Children of Strangers (Pelican Pouch) - Softcover

Lyle Saxon; Chance Harvey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1455615420 ISBN 13: 9781455615421

Publisher: Pelican Publishing Co. (US), 2011

Synopsis

Children of Strangers is the powerful and moving novel of love in a community bound by race and class. Famie is a mulatto girl whose ancestorsfree blacksrivaled the white planters in wealth and culture. But on a Louisiana plantation in the 1920s, she is an outcast, rejected by whites because of her black ancestors and unwilling to associate with the sharecroppers who are descendants of slaves. An illicit love affair with a white landowner leaves her with a son, Joel. Her dream is that Joel will someday become accepted into white society. But in her struggle to transcend race and class, Famie must sacrifice the last links to her past.

About this title

About the Authors

Lyle Saxon (1891-1946) ranks among Louisiana's most outstanding writers. During the 1920s and 1930s he was the central figure in the regionís literary community, and was widely known as a raconteur and bon vivant. In addition to Father Mississippi, Lafitte the Pirate, and Children of Strangers, he also wrote Fabulous New Orleans, Old Louisiana, The Friends of Joe Gilmore, and was a co-author of Gumbo Ya-Ya, with Edward Dreyer and Robert Tallant. During the Depression, he directed the state WPA Writers Project, which produced the WPA Guide to Louisiana and the WPA Guide to New Orleans.

Chance Harvey was a student at Tulane University when she came across a collection of letters addressed to Lyle Saxon. These letters began a fascination with Saxon that led her to a life-long passion and resulted in Saxon's biography, The Life and Selected Letters of Lyle Saxon, also published by Pelican. Harvey resides in Tylertown, Mississippi.

From the Back Cover

Lyle Saxon's only novel vividly captures the lives of the people who inhabit the Louisiana Cane River plantation community, which served as a crucible for race relations in the early twentieth century. The story revolves around Famie, a Creole girl whose ancestors-free people of color-rivaled the white planters in wealth and culture.

With the end of slavery, Famie is an outcast, scorned by the whites because of her mixed heritage and unwilling to associate with the sharecroppers who are descendants of slaves. An illicit love affair with a white outlaw leaves Famie with a son, Joel. Her dream is for Joel to someday prosper in white society. Famie's struggle to survive within a rigid caste system defined by race and class clearly distinguishes this neglected masterpiece of American fiction.

Lyle Saxon (1891-1946) ranks among Louisiana's most outstanding writers. He is also the author of Lafitte the Pirate, Fabulous New Orleans, Old Louisiana, Father Mississippi: The Story of the Great Flood of 1927, and The Friends of Joe Gilmore and coauthor of Gumbo Ya-Ya: Folk Tales of Louisiana. All are published by Pelican.

A foreword by Chance Harvey has been included in this new edition. While a student at Tulane University, Harvey came across a collection of letters addressed to Saxon that became the focus of her dissertation on him, for which she won the John T. Monroe Fellowship for Dissertation Research. She has published her research as The Life and Selected Letters of Lyle Saxon with Pelican.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pelican Publishing Co. (US)
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1455615420
• ISBN 13: 9781455615421
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320