Many Thousand Gone: An American Fable

1965 Fair, Ronald L. (b. 1932). Many Thousand Gone: An American Fable. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. PSt

The novel is set in one dystopian county in Mississippi created through the machinations of a corrupt lawyer and an equally corrupt judge, killing or driving out the indigenous population, and re-establishing what amounted to slavery after the Civil War, a system that continued to the time of the novel. When the Federal government finally tries to bring change to the county, the federal marshals are thrown in jail. At this point, the Negroes revolt, burn down the town, and kill most of the tormentors while saving the white women and children. The title refers to the thousands of Negroes who had been killed previously. The African American author is best-known for his novel The Hog Butcher. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1966, which is about the shooting of an unarmed black man by two Chicago policemen, one black, one white. It was made into the 1975 film Cornbread, Earl and Me, directed by Joseph Manduke and with a screenplay Leonard Lamensdorf. In 1977 the author moved to Finland.