This episode first aired in July.
In 1939, when John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" was published, it became an instant bestseller and a prevailing narrative in the nation's collective imagination of the era. But it also stopped the publication of another important novel, silencing a gifted writer who was more intimately connected to the true experiences of Dust Bowl migrants.
In "Riding Like the Wind," biographer Iris Jamahl Dunkle revives the groundbreaking voice of Sanora Babb. It was Babb's field notes and oral histories of migrant farmworkers that Steinbeck relied on to write his novel. But this is not merely a saga of literary usurping; on her own merits, Babb's impact was profound. Her life and work feature heavily in Ken Burns's documentary "The Dust Bowl" and inspired Kristin Hannah in her bestseller "The Four Winds."
"Riding Like the Wind" reminds us that the stories we know—and who tells them—can change the way we remember history.
Iris Jamahl Dunkle earned her MFA in poetry from New York University and her PhD in American Literature from Case Western Reserve University. She is the author of two biographies, "Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer" (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020) and "Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb" (University of California Press, forthcoming), and four collections of poetry, including "West : Fire : Archive," published by The Center for Literary Publishing. Dunkle curates Finding Lost Voices, a weekly blog dedicated to resurrecting the voices of women who have been marginalized or forgotten.
