''The Voices of Glory'' is a

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

novel by American author

Davis Grubb Davis Alexander Grubb (July 23, 1919 – July 24, 1980) was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for his 1953 novel '' The Night of the Hunter'', which was adapted as a film in 1955 by Charles Laughton. Biography Born in M ...

Story line and development

The novel, a collection of twenty-eight short stories, concerns Marcy Cresap, a social worker and reformer in the town of Glory, West Virginia. In each of the chapters, different characters reveal more information about her and the town.

Based on

The plot was based on the labor activism of

Mother Jones Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...

, and of Grubb's mother's social and public health work.

Editions

* Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962. This was Grubb's third novel for Scribner's.

Reviews

Louis Grubb, in his preface to ''You Never Believe Me'', quotes Orville Prescott's review of the novel in ''The New York Times'': Davis Grubb's novel ''The Voices of Glory'' is an overwhelming novel. It overwhelms with torrential eloquence, with tempestuous emotion, with drama, melodrama, and pathos. There hasn't been anything like ''Voices of Glory'' ever. ''Time Magazine'', in an unsigned review of October 19, 1962, stated: "The immense force of Grubb's writing is flung against enemies long since weakened or dead—boosterism, Babbittry, ignorant refusal to vaccinate schoolchildren. He might as well have written a passionate parable in favor of rural electrification. ''The Voices of Glory'', which should have been a great book, suffers irreparably from too villainous villains, too pure heroes, and a heroine who, if she were to carry that serum through one more mile of waist-deep snow, would surely prompt the reader to burn all his Christmas seals". "A later novel, ''The Voices of Glory'' (1962), is one of Grubb's most ambitious works and most clearly demonstrates the concern for social justice that he learned from his mother. The novel describes the trial of Mary Cresap, a US Department of Public Health nurse who attempts to supply the poor with free tuberculosis vaccinations during the Depression. What makes The Voices of Glory stand out is its narrative style -- Grubb allows the "voices" of twenty-eight individuals, living and dead, touched by Cresap's life to speak, and to tell their own stories. Critics were quick to compare the work to Sherwood Anderson's '' Winesburg, Ohio'' and Edgar Lee Master's ''

Spoon River Anthology ''Spoon River Anthology'' (1915), by Edgar Lee Masters, is a collection of short free verse poems that collectively narrates the epitaphs of the residents of Spoon River, a fictional small town named after the Spoon River, which ran near Masters' ...

'', to whom Grubb clearly owed a debt, and to praise its sense of town and community. But the critics also commented that the work was too long, that Grubb's prose was overdone, and the characters were too simple—too easily seen as "good" or "evil." Still, many believe that ''The Voices of Glory'' is one of Grubb's best works, and one that deserves more attention than it has received." The profile of Davis Grubb at the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library--http://www.wvwc.edu/library/wv_authors/authors/a_grubb.htm

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voices of Glory 1962 American novels Novels by Davis Grubb Novels set in Appalachia Novels set in West Virginia Charles Scribner's Sons books