Added onto RaintreeCounty.com as of February 2019 ~ Brief Bio of the author, Ross Lockridge, Jr. ~ Order Novel Raintree County Here ~ Audio Here ~ Order Biography Shade of the Raintree Here --most recent postings on top-- To Site Map ~ --Return to Raintree County Ceremony, of Oct. 7, 2018 realized the planting & unveiling of an 8-foot Golden Raintree at the Henry County Courthouse in New Castle, Indiana, in honor of Hoosier author Ross Lockridge, Jr. and his novel Raintree County, which turned 70 in 2018. The tree was donated from the Ross Lockridge, Jr. family. Read the article: To the raintree! by Darrel Radford, from the Courier-Times. Read the address written for the occasion by Professor Larry Lockridge, author of Shade of the Raintree: The Life and Death of Ross Lockridge, Jr. The address was delivered by retired educator, Dick Willis.
--Midwestern History Association interview: "Dr. Larry Lockridge, Professor Emeritus of English at New York University, discusses his work, Shade of the Raintree: The Life and Death of Ross Lockridge, Jr., Author of Raintree County. While Raintree County is itself a highly developed historical novel about Indiana during the Civil War, Lockridge eloquently underscores the historical consciousness coursing through the Lockridge family, which encompasses his deep Indiana roots and the prevailing influences of Midwestern life."
--The Dictionary of Midwestern Literature (DML - Volume 2) with an updated and greatly expanded synopsis on Ross Lockridge, Jr. The author is one of 35 entries "on pivotal Midwestern literary works...." DML Vol. 2, subtitle"Dimensions of the Midwestern Literary Imagination", Philip A. Greasley, General Editor, published by IU Press, 7/27/2016, 1080 pp, 154 b&w illus., 20 maps.
--Larry Lockridge discusses his father's book Raintree County for the Indiana Bicentennial Bookshelf series, which appears courtesy of the Indiana Humanities' Next Indiana Bookshelf: "The 'endlessly courageous dreamers' whom Ross Lockridge, Jr. speaks of may not be found in our politicians--and politicians with the exception of Lincoln come off poorly in Raintree County. Rather, it is in the rank and file of ordinary Hoosiers where the extraordinary must be found as we take stock of our collective heritage, find the uses of the past, maintain our rivers and lakes, and work toward what Lockridge called 'the gigantic labor by which the earth is rescued again and again from chaos and old night.'" Indiana University Press Blog, February 16, 2016.
--The digitized pdf version of THE ROSS LOCKRIDGE, JR. ARCHIVE: A DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY, by Larry Lockridge, 2011, 448 pp, is HERE for download. "The bibliography emphasizes the unity of the collection as an original American archive: everything in it relates in some way to the life of Ross Lockridge, Jr., to his intellectual and cultural background, interests, and ambitions, and to his only novel, Raintree County . . . ." The link to information on the hard bound copy that the Lilly Library keeps in the Reading Room, is HERE (with special thanks to binder, James Canary).
--Riots and Romantics: Larry Lockridge on the Eve of Retirement, by Peter Tasca, 2015
--Larry Lockridge's Keynote Address at Installation Ceremony of Raintree County Plaque, Henry County Courthouse, New Castle, Indiana, May 23, 2015
--Raintree County, is one of 13 selections chosen for The Next Indiana Bookshelf! The Bookshelf was created by the Indiana Center for the Book (at the Indiana State Library) and Indiana Humanities to encourage Hoosiers to think and talk about the present and future of Indiana during the state's Bicentennial in 2016. The Bookshelf features contemporary works, interspersed with a few classics....
--Archives Online -- Lockridge mss. circa 1837-2000 consist of the correspondence, unpublished manuscripts, photos, papers, and much more, some 75,000 items pertaining to the life and work of Ross Lockridge, Jr. To an Inventory. And this: Lockridge mss. III, circa 1837-2000. The Ross Lockridge, Jr. Archive - A Descriptive Bibliography, 448 pp. as prepared for the Lilly Library collection by Larry Lockridge is now available on line here.
--Raintree County: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Ross Lockridge, Jr. marks the centennial of the writer's birth April 25, 1914. The exhibition, January 21 - May 19, 2014, was in the Lilly Library, the rare books, manuscripts, and special collections library of the Indiana University Libraries, of Bloomington Indiana. Festivities includes 4 photos from April 10, 2014 gala. New: photos of exhibits.
