Richly authentic and lyrically descriptive, "Lamb in His Bosom" pays poignant tribute to a woman's life lived on the line between the nature outside her and the nature within. Married two decades before the Civil War, Cean Smith learns to navigate material and social hardships as she stands witness to cycles of marriage, birth, and death in this transcendent tale of love and loss. "Lamb in His Bosom" received the Pulitzer in 1934.
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Richly authentic and lyrically descriptive, "Lamb in His Bosom" pays poignant tribute to a woman's life lived on the line between the nature outside her and the nature within. Married two decades before the Civil War, Cean Smith learns to navigate material and social hardships as she stands witness to cycles of marriage, birth, and death in this transcendent tale of love and loss. "Lamb in His Bosom" received the Pulitzer in 1934.
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Very Good in Very Good jacket. Book. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Standard-size hardback with a dust jacket, now protected in a new archival-quality, removable Mylar plastic cover. This copy has a "read-only-once" look & feel. Stored in sealed plastic protection and mailed (bubble-wrapped) in a sturdy Jiffy Rigi Bag envelope. We ship daily from Roswell, Ga. Serving satisfied customers since 1999. 355 pages.
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The Pulitzer Prize for fiction generally is awarded to novels that celebrate the diverse character or ideals of American life. In 1934, "Lamb in his Bosom", an unusual first novel by an unknown southern writer, Caroline Miller, received the Prize and became a best-seller. Miller (1903 -- 1992) continued to write through her life, but she never duplicated her initial success.
"Lamb in his Bosom" is a historical novel set in rural south Georgia from about 1840 to the end of the Civil War. The setting is rarely explored in history or in literature; Miller brings it to life. Pioneers from North Carolina and Kentucky migrated to this remote area, full of swamps and pine forests and established hardscrabble farms. The population was sparse and life was hard.
Miller's novel covers the lives of several generations of the pioneering farmers. Her primary character is a woman Cean Smith, who at 15 marries an older man, Lonzo, and begins life with him in a cabin six miles from her family, the nearest neighbors. She helps Lonzo with the farm work, keeps the house, and over the marriage bears 13 children, 8 of which survive. The farm is self-sufficient, run entirely by husband and wife. There were no slaves in this part of Georgia, whose population consisted of small, yeoman farmers. Once each year Lonzo and other men travel 80 miles to the Georgia "Coast" to engage in barter. Miller threads Cean's story into the life of the community, particularly her parents and siblings. Her brother, Lias, marries a woman he meets on the coast, Margot, whom his family fears will be of questionable virtue. Problems in the marriage result instead from Lias' own wandering, violence, and unfaithfulness.
Miller recreates beautifully the dialect of the place and time. The speech patterns are worth preserving and draw the reader into the story while making for slow reading. Miller offers beautifully descriptive passages of the nature and wildness that formed the settlers' lot -- including the swamps, capricious weather, animals, and snakes. She also offers a convincing portrayal of the rigors of farm life, from planting to cutting wood, to travel, and, especially bearing and raising many children.
The book centers on the travails of life. During her first pregnancy, Cean is bitten by a rattlesnake and nearly dies. The pregnancies are always life-threatening. Many people die during the course of the book. Injuries from animals, momentary carelessness with an ax, and fire, for example, are rampant.
Miller shows the gradual development and growth of the region. As the Civil War approaches, the population increases, and more formalized religion and education come into the area. When her husband dies, Cean gradually develops a relationship with a New Light minister, Dermid O'Connor. The religious nature of the simple farm pioneers receives much emphasis in the book.
"Lamb in his Bosom" offers a realistic historical portrayal of a small, isolated area of rural America. The characters in the book have rude, harsh lives. Miller develops them with a great deal of sympathy and affection; she clearly considers these early Georgia pioneers as the salt of the earth and she effectively conveys her portrayals to the reader.
Miller's book had a considerable influence on Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind". There is little of the romantic in Miller's book and the characters and stories in the two novels are far apart. Miller's novel had been almost forgotten before it was reissued in this this 1990's edition with an afterward by literary scholar Elizabeth Fox-Genovese. The book describes a specific place and moment of American time but it echoes something universal in American experience and in Americans' visions of themselves. The book deserved the Pulitzer Prize it received in 1934. Readers with an interest in the literature of the American South will enjoy getting to know this book.
Robin Friedman
Donna L B
Apr 11, 2013
Great Southern Literature
This book, winner of the 1934 Pulitzer Priza, is one of the best I've ever read. It recreates a world of hard work and deep satisfaction lost In today's world. Brilliant characterizations blend with the slower pace of 1850's Georgia. This slower pace doesn't equate with boring, though. The joys and tragedies are more deeply felt and come, as in life,out of the dangers of daily life.
It is a shame Ms. Miller's book is sinking out of the public eye. Everyone should read it.
