A lost gem of twentieth-century literature, Josephine Johnson's 1934
Pulitzer Prize-winning "exquisite...heartbreakingly real" (The New York
Times Book Review) novel follows a year in the life of a family
struggling to survive the Dust Bowl.
Published when Josephine Johnson was only twenty-four years old, Now in
November made Johnson the youngest ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize in
1935. It is a beautifully told account of one farming family's
challenges to scrape by and earn a living from mortgaged land over the
course of a single year, narrated by one of three sisters--the
introspective and thoughtful Margaret. As the household is ravaged by
Depression-era hardship and the environmental blights of the Dust Bowl,
the family's unique vulnerabilities are pushed to a breaking point.
In a style typical of Johnson's body of work, Now in November is
strikingly ahead of its time, grappling with questions of mental health,
worker's rights, as well as gender, race, and class and is ready to be
rediscovered by a new generation of readers.