Small Town

Wisconsin Bookwatch, March, 2005

Small Town

Granville Hicks

Fordham University Press

2546 Belmont Avenue, University Box L, Bronx, NY 10458-5172

0823223574 $26.00 fordhampress.com.

Granville Hicks (1901-1982) wrote reviews, essays, novels, and works of literary history and criticism for more than fifty years. In 1946 Hicks wrote Small Town in which he gave his readers a fascinating and timeless portrait of life in the rural crossroads of Grafton, New York. This was a small community to which had had moved after being fired for his left-wing political views from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In Small Town, Hicks combined hand-crafted ethnography research with his personal reflections on the qualities of small town life as they were being threatened by post-war encroachments by spreading cities and expanding suburbs. Hicks eloquently defined the essential qualities of small town community life and linked to hem to the best features of American popular and political culture. Long out of print and highly recommended reading for students of twentieth century American culture and history, this new edition of Small Town is enhanced for a new generation of readers with an informed and informative introduction by Warren F. Broderick and a preface by Ron Powers.