CUNNINGHAM, William

The Green Corn Rebellion

First edition. Two modest stamps from a Brooklyn camera shop on the front pastedown, else fine in an attractive, very good dustwrapper with a thin triangular chip on the spine removing some of the lettering from the title, and some other modest wear and tears at the extremities. The author's first book, an antiwar novel based on the abortive 1917 rebellion (called the Green Corn Rebellion in the War Department archives) of Oklahoma farmers who plotted to rebel against the draft and America's entrance into the First World War, and to march on Washington and form a cooperative commonwealth, and the tragic consequences to those who participated in it. Cunningham was a major influence on his protege and friend at the Oklahoma Writer's Project, Jim Thompson. Thompson's admiration for this novel and friendship with Cunningham precipitated his being hired at the Project, where he succeeded Cunningham as Director. Cunningham was also the head of the Communist Party in Oklahoma during some of the 1930s, and according to one source Cunningham arranged for Jim Thompson to join the local chapter so that Thompson could get a loan from the cell and buy a car in which to travel from Oklahoma to California. Cunningham's style, influence, and some of the episodes from this novel are reflected in Thompson's later writing. This novel was cited by Walter B. Rideout in his definitive study, The Radical Novel in the United States. All copies of The Green Corn Rebellion are exceptionally uncommon, and in jacket they are flat out rare.

[BTC #68830]