--David Brent Johnson interviews Larry Lockridge, author of the award-winning biography of his father Ross Lockridge, Jr., author of Raintree County. "I was 13 when I finally read Raintree County for the first time. It was as if [my father] had come back to life. In that sense, I grew up with a novel instead of a father." --L.L. 4/11/2014 Complete interview Posted for listening, WFIU Radio.
"The World Of A Novel: Ross Lockridge Jr.'s Raintree County" by David Brent Johnson. Related to an exhibition that was held at the IU Lilly Library, Indiana Public Media presents a brief overview through an eight minute audio summation, selected images, as well as text under the subjects that include: Reviving A World Of Creation, A Hometown Legacy, Reassessing Raintree County, Raintree Tributes, Further Explorations Of Raintree County.
--"Come, O, Come to Raintree County", by Michael Johnson, posted on Open Letters Monthly. Perhaps the most expansive article to date on both Raintree County and Shade of the Raintree. Includes images and photos. "We will never know what additional marvels might have come from the literary talent of Ross Lockridge, Jr., the Indiana sensation who set out to write the Great American Novel. But an exemplary biography by the author's second son, Larry Lockridge, comes close to telling us. Larry's book, Shade of the Raintree, is . . . published this month by Indiana University Press. . . . . "
--Centennial Edition of Shade of the Raintree -The Life and Death of Ross Lockridge, Jr., author of Raintree County. "In this powerfully narrated biography, Larry Lockridge uncovers a man of great vitality, humor, love, and visionary ambition, but also of deep vulnerability. The author manages to combine a son's emotional investments with a sleuth's dispassionate inquiry. The result is an exhilarating, revelatory narrative of an American writer's life. With a new preface by the author, this 2014 paperback edition marks 100 years since the birth of Ross Lockridge, Jr." --IU Press Order Shade of the Raintree, Indiana University Press. To: The Biography
--Raintree County Memories - Remembrance of an Epic Era, by Mark Sean Orr, 120 pp. "[A] virtual tour of Henry County, Indiana as it was in the 19th century and as it is today." The book includes new and vintage photos and more. Hear about the real life Indiana pioneers and places Raintree County was based on. Mark Orr is a photographer, historian, genealogist, and lifetime resident of Henry County.
--Raintree County, the Foremost American Environmental Novel: Uncovering the Deep Message of an Undervalued Text / by Fred Waage; Edwin Mellen Press, 2011, 279 pp.
--Selection from The Dream of the Flesh of Iron, "The Strike"--V, pp. 122-4
--"Myth as Structure in Raintree County", an assay by David Aline. "In his attempt to produce the Great American Novel, Ross Lockridge, Jr. employs myth as a structure for is novel, Raintree County, in order to teach Americans the true nature of their consciousness as a culture."
--Lillian Louise Lockridge, Ross Jr's older sister, pictured at age 16, 1925.
--"The Senator Arrives (Raintree County)"- silkscreen by Edwin Fulwider, 1949.
--The Foreword to Raintree County: "Raintree County Sixty Years Later: A Remembrance" by Herman Wouk. Click "LOOK INSIDE" on Amazon's Raintree County page.
--Raintree County (Chicago Review Press) as featured on Barnes and Noble Review--Daybook--January 4, 2011.
--YouTube & Roadshow Cuts The roadshow version of the movie contained an additional 14 minutes, 48 seconds (9 trims). Youtuber (HistoryOfWidescreen) had some 5 "alterations" once posted, all comparing the roadshow to the later general release version.
--Raintree County in the Dictionaries
--After careful research, First Editions Points of Raintree County are posted along with images. "First Edition Points are details about what a book looked like when it was initially printed as a first edition." --Editors, First Editions Points.
--Attempts to ban Raintree County. An Historical Note - Banned Books Week--Celebrating the Freedom to Read.
--"Unlocking the Lockridge Diaries", by Mary Louise Gilman, Journal of Court Reporting, 1995. Ms. Gilman deciphered shorthand notes of Ross Lockridge, Jr. Article with sample of Lockridge's shorthand.
--Blackstone Audiobooks presents an Unabridged AUDIO EDITION of RAINTREE COUNTY read by Lloyd James, now available in traditional formats and downloads, 42.6 hrs.
--Taxes in the Shade of the Raintree, J. Fred Giertz. No one should conclude that taxes drove Ross Lockridge Jr. to suicide. However, tax concerns were a source of his distress that was magnified by his depression.
--"Seed of the Raintree: Raintree County and Postwar Environmental Fiction, 1945-1960" by Fred Waage, as presented at the Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), held Wofford College, June 2007. "...an incentive to explore what I believe . . . to be the greatest U.S. environmental novel of the 20th century."
