Meredith Nicholson a Writing Life by Ralph D

84 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY comers settled directly in the biggest between 1880 and 1920, and its econ- cities—Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and omy thrived. He also overlooks the Louisville. relatively small size of Evansville’s The author also incorrectly black community, as compared with attributes the post-1900 declension upriver Cincinnati and Louisville, in Evansville’s black population to the where a critical mass supported black race riot of 1903. Violence influenced businesses and professions, despite a settlement patterns in the Ohio Val- history of violence against blacks. ley generally, but more telling was the A Little More Freedom, in short, growth of Jim Crow policies—for offers much information about example, the creation of restrictive African American settlement in the covenants in real estate transactions. lower Midwest prior to 1910. Most settlements along both sides of Whether the book offers a new inter- the Ohio, moreover, experienced pop- pretation of this period remains to be ulation decline or stagnation—white seen. as well as black—after 1890, reflect- ing limited local job opportunities DARREL E. BIGHAM is emeritus profes- and the appeal of industrial employ- sor of history and director of Historic ment to the north. Evansville, Cincin- Southern Indiana at the University of nati, and Louisville were notable Southern Indiana. His most recent exceptions. Blocker incorrectly attrib- book is On Jordan’s Banks: The After- utes blacks’ departure from the for- math of Emancipation in the Ohio River mer city to its lack of prosperity, when Valley (2006). in fact Evansville tripled in size Meredith Nicholson A Writing Life By Ralph D. Gray (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2007. Pp. 281. Illustrations. $19.95.) In the early 1900s, Meredith Nichol- name is barely recognized—a fact that son was a household name, not just Ralph D. Gray has sought to remedy in Indiana, but in most homes of lit- with his biography, Meredith Nichol- erate Americans. Acclaimed for his son: A Writing Life. best-selling romantic adventure nov- Gray, professor emeritus of his- els, he was one of four central figures tory at Indiana University-Purdue in Indiana’s golden age of literature, University Indianapolis, is best alongside James Whitcomb Riley, known for his scholarship on the his- Booth Tarkington, and George Ade. tory of transportation and the histo- Now, a century later, Nicholson’s ry of Indiana, which has included REVIEWS 85 brief examinations of Nicholson. He Gray effectively captures Nicholson’s also recently collected his favorite fading glory as novelist—unable to examples of Nicholson’s essays and successfully navigate the shift in read- articles in A Meredith Nicholson Read- ers’ and critics’ tastes from romantic er (2007). Here, however, in what is, to realistic fiction—and his rising rep- surprisingly, the first full biography utation as a statesman and as a polit- of the author’s life, Gray provides a ical and social writer. These new roles meticulously researched, richly brought their own difficulties: Along detailed history of Nicholson’s life as with an unsuccessful bid for the state both author and diplomat. senate, Nicholson was one of Indi- Seven chapters chronicle the ana’s few publicly outspoken critics development of Nicholson from of the Ku Klux Klan. This unsettling ninth-grade dropout into newspaper period of his life ended with the death and magazine journalist, poet, state of his wife Eugenie, but he soon historian, novelist, essayist, and (in remarried and entered eight years of one unsuccessful attempt) play- diplomatic service in Paraguay, wright. While romantic adventure Venezuela, and Nicaragua. novels dominated Nicholson’s The book concludes with a syn- tremendous output of 29 books, Gray opsis of the years following Nichol- asserts in the introduction that “his son’s return to the United States in finest writing, and his most substan- 1941. The chapter has an unavoid- tial and enduring contributions to ably melancholy tone, as Nicholson American letters, can be found in his tries to reestablish a home and a writ- essays and articles” (p. 5). Neverthe- ing career in his beloved Indiana, less, Gray gives his highest praise to despite loneliness and a collapsing The Hoosiers (1900), “a remarkably marriage. Yet Gray asserts the import full and detailed study of Indiana’s lit- of Nicholson’s stature and reputation erary, social, and political culture” in Indianapolis until his death in (p. 63); The House of a Thousand Can- 1947, at the age of 81. dles (1905), a mystery/adventure While the book’s subject matter novel and his most popular book; and may seem to be of interest only to stu- A Hoosier Chronicle (1913), which dents of Indiana literature and histo- Gray considers to be Nicholson’s ry, its significance as the first–and “most significant” and probably best undoubtedly only–biography of this novel, as well as his first venture into once major American author and realism. public figure is not to be overlooked. Three other chapters chronicle Nor is Gray’s expert handling of his Nicholson’s political career, beginning subject matter. He avoids the com- in the 1920s with a chaotic and trans- mon tendency to divide Nicholson’s formative decade of his life that other life into two distinct halves, as writer biographers have failed to address. and statesman. Rather, as Gray’s sub- 86 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY title makes clear, he unifies the whole son “the last leaf on a famous literary of Nicholson’s career into “a writing tree that grew in Indiana” (p. 243). life.” The result is a coherent, com- Thanks to Ralph Gray’s insistence that pelling study with only minor short- the life and work of Meredith Nichol- comings: a few instances of unwieldy son are still worth considering, prose that is otherwise is clear and despite the shifting literary winds of elegant, and, in discussion of events the last century, Nicholson’s place on spanning 1938 to 1943, a few con- that tree will remain secure. fusing shifts in chronology. Such laps- es are negligible, however, in light of BARBARA A. STEDMAN is Director of the book’s sizable contributions to National and International Scholar- Indiana’s literary and historical schol- ships and Honors Fellow for the Hon- arship. ors College, Ball State University. As Gray recalls in his final chapter, the New York Times called Nichol- Steel Shavings, Volume 39 Brothers in Arms Edited by James B. Lane (Gary: Indiana University Northwest, 2008. 240 pages. Illustrations, index. Paperbound, $12.50.) In this latest volume of the Steel Shav- “lessons of Vietnam”—from the haz- ings series—a social history journal ards of misunderstanding vital nation- focusing on the Calumet region of al interest to the absence of a clearly northwest Indiana—historian James defined exit strategy—by using the B. Lane has again woven together a reminiscences of the working-class thought-provoking, often entertain- men and women who paid for those ing, and at times tragic collection of mistakes in southeast Asia. Now, oral histories and recollections from twenty years later, with the United Vietnam veterans. The series first fea- States again groping for answers in tured the stirring voices of local Viet- another unconventional war, Lane’s nam veterans in 1988, when history students have gathered together students at Indiana University North- another album of visceral testimony west compiled oral interviews in con- in the hopes of revisiting many of junction with Professor Lane’s course those apparently still unheeded les- on the war. At a time when Reagan- sons of Vietnam. era revisionists were attempting to As one soldier explains, every recast the Vietnam conflict as a noble veteran has his own story; no two are and winnable endeavor, Lane and his the same. Indeed the real value of this students intended to reinforce the real Steel Shavings volume rests in the.

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