Ch 1 – Nuff Sed (Desert Steve), Literary & Historical Background

This is part one of a series of posts providing rich historical and literary background to my novel, Nuff Sed: a Novel of Desert Steve.

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The novel’s first scene serves as an introduction to captivate the reader. This out-of-chronological event holds significant literary and thematic importance. It marks a pivotal moment in Steve’s life and sets the tone for the narrative. Despite setbacks, Steve remains undeterred, finding innovative ways to persevere and triumph.

His solutions often come across as bold and unexpected.

Historicity and Fiction

The scene takes place when Steve is 38 years old. His wife, Lydia, is 31, and their children are 13, 11, 9, and 5 years old (Thurman, Thelma, Herbert, and Stanley).

While Mr. Jessup, the tax collector in Blythe, California, is a fictional character, the underlying events are factual. Whether Steve actually met with a tax collector in Blythe or not is uncertain, but he did take the actions depicted in the scene. It’s true that cotton prices declined after World War II, reaching a low of about 6 or 7 cents per unit. They later rose again, after Steve had given up on farming, before experiencing a further drop during the Great Depression.

This pivotal event in the novel sets the stage for Steve’s daring and transformative act that will shape the future of the American West. His audacious plan, which many deemed foolish, is foreshadowed in the final lines of dialogue.

“Gonna go change the world, Mr. Jessup. Or at least the part of it between here and Indio.”

The tax collector found his voice. “A hundred miles of empty desert?”

“Quite true.” He tipped his hat. “Farewell. I have to pay a visit to old prospector about his well.”

Chapter 12, “Can’t Get By On Six-Cent Cotton,” provides more context to this scene, while chapter 13, “I’ve a Notion to Build Here a Town,” explicitly reveals Steve’s intentions. Chapter 11, “What a Hell of a Fix We Are In,” also hints at the future.

Desert Steve’s Quotes

Desert Steve was renowned for his poor poetry and peculiar sayings. This chapter features a line from his self-published small booklet, Philosophy and Sayings of Desert Steve. He begins the booklet with a list of his “definitions.” In the novel, Steve shares his definition of a farmer with the tax collector: a farmer is a “human being, farmed to death by politicians.”

All the chapters in the novel are based on the sayings, poetry, or writings of Desert Steve, except for the first and last chapters, which merely provide dates and datelines.

Other Historical Events

January 1920: The Spanish Flu pandemic breaks out in Chicago, spreading throughout the country despite the Public Health Service’s claims of control. This was the fourth wave of the pandemic, resulting in more deaths than previous waves. By July, the pandemic, which had begun in 1918, was largely over.

July 1921: A few months after this event, Babe Ruth hit his 139th home run, surpassing Roger Conner to become the all-time leader in Major League Baseball.

Onward

The subsequent chapters in the novel proceed in chronological order, beginning with the birth of Steve Albert Ragsdale in Coffeyville, Kansas, in 1882. Stay tuned for further background information on this chapter.