''The Store'' is a

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

novel by

Thomas Sigismund Stribling Thomas Sigismund Stribling (March 4, 1881 – July 8, 1965) was notable as an American writer who published under the name T. S. Stribling. Although he passed the bar and practiced law for a few years, he quickly began to focus on writing. First k ...

. It won the

Pulitzer Prize for the Novel The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

in 1933. It is the second book of the ''Vaiden'' trilogy, comprising ''The Forge'', ''The Store'', and ''Unfinished Cathedral''. All three books in the trilogy have been kept in print since the mid-1980s by the

University of Alabama Press The University of Alabama Press is a university press founded in 1945 and is the scholarly publishing arm of the University of Alabama. An editorial board composed of representatives from all doctoral degree granting public universities within Al ...

."University of Alabama Press page for ''The Unfinished Cathedral''"
retrieved 5-19-2014.

Introduction

The first book in the trilogy, ''The Forge,'' opens at the beginning of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

and ends with the abolition of slavery. Continuing the exploration of the transformation of the American South from its traditional agrarian society to a new economic and social order, ''The Store'' follows the return from war of Miltiades "Milt" Vaiden. Before the war he had been overseer on a major plantation, and he struggles to find a place for himself under new free labor conditions. The novel depicts how wealthy white planters and yeomen farmers, and newly freed African Americans attempt to adapt to life in the post-War South.

Plot summary

Colonel Miltiades "Milt" Vaiden, a decorated Civil War Confederate officer and former overseer of Crowninshield plantation, is the central figure in this and the third novel of the trilogy. As an overseer he was in a position between the wealthy planters and poor whites; his father was a blacksmith. Struggling to gain a place after the war, he became head of the newly founded local

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

(KKK), made up of veterans determined to defend

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

. A character described by critic J. Donald Adams in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' as "forceful" and "unscrupulous", Col. Milt Vaiden slowly works his way into business leadership in the town of Florence by the late 1880s, in the post-Reconstruction era. Stribling explores the personal and economic trials and tribulations of Col. Milt and others during the post-Reconstruction era, when the labor force of freedmen has been converted mostly to sharecroppers and tenant farmers. White men work to exploit the changing conditions. The title, "The Store", is symbolic of Col. Milt's ethical and economic transition from post-war poverty to economic independence, set against the "old plantation" culture. The novel describes in blunt language, the cultural and social stress as the old plantation society and freedmen adjust to the post-war reconstruction.

Reception

Robert Coates of the ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * ''The New ...

'' magazine compared T. S. Stribling "to Mark Twain in his abilities to convey the very life and movement of a small Southern town." The

Literary Guild The Literary Guild of America is a mail order book club selling low-cost editions of selected current books to its members. Established in 1927 to compete with the Book of the Month Club, it is currently owned by Bookspan. It was a way to encourag ...

selected this novel in 1932 for one of its editions, which helped to stimulate its sales. The following year, Stribling won a 1933

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

for this novel. The Pulitzer committee said they had selected it because "of its sustained interest, and because of the convincing and comprehensive picture it presents of life in an inland Southern community during the middle eighties of the last century."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Store, The 1932 American novels Pulitzer Prize for the Novel-winning works Novels about American slavery Novels set in Alabama Doubleday, Doran books