What do you think?
Rate this book
Salute to Spring
DISCOUNT ON THIS BOOK HAS ALWAYS
BEEN 40%. Why did you suddenly change
it to 20%? Your PO N9858541
BEEN 40%. Why did you suddenly change
it to 20%? Your PO N9858541
171 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
7 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Meridel Le Sueur
41 books40 followers“The people are a story that never ends,
A river that winds and falls and gleams erect in many dawns;
Lost in deep gulleys, it turns to dust, rushes in the spring freshet,
Emerges to the sea. The people are a story that is a long incessant
Coming alive from the earth in better wheat, Percherons,
Babies, and engines, persistent and inevitable.
The people always know that some of the grain will be good,
Some of the crop will be saved, some will return and
Bear the strength of the kernel, that from the bloodiest year
Some survive to outfox the frost.”
Meridel LeSueur, North Star Country (1945)
Meridel LeSueur’s poetry, her short stories, and novels are a beloved part of the cultural and political fabric of our times. She was one of the great women literary and communal voices of the twentieth century, which her long life spanned. In describing her own roots Meridel wrote, “I was born at the beginning of the swiftest and bloodiest century at Murray, Iowa in a white square puritan house in the corn belt, of two physically beautiful people who had come west through the Indian and the Lincoln country, creating the new race of the Americas by enormous and rugged and gay matings with the Dutch, the Indian, the Irish; being preachers, abolitionists, agrarians, radical lawyers on the Lincoln, Illinois, circuit. Dissenters and democrats and radicals through five generations.”
Meridel was born on February 22, 1900, and she died in Hudson, Wisconsin on November 14, 1996. As a child she lived in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Minnesota. She believed in giving voice to people’s struggles. She said she learned early to write down what they were saying, hiding behind water troughs in the streets, under tables at home—listening. Listening to the tales of the lives of the people, her writings were grounded in these grassroots, salt-of-the-earth stories and experiences of working people, of the poor, the disenfranchised, the dispossessed. She strove to make history a living, moving entity in our lives. She once said that words should heat you, they should make you rise up out of your chair and move!
She led a colorful and vibrant life. As a young woman, she studied physical culture and drama in Chicago and New York City, and she plied her talent in the silent movies in California as a stunt woman. As a young activist she lived for a time in Emma Goldman’s commune in New York City. She wrote from and was part of the great social and political movements of her time. Her writing encompasses proletarian novels, widely anthologized short stories, partisan reportage, children’s books, personal journals, and powerful feminist poetry.
Her early works, in addition to profound working class consciousness, are also focused on the struggles of women, and particularly poor women, those sterilized without their consent in so-called mental hospitals, those on the breadlines, those whose lives and oppression more traditional leftwing ideologues did not comprehend.
Her children’s books found heroes and sheroes in US history and are especially noteworthy for their non-racist depiction of Native American peoples and cultures. Meridel believed her writing could be a bridge making connections across many different cultures. The diverse communities that identify with and celebrate her work are a moving testament to the depth and power of her writing.
Meridel saw Halley’s Comet twice, once when she was 10 years old and again when she was 85. We are certain that the impact of her work will be felt the next time Halley’s comes around….and the next… and the next….seven generations and more from today! Meridel’s life and writings testify to the profoundly democratic idea that positive social change always bubbles up—and sometimes erupts—from below. With Marx she would agree that to be radical means to go to the root of things—and at the root of things are the people themselves. She would enthusiastica
A river that winds and falls and gleams erect in many dawns;
Lost in deep gulleys, it turns to dust, rushes in the spring freshet,
Emerges to the sea. The people are a story that is a long incessant
Coming alive from the earth in better wheat, Percherons,
Babies, and engines, persistent and inevitable.
The people always know that some of the grain will be good,
Some of the crop will be saved, some will return and
Bear the strength of the kernel, that from the bloodiest year
Some survive to outfox the frost.”
Meridel LeSueur, North Star Country (1945)
Meridel LeSueur’s poetry, her short stories, and novels are a beloved part of the cultural and political fabric of our times. She was one of the great women literary and communal voices of the twentieth century, which her long life spanned. In describing her own roots Meridel wrote, “I was born at the beginning of the swiftest and bloodiest century at Murray, Iowa in a white square puritan house in the corn belt, of two physically beautiful people who had come west through the Indian and the Lincoln country, creating the new race of the Americas by enormous and rugged and gay matings with the Dutch, the Indian, the Irish; being preachers, abolitionists, agrarians, radical lawyers on the Lincoln, Illinois, circuit. Dissenters and democrats and radicals through five generations.”
