To Make My Bread

A story of the growth of the

        new South, To Make My Bread revolves around a family of Appalachian

        mountaineers—small farmers, hunters, and moonshiners—driven

        by economic conditions to the milltown and transformed into millhands,

        strikers, and rebels against the established order. Recognized as one

        of the major works on the Gastonia textile strike, Grace Lumpkin's novel

        is also important for anyone interested in cultural or feminist history

        as it deals with early generations of women radicals committed to addressing

        the difficult connections of class and race. Suzanne Sowinska's introduction

        looks at Lumpkin's volatile career and this book's critical reception.

      Originally published in 1932

      "[The book's] meaning

        rises out of people in dramatic conflict with other people and with the

        conditions of their life. . . . [Lumpkin] treats her theme with a craftsman's

        and a psychologist's respect. The novel springs naturally from its author's

        immersion in and personal knowledge of her absorbing subject material."

        -- The New York Times

      "Unpretentious . . .

        written in a simple and matter-of-fact prose, and yet reading it has been

        a more real, more satisfying experience than that which almost any other

        recent work of fiction has given me. I cannot imagine how anyone could

        read it and not be moved by it." -- The Nation

      "A beautiful and sincere

        novel, outstanding." -- The New Republic

      The late