Whose Names Are Unknown

by Sanora Babb

Book Overview

Sanora Babb's long-hidden novel Whose Names Are Unknown tells an intimate story of the High Plains farmers who fled drought dust storms during the Great Depression. Written with empathy for the farmers' plight, this powerful narrative is based upon the author's firsthand experience.

This clear-eyed and unsentimental story centers on the fictional Dunne family as they struggle to survive and endure while never losing faith in themselves...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806137126
• ISBN13: 9780806137124
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Great read all on its own

I understand that Grapes of Wrath will be discussed in connection to this book because of the publishers' decision a long time ago, but I think this book stands all on its' own and doesn't need to be connected. It's a good read, and it shows the struggles the poor went through during the depression.

Babb joins Steinbeck in her passionate, empathetic portrait of displaced Dust Bowl victims

As we learn in the Lawrence Rodgers' concise and articulate foreword to "Whose Names Are Unknown," author Sanora Babb had the uniquely unfortunate circumstance of completing her masterwork at the time of the publication of John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath." Her once enthusiastic editor, Bennett Cerf, noting the similarities between the two books, shelved the printing of Babb's novel, hypothesizing that the American public could not tolerate two novels treating similar, if not identical, characters, conflicts and themes. For nearly seventy years, "Whose Names Are Unknown" lay dormant, invisible, unacknowledged and inaccessible. Thankfully, the University of Oklahoma Press has addressed this absence, and both the novel and its author may now take their respective places as giants in American literature. "Whose Names Are Unknown" is a masterpiece. It is a soaring indictment of economic injustice just as it eloquent extols of the decency and dignity of the thousands of displaced farmers, whose lives blew away in the ferocious dust storms of the Great Depression. The novel has trenchant social commentaries, a gripping plot and characters who are painfully believable. Babb evokes the despair of economic misery and the pain of Americans becoming pariahs in their own land. "Whose Names Are Unknown" was written from the crucible of Babb's own experiences; it has a spare authenticity that "The Grapes of Wrath" does not capture. Where Steinbeck writes with great compassion, Babb writes with empathy. Both side with the dispossessed, and each deserves the widest reading audience. The Dunne family shoulders the economic and psychological burdens of the Great Depression. Often inarticulate and suspicious of language, Milt struggles for understanding; his is an odyssey of disappointment, rage and endurance. He suffers the loss of home, the agony of displacement and the indignity of prejudice. His wife, Julia, not only serves as the family's emotional anchor; she also exerts a quiet moral influence as its conscience. When she and her husband leave the family's patriarch behind to tend a wind-devastated farm, they embark on a path worn smooth by other migrants, whose pattern of life and hopes had been blighted by drought and depression. The Dunnes believes in "endurance and acceptance, the sad hard experience" which "belonged to the good." Yet simmering beneath their resignation are questions. "Why was one man with leisure to waste and another with no hour to spare?" Why does Milt "feel such hunger? Why does he hanker after the unknown?" Gradually, the Dunne family emerges as symbolic of every American displaced by the scourge of bad times and reviled for their unwanted poverty. Slowly, the Dunnes abandon hope; at first, they relinquish the dream of returning to their prairie home; eventually, they commit themselves to survival, working for a pittance, going to bed with angry, empty bellies, suffering the torment of prejudice. The Dunne chi

Touching and memorable

More vivid, more real than Grapes of Wrath. Three things struck me. Dust storm: I was especially startled by the description of the dust storm, and how wretched it must have been. Daily life:She captures the strugggle of trying to make it all work--kids, hubby, less than adequate living conditions. Fear/Desperation: really great description of workers wanting to participate in an organizing campaign, yet paralyzed with fear. That is a reality that all too many workers face today in trying to bring democracy to the workplace. Sad isn't it? Sixty years later and the problems are still the same. I was sad to take the book back to its home, in the public library, when I was done reading it.

