Hamlin Garland is now known almost solely for his short middle-border fiction written before 1895, particularly for his provocative and innovative collection of short stories, Main-Travelled Roads: Six Mississippi Valley Stories (1891), and for his autobiographies, A Son of the Middle Border (1917) and A Daughter of the Middle Border (1921). In these volumes Garland demonstrated that it had at last become possible to deal realistically with the American farmer in literature instead of seeing him simply through the veil of literary convention. By creating new types of characters, Garland hoped not only to inform readers about the realities of midwestern farm life but also to touch the deeper feelings of the nation. As one of America's foremost local-colorists, Garland graphically depicted the countryside of his native Middle West in verse, fiction, and powerful autobiographical narratives in which he portrays the futility of farm life. Less well known are Garland's writings of...