centering: gender norms bent in, 136, 204, 205; Meridel Le Sueur’s praise for, 135; in The Lost Traveler, 203–4, 205–6; in reportage, 129, 148; SB as feminist writer who did not see herself that way, 135–36, 262; in “A Scandalous Humility,” 274–75; the Soviet Union and gender equality, 148; and the West, SB as writing against the grain of the myths of, 32, 136; in Whose Names Are Unknown, 173–74, 176. See also gender norms challenged by SB; prostitution and prostitutes
women’s stories: from the 1930s, generally not published until decades later, 205–6, 323n9; and blacklisting during the Red Scare, 4; and the postwar “Silent Decade,” 4, 249–50; previous accusations of Steinbeck as borrowing, 293
Women without Men (screenplay written by SB and William Saroyan), 110
wonder. See nature as solace
Wood, Natalie, 273
Woolf, Leonard, 237
Woolf, Virginia, A Writer’s Diary, 237–38
workers’ rights. See labor organizing
the world, SB’s desire to see: the Central American trip as fully awakening, 111, 113; “honeymoon” trip in Europe (Howe and SB), 152; nature as inspiration for, 25–26, 49; train whistles as call to freedom, 51, 95, 204. See also Soviet Union tour group; specific places
World War I, 60–62, 65, 86, 87, 306n53; as subject of SB’s writings, 73–74, 86–87
World War II: The Clipper shut down, 227; destruction in Vienna, 259; end of the war, 206, 207, 323n12; films made during, 200, 322n54; Hitler’s rise in Europe, 143–44, 149, 151, 152, 154, 186; Japan, U.S. war with, 191–92, 194–95, 206, 323n12; Lotus Ma and, 210–11, 212; SB’s volunteer work (“mink brigade”), 195; SB turned down for enlistment, 195. See also fascism; Red Scare
Wright, Richard, 130–31, 189; Native Son, 131, 189
Writers’ Congress. See League of American Writers
writing group: by correspondence while traveling, 228, 257–58, 259; critiques of The Lost Traveler, 231–32; critiques of An Owl on Every Post, 269; critiques of short stories in, 228, 232, 245, 255; Joanne Dearcopp brought by SB to, 281; faithful attendance by SB, 265, 287; formation of, 212–13; members of, 323n26, Fig. 18; the night they sang together, 213; as pillar of protection and support for SB for forty years, 213, 269
Wylie, Eleanor, Nets to Catch in the Wind, 85
“Young Boy, the World,” 187
Young, Noel (Capra Press), The Dark Earth and Selected Prose from the Great Depression, 146, 287, 296
Zatz, Asa, 225, 234, 325n15
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Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Riding Like the Wind
