At the age of sixteen I read John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath for the first time. As soon as I closed the book I knew I wanted to read it again. Reading Steinbeck led me to the photography of Dorothea Lange. Steinbeck’s novel told me the story, and Lange’s photographs showed me the people.
The more I thought about the folks who survived this time, the more I felt compelled to learn as much as I could about the Dust Bowl—why it happened and how the people survived.
I found it curious that such an ecological disaster hadn’t warranted more than a short paragraph in my US history textbook, and that so many families displaced by dust would be all but forgotten in the enormous narrative of the Great Depression.
For nineteen years I found out all I could about this period in history. I wrote plays and short stories and poems about it. When given the opportunity, I led discussions on Steinbeck’s work and the history behind it at my alma matter, Great Lakes Christian College.
When asked how a Michigan city girl ended up being interested in the Dust Bowl, particularly with Cimarron County, I placed the blame on my Steinbeck obsession.
At the age of thirty-five I announced to my husband that I was going to write my Dust Bowl novel. He said, “It’s about time.” He knows me so well. To demonstrate his support, he bought me books of photography from the 1930s: one of Dorothea Lange’s work and one of Arthur Rothstein’s.
Each of these photographers worked for the federal government to document the everyday life of those living in the hard times of the Depression. Many of my characters were born as I studied the faces in the photos.
In all my years of studying the Dust Bowl, I’ve gleaned the most from the work of two men: Ken Burns and Timothy Egan. Both men have connected with scholars to learn the why and wherefore of the “Dirty Thirties” and spent time with those who lived it to learn their experience. Burns’s documentary The Dust Bowl (PBS) and Egan’s book The Worst Hard Time tell the stories of courageous folks who did what it took to survive.
After writing A Cup of Dust I find that my admiration for the Dust Bowl survivors has grown. They were courageous, faithful, optimistic, and generous with what little they had. After all, who knew what the next year might bring. It very well might bring rain and mercy from the Lord Himself.