Hervey Allen

“ Peculiarly tempting, to those artists who have desired to present the more extreme provincial types of character, has been the wide field of the South, "Uncle Sam's Other Country", where the feudal tradition of the plantation, the isolated Mountain Whites, or the realm of the negro have successively, but not always successfully, engaged various pens. ”

“ Then the American writers and critics at large, especially since the World War, may be said to have suddenly realized, indeed to have discovered, two startling but paradoxical facts, i.e., that at last there was a typical and very standard American type, but that he or she was not altogether a desirable person, and secondly and by contrast, that the country was not just one level, usual United States, but in reality a union of many different localities with varying backgrounds, traditions, and philosophies. ”

“ In the last few years, the negro, owing largely to the fact that his emigration in large numbers northward has suddenly called him to the attention of our metropolitan writers—who now find that he is a reality in their midst instead of a romantic myth or a minstrel character—the negro thus, has become the preoccupation of innumerable writers in prose and poetry, but more especially in music. ”

“ During the same year while the poems were underway, through the able assistance of many friends, there was organized in Charleston the Poetry Society of South Carolina. This in a certain sense proved to be the spark that kindled the now widely spread interest in modern poetry in the South. Requests for advice and assistance poured into the little "poetry office" at Charleston, and Mr. Heyward in particular, although he was then conducting an active business in the city, found himself called upon for lectures, readings and literary consultations throughout the South. ”

“ As for the setting in which it takes place, only those who have seen for themselves the real background of the book will be able fully to appreciate the fine restraint with which the artist has gained his effects. ”