--A new edition of Raintree County by Ross Lockridge, Jr., foreword by Herman Wouk, published by Chicago Review Press. Order here.
--An in-depth and entertaining analysis by Ross Care on the Raintree County movie score by John Green, first published in Performing Arts--Motion Pictures, the Library of Congress, 1998, and is reprinted here with additions and a new introduction. To complete analysis see Care's liner notes booklet for the recent 2-CD Film Score Monthly release of the RAINTREE COUNTY soundtrack.
--The two week Festival Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Release of the MGM classic film "Raintree County" began in Danville, Kentucky on July 24, 2007 with an Opening Night World Premiere of A Jarful of Fireflies, an original comedy about the filming of Raintree County. Read more about the celebration here.
PASSAGES from Raintree County :
--Black had builded this republic.
--"We pumped a cold fifty thousand into his campaign fund." -- the profane financier Cash Carney and The Great Strike of 1877.
--Hard roads and wide will run through Raintree County, and its ancient boundaries will dissolve. People will hunt it on the map, and it won't be there.
--"War, said the Perfessor, is the most monstrous of all human illusions." -- A PASSAGE from Raintree County
--I will never be converted again, Brother Jarvey. --Esther Shawnessy. The Reverend Lloyd G. Jarvey -- ten passages from Raintree County by Ross Lockridge, Jr.
--The world is still full of divinity and strangeness, Mr. Shawnessy said. -- passage posted for May Day, from the novel Raintree County. {Suggested by "sunbeam"}
--Concerning American Politics (1872 / 1892)--Johnny Green's masterpiece, the score of Raintree County, has been released by Film Score Monthly: a double CD remastered from the original tapes including the premiere release of Nat King Cole's MGM orchestral vocal of the title song; 26 pages of liner notes; 21 images; generous SAMPLE LISTENING on the Film Score Monthly release page.
--Raintree County film MUSIC reviewed by Ross Care
--"Creating a Hoosier Self-Portrait" by George T. Blakey is the story of the New Deal program that produced the first guide to Indiana, under the guidance of historian Ross Lockridge, Sr. whose son would later burst onto the American literary scene with his novel Raintree County. From 1935 to 1942, the Indiana office of the Federal Writers' Program hired unemployed writers as "field workers" to create a portrait in words of the land, the people, and the culture of the Hoosier state. This book tells the story....
--Stephen V. Russell's Raintree County Movie Memorabilia with a Remembrance.
--Raintree County by Ross Lockridge, Jr., recognized as one of "top ten authors' first books". See Stone Reader about an award winning film documentary that follows a quest to find a long out-of-print book, The Stones of Summer by Dow Mossman.
--From the unpublished Dream Section of Raintree County: the ninth and concluding "dream" complete (pp. 306--356 of the original volume V). Background reading is recommended: three pages about The Dream Section, from: SHADE OF THE RAINTREE, by Larry Lockridge.
--Ross Lockridge, Jr. is voted by Monroe County Indiana residents into the Monroe County Hall of Fame; announced Jan. 14, 2003.
--"The Lake Gang", photo, 1941. Thanks to Nota and John McGreevey, and also Alice Binkley, most of the people shown are identified.
--Johnny Green's Music for the movie Raintree County: Ross Care posts his complete essay (first in Performing Arts--Motion Pictures, Library of Congress, 1998). To a few excerpts.
--Barriers Burned Away--"The gilt words were stamped into a green cloth binding." (Facsimiles, Passages)
--Photo: Life in a log cabin--Ross Lockridge & Vernice Baker, 1937
--The unpublished Dream Section of Raintree County: the first "dream" complete (pp. 1-47)
--an Outline of The Dream Section, by Ross Lockridge, Jr.
--The Snake Pitby Mary Jane Ward, cousin of Ross, Jr.
--Ross Lockridge, Senior, historian and author; books listed w/ images
--Other Raintree Countybook cover images: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Japan, BOMC
--Recent acclaim for novel, Dick Cady
4 images related to the movie:
--Liz Taylor on Location, summer of 1956
--Eva Marie Saint--on the set
--Monty Clift and Eva Marie Saint on Location, summer 1956
--Monty Clift and Liz Taylor in Character--Facsimiles of Ross Lockridge, Jr.'s Notes on James Joyce, Sept. 1942 (371 k), and Spring 1943 (429 k).
