Wondering if anyone in this group has read any Hamlin Garland. He is largely forgotten today, but was an important writer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (he even won the Pulitzer in 1922. Basically the first American writer to write about farm life as something other than idyllic (his first collection of short stories, Main Travelled Roads, was controversial for the depressing picture it painted of American rural life.) A Son of the Middle Border is his autobiography. I found it fascinating, as it recounts his life on the frontier beginning in the 1860s (his father fought in the Civil War), his struggle to receive an education, and his ultimate success as a writer in the literary capitals of Boston and New York. Beautifully written, I thought, and especially interesting if you are into this time period, pioneer settlers, or the American literary movements of the late 19th century.

Would love to hear from anyone else who has read it!