''Burning Valley'' is a 1953

coming-of-age novel In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age), in which character change is imp ...

by the American writer

Phillip Bonosky Phillip Bonosky (March 7, 1916 – March 2, 2013) was an American novelist, journalist, and labor activist. A lifelong Communist, he wrote the Bildungsroman, coming-of-age novel ''Burning Valley'' and worked as cultural editor and Moscow correspon ...

set in the steel valley of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 1920s. It was originally published in the Communist Party publication ''

Masses and Mainstream ''Masses & Mainstream'', published from 1948 to 1963, was an American Marxist monthly publication. It resulted from a merger between ''New Masses'', which ceased publication in January 1948, and ''Mainstream'', a Communist cultural quarterly estab ...

''. In 1998 it was reprinted as part of the series "The Radical Novel Reconsidered" by the University of Illinois Press. The novel tells the story of Benedict Bulmanis, son of an immigrant Lithuanian steelworker, who feels called to the Roman Catholic priesthood, but is torn by local political events as steelworkers struggle to organize in the face of corporate expansion. Banks and millowners plan to clear land in the Monongahela River Valley for a new steel mill, but it means forcing workers from their homes. This expansion and technological upgrading will increase production but lay off thousands. The workers and homeless rebel, in an echo of the Steel strike of 1919, and young Benedict must choose sides.

References

1953 American novels Novels about communism Works originally published in American newspapers Novels set in Pittsburgh Fiction set in the 1920s American bildungsromans Proletarian literature 1953 debut novels {{1950s-bildungsroman-stub