Flood Year 1927

Susan Scott Parrish is Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Program in the Environment at the University of Michigan. She is the author of American Curiosity: Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British Atlantic World.

• List of Illustrations ix Introduction 1 1 Modern Overflow 20 Disaster's Public 53 2 A Northern Army of Relief 66 3 Cross Talk in the Press 95 4 Bessie's Eclogue 125 5 Catastrophe Comes to Vaudeville 147 Modernism within a Second Nature 179 6 William Faulkner and the Machine Age Watershed 191 7 Richard Wright: Environment, Media, and Race 243 Conclusion: Noah's Kin 277 Acknowledgments 291 Notes 297 Permissions Acknowledgments 369 Index 371

"Using vivid explanations of key literary and musical works complemented by contemporary illustrations, Parrish ... successfully demonstrates that the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 left a lasting, modernizing cultural imprint... A thoughtful comparison of 1927's events to 2005's Hurricane Katrina aftermath highlights continuing issues concerning the manipulation of natural flood controls and its effect on impoverished, low-lying neighborhoods. Throughout, Parrish successfully and eloquently captures the sense of humanity and personal loss among the million refugees whose experiences gave rise to artistic efforts and environmental issues that continue to resonate."--Publishers Weekly "Parrish's ... deeply researched narrative ... rewards dedicated general readers. It requires no doctorate to appreciate her rendering of the remarkable back story to Bessie Smith's 'Backwater Blues'; her insightful discussion of the trauma's conversion into enduring works of literary fiction by William Faulkner, Richard Wright, and Zora Neale Hurston; her analysis of the persistent North/South hostility that complicated relief efforts; and her survey of 1927's vaudeville scene, from the subversive African-American stars Miller and Lyles to the high-profile, widely influential, and, in the author's telling, somewhat problematic Will Rogers. As a cubist might, Parrish paints a multifaceted portrait of catastrophe: sometimes puzzling, often surprising, and wholly original."--Kirkus