T.S. Stribling (1881–1965)

This is the last book in The Vaiden Trilogy. Stribling gives us an unflinching view of the deep south, both in its stateliness and brutality, starting prior to the Civil War and ending when the Great Depression starts. Prepared to be uncomfortable with the reality of the South during that time. It is a great trilogy to read, in spite of its no-holds-barred look at both the people living during that time. The second book in this series, The Store, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1933.
"White educated Southerners are completely cut off from black educated Southerners by the inherited attitudes of master and slave, and the one really does not know that the other exists. So now the Reverend Catlin looked at the heavy black man who used correct and moving if rather florid English with a feeling of surprise and grotesqueness as if a bootblack should begin discussing the quantum theory."… (meer)

T. S. Stribling (1881-1965) was an American short story writer and novelist, born and raised in Tennessee. He drew on life experiences in the American South for the foundation of his Pulitzer Prize winning literary work. Stribling started writing fiction at an early age selling his first short story for five dollars when he was twelve. He continued writing short stories that were published in pulp magazines like American Boy, Argosy, and Adventure. In 1917, he expanded one of his short stories into his first novel, Cruise of the Dry Dock.

This first novel was the beginning of Stribling's interest in writing longer works with more character development and more important themes than his short stories. In Cruise of the Dry Dock, the backgrounds, personalities, and behaviors of two characters are described in detail. Leonard Madden is an American in his 20's fresh out of college living on limited funds, and Caradoc Smith is British in his early 30s a carefree traveler financially supported by his wealthy family. The story begins in London just before WWI where the two young men sign on as crew on a large dry dock (big enough to overhaul ocean liners) that is being towed by a tug boat up the coast of England to its permanent location. It is clear to Madden right from the beginning that Smith is a drinker, taking swigs of alcohol from a flask as the two wait for a dory to take them to their quarters on the dry dock. Madden is slightly upset when Smith offers him a cap full of liquor as they wait to board the dry dock.

At first, all is well as the tug pulls the unwieldy dry dock up the coast of England. Madden and Smith spend their days working with the rest of the crew painting the huge metal sides of the dry dock. But, as days go by, Smith reveals himself as an alcoholic who has difficulty reporting for duty, suffering debilitating hangovers. Madden and the crew dislike the British never-do-well leading to insults and a fistfight. Smith does well defending himself against words and fists and Madden learns he studied and boxed while attending Oxford University.

A major storm envelops the tug and dry dock separating the two vessels. The dry dock is pushed by the storm and drifts in the currents out of the shipping lanes of the Atlantic Ocean. The story involves the survival of the dry dock crew as they drift helplessly for weeks in the isolated seas far from land. Adventures ensue including, discovering an abandoned sailing vessel, entanglement in a vast area of Sargasso (seaweed), involvement in a naval battle between the British and German navies, and a experiencing the personal and social devastation for the crew brought on by alcohol abuse and alcoholism.

The importance of Cruise of the Dry Dock is that, in addition to publishing his short stories, T. S. Stribling had financial success publishing a novel in the pulp magazine market. He was able to support himself as a writer and move on to his major works of fiction, the Vaiden Trilogy (The Store, The Forge, and The Unfinished Cathedral) published in the early 1930's. The Trilogy follows the Vaiden family as they live through the difficult years of Civil War Reconstruction in Florence, Alabama. The Store was the most famous novel that earned Stribling a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1933. William Faulkner stated he was influenced by the Vaiden Trilogy, and had the three novels on his bookshelf when he wrote Absalom, Absalom.

Writing for the "pulps" provided good early training for many writers who would have later success in literature. I recommend Stribling's first novel for readers who want to see how important it is for some writers (including Stephen King) to develop techniques for telling a high action stories that appeal to many readers, and can help them improve writing skills leading to more important work later in their careers. The Kindle version of The Cruise of the Dry Dock is free at Amazon.… (meer)