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"Blazingly alive with all the passion, nostalgia for the old Midwest and the contrariness in general that made Herbst a favorite among the many writers who were her friends. . . It is a startling personal document that tells more about the political and social life once led by an independent American writer than anything you will find in the literary histories now being prepared under university auspices." —Alfred Kazin, New York Times Book Review
The works of a once-beloved writer return from obscurity to delight a new generation of readers.
By the end of the 1930s, radical journalist and novelist Josephine Herbst (1892-1969) was widely hailed as one of the most important women writers in America. Yet she died in almost total obscurity.
The Starched Blue Sky of Spain And Other Memoirs comprises four autobiographical works: "The Magicians and Their Apprentices," an intimate remembrance of Herbst's girlhood in turn-of-the-century Sioux City, Iowa; "A Year of Disgrace," a contemplative portrait of American literary culture in the 1920s; "Yesterday's Road," an explorative meditation on Herbst's life as a radical; and the title selection, a poignant and lucid evocation of the author's experience during the Spanish Civil War.
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