Capital City

Little, Brown and Company, 1939. 2nd Printing November 1939. Hard cover. Very Good/No dustjacket. Signed by Author. Inscribed "To Leonard Neihan because he has such an interesting outlook Sincerely Mari Sandoz". Signed copies rarely offered. First published in the dark days immediately before World War II, Capital City is Mari Sandoz's angriest and most political novel. Like many important American novels of the 1930's, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, John Conroy's The Disinherited, Robert Cantwell's Land of Plenty, Capital City depicts the troubles and responses of working people trapped in the Great Depression. It is a unique portrayal of the depression in the Great Plains, and a study of the forces that bitterly contended for wealth and power. Sandoz researched the daily life and behind-the-scenes operations of several state capitals in the thirties before drawing them together in this novel, part allegory, part indictment, part warning. Famous for her passionate writing, Sandoz gave Capital City the full measure of ferocity and rage. Mari Susette Sandoz (May 11, 1896 - March 10, 1966) was a Nebraska novelist, biographer, lecturer, and teacher. She became one of the West's foremost writers, and wrote extensively about pioneer life and the Plains Indians.