--Joyce and Wolfe in the life of Ross Lockridge, Jr. by Larry Lockridge, from: Shade of the Raintree
--Ross Lockridge, Jr. Notes on Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel
--Ross Lockridge, Jr. Notes on John Dos Passos
--Source Materials: Illustrated Historical Atlas of Henry County, Indiana 1875
--Piano music for "The Song of Raintree County." Robbins Music Corporation's 1957 sheet music publication in facsimile. (216 k)
--An Album of RAINTREE COUNTY --7 images (607 K)
--Ross Jr., first known photo, aged one, 1915 (98 k)
--Ross Lockridge, Jr. in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1923 (156 k)
--"Rhapsody in Words," an engaging short piece, written on Ross Lockridge, Jr.'s twenty-third birthday.
--Planning notes for "The Dream of the Flesh of Iron", poem by Ross Lockridge, Jr., drafted in his mid-twenties, 1938-41. Facsimiles.
--Malcolm Correll & Ross Lockridge, Jr., 1937. (176 k)
--Ross Lockridge, Jr., publicity photograph, 1947 (156 k)
--Poem, "A Summer Dream," by John W. Shockley
--John Shockley with his students in Straughn, Indiana, 1893 (176 k)
--Ross Lockridge, Sr., in a characteristic pose photo (234 k)
--Ross, Jr., as President of Chess Team 1935-1936. photo (117 k)
--Ross Lockridge, Jr.'s attention to details of historic accuracy: as an example, the phase of the moon for the night of July 4, 1892, for the passage: "At the intersection of the two roads, he looked west." (p 1058 of Raintree County.)
--Susannah Duke (1844-77) photo, (59 k)
--Chronology of some Historical Events with Bearing on the Story of RAINTREE COUNTY
--John Shockley with siblings including Elisha Shockley in Civil War uniform.
--Town of Waycross, drawing by Ross Lockridge, Jr.
--Sketch by Ross Lockridge, Jr. :Danwebster Graveyard as conceived (on draft ms) by the author for the image of the Danwebster Graveyard.
--Raintree County Character Sources: From "Book of Miscellanies" botanical recipes on Cathartics; and Reasons for believing, by William B. Shockley (1801-76).
--Ross, Lockridge, Jr. letters from Paris--seven of the 33 letters that survive from his year at the Sorbonne, are now published here in facsimile (21 pages) including the "idea-genesis of Raintree County". Ross, Jr. passport picture, age 19, taken for this journey, 1933-34.
--Photos:
--Poets Longfellow and Lockridge, May 1941
--Ross Lockridge, Jr. Writing in his outdoor office, Summer, 1942.
--Ross Lockridge, Jr. walking the countryside -- Bloomington, Ind. 1942
--Ross, Jr. with Ernest at the River Charles, Boston, Oct. 31, 1942.
--Vernice Baker, shortly before her marriage to Ross Lockridge, Jr., 1937.--Raintree County Character Sources: Facsimiles of poem: "Tobacco" by William B. Shockley (1801-76), p. 1: p. 2, p. 3.:
"Some do it chew and some it smoke
whilst some it up their nose do poke." Character, TD Shawnessy.--Raintree County Character Sources: "'Tis Summer and the days are long"--poem by John W. Shockley.
--Raintree County Character Sources: Facsimile of letter from John W. Shockley to Emma Rhoton, May 5, 1877.
--Golden raintree in full bloom at the Lockridge home, Summer 1962.
--Now published by the Indiana Historical Society: Pride and Protest: The Novel in Indiana, by Jeanette Vanausdall.
--Two collections of essays now in print: Midwestern Miscellany XXVI (Spring 1998); and Myth, Memory, and the American Earth: the Durability of Raintree County.
--Essay: THE SOUTHERN MYTH IN ROSS LOCKRIDGE, JR.'S RAINTREE COUNTY, by Patricia Ward Julius.
--Essay: THE EPICISING POET IN AMERICAN FICTION, By Leonard Lutwack.
--Essay: BLURRED BOUNDARIES AND THE DESIRE FOR NATIONALISM IN ROSS LOCKRIDGE'S RAINTREE COUNTY by Dean Rehberger
--A BRIEF SYNOPSIS ON ROSS LOCKRIDGE, JR. (updated)
--An analysis of the movie score by John Green is released; written by Ross Care, Performing Arts--Motion Pictures, The Library of Congress, 1998.
To Raintree County's Home Page The Novel Essays Other Writings RL Jr. Writer's Award Complete Contents Book Orders The Biography links Photos / Postcards RC Source & Facsimiles Suicide & Prevention Movie & Score Site Managed by RIII Page last updated: February 19, 2019 Site designed by henley/graphics http://www.raintreecounty.com/whatsnew.html
