Thomas Sigismund Stribling (March 4, 1881 – July 8, 1965) was an American writer. Although he acquired a law degree and practiced law for a few years, his career was mainly that of an author of fiction. Known first for adventure stories published in fiction magazines, he later published novels of social satire set mainly in the southern USA. His best-known work is the Vaiden trilogy, set in Florence, Alabama. The first volume is The Forge (1931). He won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1933 for the second novel of this series, The Store. The last, set during the 1920s, is The Unfinished Cathedral (1934). Both the second and third novels were chosen as selections by the Literary Guild.
His popularity during the 1920s and 1930s also inspired the adaptation of his works for other media. Three of his novels were adapted: Birthright was adapted twice as a movie, in 1924 (now lost) and 1939 (only part survives). Teeftallow and Fobombo were each adapted as plays with other titles (see Adaptations below) and produced on Broadway in New York City in 1928 and 1932, respectively.
Life Born March 4, 1881, in Clifton, Tennessee, a small town near the Tennessee River, Thomas Sigismund Stribling was the first child of lawyer Christopher Columbus Stribling and his wife, Amelia Ann (Waits) Stribling. The senior Stribling had served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, while his wife's Waits male relatives had fought for the Confederacy. T.S. Stribling later said that this difference resulted in his being a "doubter and a questioner" (Bain, 433). He spent summers with his Waits grandparents on their farm in Lauderdale County, Alabama, where he later set several of his novels in the city of Florence. He later drew from the family stories of his parents, grandparents and extended family on both sides to create his post-Reconstruction era novels, which were set mostly in the South.
Stribling completed his high school education at the age of seventeen, at Huntingdon Southern Normal University in 1899, in the nearby town of Huntingdon, Tennessee. By this time Stribling was convinced that he was meant to be a writer, having already sold his first story at the age of 12 for five dollars. With that in mind, Stribling became the editor of a small weekly newspaper named the Clifton News. Stribling was hoping to use the Clifton News to enter into his writing career, but he worked there for only about a year before his parents convinced him to return to school and complete his education. During the autumn of 1902, Stribling graduated from the Florence Normal School, which developed later as the University of North Alabama, in Florence, Alabama. Stribling earned his teaching certification in one year for grades through high school.
Stribling married Louella Kloss (1899—1993) on August 6, 1930, in the office of the Circuit Court clerk at the Alcorn County Court House. Justice of the Peace J. Sam Henderson performed the ceremony.T.S. STRIBLING MARRIES.; Writer and Miss Louella Kloss Wed In Corinth, Miss. Early career In 1903, Stribling relocated to Tuscaloosa, to teach at Tuscaloosa High School. He taught both mathematics and physical education. He taught there for one year before departing, having "no idea whatever of discipline" in the classroom (Kunitz, 1359); he preferred to continue his own education.
In 1905, Stribling completed his law degree at the University of Alabama School of Law. He passed the bar but used his newly earned degree for only a brief time. During less than two years, he served as clerk in the Florence law office of George Jones; as one of the practicing lawyers in the Florence law office of Governor Emmett O'Neal; and as a lawyer for the law office of John Ashcraft. Instead of working on clients' cases, Stribling often used the office supplies, typewriter, and paid hours to develop his writing skill. By advice of his fellow lawyers, Stribling ended practicing law in 1907.
Writing career
After relocating to Nashville, Tennessee in 1907, Stribling found a job at the Taylor-Trotwood Magazine as a writer, salesman of advertisements and subscriptions, and "a sort of sublimated office boy" (Kunitz, 1359). While working there, Stribling had two works of fiction published: The Imitator and The Thrall of the Green, both including the social themes for which he would later become known.
Repeating his pattern and encouraged by his small success, Stribling quit the magazine in 1908. He relocated to New Orleans where he produced "Sunday-school stories at the phenomenal rate of seven per day; many of these stories were eventually published by denominational publishing houses" (Martine, 73). Stribling wrote many more Sunday-school stories.
He became known even better for his adventure stories for boys, which were printed in various "pulp" magazines such as The American Boy, Holland's Magazine, The Youth's Companion, Adventure and Everybody's Magazine. These writings enabled Stribling, for the first time, to live by the profits of his creative ability. For Adventure, Stribling wrote detective stories featuring his psychologist sleuth Doctor Poggioli.DeAndrea, William. "Stribling, T(homas) S(igismund)" in Encyclopedia Mysteriosa. MacMillan, 1994 (p. 342). Stribling also wrote some science fiction stories with satirical themes, such as "The Green Splotches" (1920), about aliens in South America, and "Mogglesby" (1930), featuring intelligent apes.Moskowitz, Sam. "T. S. Stribling, Subliminal Science-Fictionist". Fantasy Commentator, Winter 1989/1990 (pp. 230-243, 277-296).