Meridel was born on February 22, 1900, and she died in Hudson, Wisconsin on November 14, 1996. As a child she lived in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Minnesota. She believed in giving voice to people’s struggles. She said she learned early to write down what they were saying, hiding behind water troughs in the streets, under tables at home—listening. Listening to the tales of the lives of the people, her writings were grounded in these grassroots, salt-of-the-earth stories and experiences of working people, of the poor, the disenfranchised, the dispossessed. She strove to make history a living, moving entity in our lives. She once said that words should heat you, they should make you rise up out of your chair and move!
She led a colorful and vibrant life. As a young woman, she studied physical culture and drama in Chicago and New York City, and she plied her talent in the silent movies in California as a stunt woman. As a young activist she lived for a time in Emma Goldman’s commune in New York City. She wrote from and was part of the great social and political movements of her time. Her writing encompasses proletarian novels, widely anthologized short stories, partisan reportage, children’s books, personal journals, and powerful feminist poetry.
Her early works, in addition to profound working class consciousness, are also focused on the struggles of women, and particularly poor women, those sterilized without their consent in so-called mental hospitals, those on the breadlines, those whose lives and oppression more traditional leftwing ideologues did not comprehend.
Her children’s books found heroes and sheroes in US history and are especially noteworthy for their non-racist depiction of Native American peoples and cultures. Meridel believed her writing could be a bridge making connections across many different cultures. The diverse communities that identify with and celebrate her work are a moving testament to the depth and power of her writing.
Meridel saw Halley’s Comet twice, once when she was 10 years old and again when she was 85. We are certain that the impact of her work will be felt the next time Halley’s comes around….and the next… and the next….seven generations and more from today! Meridel’s life and writings testify to the profoundly democratic idea that positive social change always bubbles up—and sometimes erupts—from below. With Marx she would agree that to be radical means to go to the root of things—and at the root of things are the people themselves. She would enthusiastica
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 11, 2014
I'm a fan of Le Sueur because she's pretty ballsy, especially for her time. Most of her stories are frank and honest depictions of women during the depression, women standing in breadlines, women who feel guilty for being pregnant or having a baby, women trying to get involved in politics while still taking care of kids and running a house, women who can barely keep themselves afloat and have to care for a family at the same time. Le Sueur shows great sympathy and understanding for these protagonists--they aren't sob stories intent on garnering our tears, but they are supposed to make us think.
This isn't the greatest collective of stories in my opinion, only because many of them are so similar. I liked the themes but often skimmed because each story followed the same basic formula. Because of Le Sueur's socialist and communist politics, she was shunned for a long time, and I think her stories have fallen beneath the surface.
But now is as good a time as any to bring them back into the light.
This isn't the greatest collective of stories in my opinion, only because many of them are so similar. I liked the themes but often skimmed because each story followed the same basic formula. Because of Le Sueur's socialist and communist politics, she was shunned for a long time, and I think her stories have fallen beneath the surface.
But now is as good a time as any to bring them back into the light.
December 4, 2016
The author unknown to me, I picked this up based on the praise chronicled on the back cover - I was not disappointed. Short stories from a woman's perspective of the hardships faced during the depression, culminating in the best of the bunch titled "I am marching".
July 19, 2012
Le Sueur should be better known. She's amazing
December 3, 2024
A thought-provoking collection of short stories all set in the Midwest during the great depression. Le Sueur conjures the collective spirit of the working class and harnesses it in a way that isn't didactic or melodramatic.
Favorite Stories: No Wine in His Cart; Fable of a Man and Pigeons; A Hungry Intellectual; Salute To Spring; I Was Marching
Favorite Stories: No Wine in His Cart; Fable of a Man and Pigeons; A Hungry Intellectual; Salute To Spring; I Was Marching
February 18, 2019
Why is this author not better known?
September 3, 2025
A lost classic. Full of angry despair, desperate struggle, dark masses scrambling for the light of history. Probably the best treatment of colloquialism in prose I've ever read.
September 12, 2007
The book I read is a series of short stories and essays, with Salute to Spring being one of them. I found her earlier work quite moving emotionally while her later work became more politically focussed on Socialism. Wonderful style.
April 26, 2008
inspiring...I do really want to translate it Indonesian, but is there any publisher wants to publish it in Indonesia? if yes, I would very-very loved to
April 23, 2015
Haunting
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews