trials of the earth by mary mann hamilton

Eighty-three years later, in partnership with Mary Mann Hamilton's descendants, we're proud to share this irreplaceable piece of American history. It didn't win, and we almost lost the chance to bring this raw, vivid narrative to readers. The result is this astonishing first-person account of a pioneer woman who braved grueling work, profound tragedy, and a pitiless wilderness (she and her family faced floods, tornadoes, fires, bears, panthers, and snakes) to protect her home in the early American South.Īn early draft of Trials of the Earth was submitted to a writers' competition sponsored by Little, Brown in 1933. Near the end of her life, Mary Mann Hamilton (1866 - c.1936) began recording her experiences in the backwoods of the Mississippi Delta. The Delta drew immigrants from all over, and it was a gumbo pot of cultures.The astonishing first-person account of Mississippi pioneer woman struggling to survive, protect her family, and make a home in the early American South. Back then, cotton was more valuable than oil. It was wooded swampland-total wilderness where my great-grandfather thought he could make a fortune clearing land and turning it into farmland. She wasn’t the first woman to live in the Mississippi Delta, but she was the first white woman to live in the area she did. The Mississippi Delta is almost like its own character in the memoir-what does Mary teach us about that region? Hamilton, who helped bring Trials of the Earth to print and is working toward a possible film adaptation, shares some of his favorite details from the memoir: Hamilton has found this world good, and so this is a book of much laughter as well as tragedy.”

In the preface, Davis wrote: “At the very end of the book, when she speaks of dying, she is still able to say, innocently and with no thought of irony, that she will soon be going to a better world if such can be.… In spite of everything, Mrs. The Hamilton estate eventually secured the copyright and was able to bring the story full circle by publishing it with Little, Brown-the same company that had first rejected it. In 1992, the University of Mississippi Press discovered a copy of the manuscript and published it, unbeknownst to Hamilton’s family. It didn’t win and was seemingly forgotten. Davis entered an early draft of the memoir into a competition sponsored by Little, Brown in 1933. Late in her life, Hamilton’s neighbor and friend, Helen Dick Davis-who was also an editor-encouraged Hamilton to write down her recollections.

Trials of the earth by mary mann hamilton