The River of the Land by James Still: An Overlooked American Masterpiece The River of the Land by James Still is a novel about life in Appalachia just before the Depression. It is also a novel about the struggles of the mountain people since the settlement of their region. As great as it may be in describing the mountain people and culture of Appalachia, Still's novel has remained mostly invisible compared to other novels of the period that depict the poor life of Southern whites, such as John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell (Olson 87). As scholar Ted Olson notes, there are several reasons for this neglect. First, Still's novel has been labeled “regional” and therefore not “universal” in its concerns and arguments. And in 1940, when it was first published, the American people were running out of will to plod along with more regional novels; even Faulkner was hardly read at that time (Olsen 92). Additionally, we were in a time as a nation where people were coming out of a decade of extreme poverty and didn't want to hear or read about more poverty. However, in many ways it's difficult to explain the long-term success of Grapes of Wrath. and the long-term fade of River of Earth. For starters, Steinbeck's novel, which tells the story of the plight of a poor white family in Oklahoma during the Depression, is no less "regional" than Still's chronicle of poor white life in eastern Kentucky. Yet somehow, Grapes of Wrath escaped the "regional" stereotype and became an American classic. Ironically, however, when the two novels were published, Still's novel received more critical acclaim (Olsen 89). Although Grapes of Wrath has gotten some rave reviews and been called the “great American book” by…half the paper…everywhere. And, refreshingly, Still's characters don't spend all their time trying to "overcome" their poverty. Instead, they love the world of the mountains and take pleasure in the small but important things in life, such as a simple meal or a good laugh. They are not weighed down by the glittering world or overly indulgent trappings of Jay Gatsby. Perhaps this is the real reason why most Americans couldn't handle the book then as they do now. Instead of presenting them with the excesses of a gilded age, he told them of a people content to enjoy great spiritual wealth even though their economic conditions should have made them "poor." Works Cited Cadle, Dean. "The troubled man." The Yale Review 57 (December 1967): 236-255. Olsen, Ted. “‘This Mighty River of the Earth’: Reclaiming James Still's American Masterpiece.” Journal of Appalachian Studies 1.1 (Fall 1995): 87-98.