Criticism > Short Story Criticism > Caldwell, Erskine - Erskine Caldwell with Ronald Wesley Hoag and Elizabeth Pell Broadwell (interview date 1980)

Caldwell, Erskine - Erskine Caldwell with Ronald Wesley Hoag and Elizabeth Pell Broadwell (interview date 1980)

Erskine Caldwell with Ronald Wesley Hoag and Elizabeth Pell Broadwell (interview date 1980)

SOURCE: An interview in The Georgia Review, Vol. XXXVI, No. 1, Spring, 1982, pp. 83-101.

[In the following excerpt, which is taken from an interview with Caldwell at his home in Arizona in June, 1980, the author discusses various aspects of his writing process.]

Many commentators have linked you to the tradition of Southwest Humor, as exemplified by Longstreet, Harris, Hooper, and others. Have you been an admirer of this group?

I hardly knew they existed. I can't recall his name, but there is one particular Georgia writer of maybe a hundred years ago who wrote little squibs of stories—one page, two pages, three pages long. I've seen them but I didn't read them; I don't even know what they're about. Now, several people have given me books of stories written in a vernacular or in dialect. They seem to think I should read these stories...

[The entire page is 1409 words long]

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