The dust bowl brought to life in living black and white

"The dust was blowing thinly off the field and over the yard like a warn and dingy curtain flapping disconsolately at the window of the world. Through it the old man saw the faded landscape, gray and colorless except for the line of half-dead trees along the creek." (Pg. 125) Yes, I love Steinbeck, too. But certainly his Grapes of Wrath cannot be the consumate novel on the tragedy of the dust bowl era. Babb writes with such clarity and precise description that it is plain she has experienced at least some of the horrific conditions that her characters experience. And yet this book is not all gloom. There are bright spots, such as the Widow Starwood's 'gift' to the bankers who demand payment on her farm equipment after her husband dies from dust pneumonia. Somehow, some way, the people who lived through these times found reason to get up every morning and continue with life. The role of hope in the dominance of the human spirit is subtly presented again and again, juxtaposed with the harsh cruelty of Nature--and Mankind. This book is a beautifully written poignant tale of a time that was not so long ago. It is a shame it has taken this long for the book to be published and brought to the public eye. Ms. Babb, wherever you are, you have much to be proud of here.

Better Than Steinbeck?

This book was written and ready for dispersment to book stores when Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" came outin l939. Ms. Babb's publisher decided two books of the same type would not be a good idea. So this book was shelved for over 65 years. This book was inspired by the author's own work in migrant camps (Ms Babb just passed away at age 98) and based partly on her mother's account of Kansas dust storms. This book was judged "exceptionally fine" by Random House co-founder Bennet Cerf. Many reviewers called it a "long-forgotten masterpiece" and "an American classic both literary and classic". Many reviewers said it rivaled Stinbeck's novel. Ms Babb, herself, said this of Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath"--"His book is not as realistic as mine." So, give this one a try.

Better than The Grapes of Wrath?

"To John Doe and Mary Doe whose True Names are Unknown." -Legal Eviction Notice, 1930sThis is one of the best novels I have ever read about Oklahoma Panhandle farmers during the 1930s. I think is is as good as, perhaps better than, The Grapes of Wrath. I realize that is a strong statement coming from a lowly reviewer but I truly believe it to be that good.The history of the author and the story of why it has taken sixty-five years for the book to be published are remarkable. Babb was born in 1907 in Oklahoma Territory. She spent her early childhood moving from place to place with her family and worked as a printer's devil, a small town reporter, a farm magazine writer, and a rural schoolteacher. In 1929, at the age of twenty-two, she moved to Los Angeles to become an AP reporter. In 1938 she began work as a volunteer for the Farm Security Administration in the San Joaquin and Imperial Valleys. She assisted in organizing casmps for the disposed farmers that streamed into the area; many from cities and towns near the Oklahoma Panhandle where she grew up. She kept a diary of her experiences observing and assisting "...the farmers who were done dirty" and ultimately prepared a manuscript that was to become this novel. In 1939 she sent four manuscript chapters to Random House publishers. The cofounder of Random House, Bennett Cerf, read the chapters and sent Babb a check and an offer to come to New York to complete the novel. She accepted and completed the book, which Cerf intended to publish. However, before it was ready for publication The Grapes of Wrath was published and the rest is history. Cerf, as well as numerous other publishers, declined to publish a novel to compete with Steinbeck's popular work and the manuscript resided in a drawer until this publication by the University of Oklahoma Press.The book is the story of Julia and Milt Dunne and a small group of fellow farmers from Cimarron County, Oklahoma, struggling to survive the drought and depression during the 1930s and their subsequent migration to California. The story is unique in that it focuses on the the daily efforts of hardworking, proud and basically honest people that hoped for a hand up rather than a hand out: "No disgrace to be poor, but cussed unhandy. None of us people wants relief if we could get work. God knows, a man could earn more with working and be a lot happier. We've seen hundreds of people in the last few months and ain't a one of 'em wouldn't rather work his way, and trying hard to do it." By focusing on the lives of common, average folks struggling to survive in a hostile environment, Babb is able to portray the ever present generosity, compassion, decency and basic humanity of the characters in a story that transcends the sometimes bigger picture of the environmental disaster of the dust storms or the mercenary practices of the banks and units of government that failed what many characterize as the salt of the earth...the depression-era farmers.