Novels In 1917, his novel The Cruise of the Dry Dock was published with a limited printing of 250 copies. This was Stribling's first effort at a novel. It was influenced strongly by his adventure writings for boys that were published in various magazines. This World War I story set in the German submarine-infested waters of the Sargasso Sea, where an American crew tries to escape capture and certain death by the enemy. "A potboiler, The Cruise of the Dry Dock is neither in its style nor its choice of subject matter particularly original or impressive." (Martine, 73)
His second novel, Birthright, was first serialized in seven parts in Century Magazine, then collected and published in book form in 1922.T. S. Stribling, Birthright, New York: The Century Company, 1922 This is considered to be Stribling's first serious novel, in which he attempts to "tell the truth" about the negro problem. Birthright was praised by critics in both the black and white communities, but it also received mixed reviews. Set during the early 20th century, Birthright is the story of Peter Siner, a young African-American of mixed-race (referred to as mulatto), who has graduated from Harvard and returned to his home town, the fictional Hooker's Bend, Tennessee. He intends to teach in a black school and has hopes of developing a higher level training school, such as Tuskegee or Hampton Institute. He wants to help his race and also help ameliorate racial troubles in the village and the South. There he struggles against prejudices of both whites and blacks.T. S. Stribling, Birthright, New York: The Century Company, 1922, pp. 1-14, et al.
His black mother Caroline Siner is a washwoman, and wants him to rise above this place. He indirectly meets his white father for the first time, an older "gentleman", who had helped pay for college, hires him as an assistant to help compile a memoir, and encourages his training school plans. But few others approve of it, and Peter makes social mistakes among both blacks and whites in the small town. Peter finally marries Cissie, a young woman described as an octoroon (meaning she is three-quarters white) and very light with straight hair. She also was educated away from town, but wants to leave, especially after becoming pregnant by a white youth. The couple flee the South, migrating to Chicago, where Peter can take a business job held for him by a Harvard classmate. The Independent found this effort worthy but too bound by stereotypes and the author promoting a theory.
Birthright was a major departure for Stribling from his pulp adventure stories. It is a social critique of not only the discriminatory practices of the South, but in all of America. He notes the social rules, taboos and racial laws of the South, such as Jim Crow laws and the Tennessee-initiated Segregation Seating Act for Railroad Cars (1881) (blacks entering the state were required to leave the general cars and move to the segregated car, generally in poorer condition).
This novel also represents ongoing population movements, such as "The Great Migration" of blacks from the mostly rural South to Northern and Midwestern industrial cities. "From 1910 to 1930 between 1.5 million and 2 million African Americans left the South for the industrial cities of the North." The Pennsylvania Railroad hired blacks for construction and to work on its rapidly expanding lines across the country. Many blacks became Pullman workers, considered a good job at the time. World War I had begun in Europe, and although America had not joined the conflict, it was supplying goods for the war. Northern manufacturers recruited Southern black workers to fill the high demand for factory workers. Additionally, some blacks left the South to escape Jim Crow laws and racial violence.
During the time that Stribling was writing his adventure stories, he was also traveling extensively, in Europe, Cuba and Venezuela. In Venezuela Stribling was inspired to write the novels Fombombo (1923), Red Sand (1924), and Strange Moon (1929). All three are set in Venezuela, and all three explore the country's different social and ethnic classes. He adds some romance and adventure also. All three novels are classified as among the less serious of Stribling's works.
With Teeftallow (1926) and Brightmetal (1928), Stribling returned to novels set in Middle Tennessee and offering social satire. He became well known for this style. These two novels have some overlap in characters. They explore the problems of the South through the eyes of local whites, both poor and middle class. Neither book gained much critical praise, but both were well received by readers.
Vaiden trilogy 1930 was a significant year for Stribling. That year he produced his eleventh novel, The Forge (1931), the first book of a trilogy and social satire concerning three generations of the Vaiden family. That year he also married Lou Ella Kloss, a music teacher and hometown friend. They settled in Clifton, Tennessee.
Set in Florence, Alabama, this trilogy follows the Vaiden family from the Civil War and postwar period of emancipation of slaves, to the post-Reconstruction era during the late nineteenth century, and lastly, to the 1920s. Stribling was one of the most popular writers of his time, and the novels are considered significant in Southern literature: "Through not great literary art, Stribling's trilogy is, nevertheless, historically significant; for in The Forge, The Store, and Unfinished Cathedral, Stribling introduced a subject matter, themes, plot elements, and character types which parallel and at the same time anticipate those that William Faulkner, who owned copies of this trilogy, would treat in Absalom, Absalom! and in the Snopes trilogy." (Martine, 76) These three novels represent an ambitious overview of social, political and economic issues encountered in the South by blacks and whites and various social classes among them.