Strange
Fruit by
Lillian Smith
It's August, it's
hot, it's revival time in Maxwell, Georgia. Tracy Deen, the rebel
child who always disappoints his self-sacrificing mother, returns
home from World War I. It is clear as day, once he is able to put
his feelings into words, that he loves Nonnie Anderson. But Tracy
Deen is white and Nonnie Anderson isn't. She's from one of the
best colored families in Maxwell, even college educated, but she
isn't white; and now she's pregnant with Tracy's child and she's
glad. Nonnie's brother and sister try to make Nonnie see the
problems they all now face. Maxwell is a town where, on the
surface, people know their place. But after a white man is
murdered in the black part of town, fear takes over and a
vigilante group soon appears. A young man laments: "Right
now, I have some ideas...If I stay here twenty years, I won't have
them. Now I see things without color getting in the way - I won't
be able to, then. It'll get me. It gets us all. Like quicksand.
The more you struggle, the deeper you sink in it - I'm damned
scared to stay -." Strange Fruit, written fifty years
ago, confronts problems that have yet to be resolved, that need to
be read about and acted upon. -- From 500
Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith
One
Hour by
Lillian Smith, Margaret Rose Gladney (Introduction)
Southern novelist and activist Lillian Smith
(1897-1966) considered One Hour her best work of fiction.
The novel, originally published in 1959 and long out of print,
brilliantly depicts the destructive effects of mass hysteria on
the people of a small southern town. The protagonist is an
Episcopal minister who chronicles a series of tragic events set in
motion when his closest friend, a gifted scientist, is unjustly
accused of molesting a young girl. The novel's tensions culminate
in an eruption of violence and hate that destroys the community.
In a new introduction, Rose Gladney places One Hour in its
historical context and highlights its enduring meaning for today's
readers.
About the author: The
late Lillian Smith was author of several books, including Strange
Fruit, a best-selling interracial love story, and Killers
of the Dream, an autobiographical critique of southern
race relations.
