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Whose Names are Unknown
Whose Names are Unknown: A Novel | Sanora Babb
8 posts | 7 read | 15 to read
Based upon the author's firsthand experience while working with refugee farmers in the Farm Security Administration camps of California. Born in 1907 in an Otoe Indian community in the Oklahoma Territory, Babb joined the FSA camp in California in 1938 to help uprooted farmers. She submitted the manuscript for this book in 1939, but it was shelved because of John Steinbeck's 1939 best-selling novel, The grapes of wrath.
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Tamra
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Pickpick

Babb does an excellent job humanizing the dust bowl & depression. I learned quite a bit, especially about the migrant camps and how exploitive & dangerous they could be. 😞

Pretty crappy how her research was likely used by Steinbeck without credit and then she couldn‘t get her book published after Grapes of Wrath was released.

Bookwormjillk Wow, I've never heard that. Must read. 11mo
Cathythoughts Great review ! This is a beautiful cover too. 💚 11mo
59 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Soubhiville
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A book I plan to read this month. I‘ve read another by this author, An Owl on Every Post, and enjoyed it. Posting today for #curiouscovers, red and white, and for #littenlisten as I‘ll be listening to the audiobook 😊📚.

Eggs This sounds so good ♥️⚪️♥️ 3y
55 likes1 comment
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Bookzombie
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Here are my #Bookspin and #Doublespin for December.

After looking at my copy of The Stand, I decided to check it out from the library on my Kindle. The print seems really small. 🤓

vivastory Solid plan for The Stand. I took a couple of weeks to read it partially because the print in the edition I read seemed small at times. 3y
TheAromaofBooks Oh my that's quite the chunkster!! 3y
Reggie Because @vivastory reviewed this the other day I spent 6 hours in our renewed quarantine watching The Stand miniseries from the early 90‘s on YouTube. It surprisingly still holds up. Hope you like it. 3y
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Bookzombie @vivastory Thanks! It will probably take me that long too. 3y
Bookzombie @Reggie I can‘t imagine I won‘t. I like most if not all I have read of King‘s. I have the old Salem‘s Lot and The Shining movies from the library but I haven‘t been able to make myself sit and watch them. Are you going to check out the new CBS mini-series of The Stand? 3y
50 likes6 comments
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Bookzombie
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I ordered these three for Christmas gifts. The two on the right are for our nephew and the one on the left is for my hubby. (Don‘t worry he isn‘t on Litsy.)

My husband and I loved The Grapes of Wrath. The tagged book should have been published at the same time. Steinbeck‘s came out first and Babb‘s languished on the shelf for years.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/forgotten-dust-bowl-novel-rivaled-gr...

Tamra Now that‘s intriguing! 5y
Bookzombie @Tamra I planned to read it after he does. 😁 5y
Tamra @Bookzombie very smart! 😉 5y
65 likes1 stack add3 comments
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BeckyWithTheGoodBooks
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Babb's novel about the Dust Bowl and migrant farm workers was finally published in 2004 after her editor at Random House decided that the market wouldn't support two Dust Bowl novels and tore up her contract. Steinbeck went on to win the Pulitzer for "Grapes of Wrath," and Babb's novel sat on the shelf for 65 years. #rockinmay #dustinthewind

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lmcd
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Pickpick

This was excellent. Desperate and heartbreaking and yet hopeful. I don't often read books slowly, but I made this one last. If you've never heard of this author, look her up. Sounds like a fascinating woman with an amazing story. Can't wait to read her other books.

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lmcd
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Absolutely loving this book. Heartbreaking, of course...

8 likes1 stack add
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mrldg

Tough read, but a classic about the dust bowl era.