Uncle Henry Wallace

by Zachary Michael Jack, Henry Wallace

Overview

Back in print for the first time in over a century, the real heart and soul of the eldest Henry Wallace is revealed in his open letters to America's farm families. These homespun, secular epistles show that Wallace never lost sight of his roots even as he hobnobbed with U.S. Presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to Woodrow Wilson, anchored the prestigious Country Life Commission, and edited the most famous agricultural magazine of its day, Wallaces' Farmer. Who better to yoke the sacred, agrarian arts of stewardship, husbandry, and parenting than writer-philosopher-farmer-conservationist-minister-educator-public benefactor extraordinaire Uncle Henry Wallace, the man who planted the seeds of honorable public service in his own world-famous son and grandson, Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace and Vice President and Presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace, respectively. Culled from more than a half dozen volumes of Wallace's writing for farm families, Uncle Henry Wallace: Letters to Farm Families captures the spirit of a man journalist Ray Stannard Baker called a sort of oracle for advice on everything from the best ways of feeding calves to bringing up boys.Compiled and introduced by fourth-generation Iowa farmer's son Zachary Michael Jack, himself the great-grandson of famed agricultural writer Walter Thomas Jack, these timeless, down-to-earth missives that are meant to be shared, then as now, between farm-loving grandparents and grandchildren, parents and children, and teachers and students of all ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557534934
Publisher:	Purdue University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2008
Pages:	215
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Zachary Michael Jack has authored or edited more than a half dozen books. Jack's most recent edited collection, Letters to a Young Iowan: Good Sense from the Good Folks of Iowa for Young People Everywhere reflects his ongoing commitment to today's young people. An assistant professor of English, Jack teaches courses in writing and rural studies and urban studies at North Central College (Naperville, Illinois).

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface: Uncle Henry When You Need Him     xi
Acknowledgments     xvii
Introducing Henry Wallace     1
Editor's Note     37
Letters to the Farm Boy     39
Prefaces to Uncle Henry's Letters to the Farm Boy     41
Advice for the Farm Hobbledehoy     42
The Farm Boy and His Father     42
The Farm Boy and His Mother     45
The Farm Boy and His Temper     47
The Farm Boy and His Chum     51
The Farm Boy and His Future Business     54
The Farm Boy and His Fun     57
The Farm Boy and His Education     60
The Farm Boy and His Start in Life     64
The Farm Boy and His Habits     68
The Farm Boy from Home     73
The Farm Boy Hobbledehoy-Neither Man nor Boy     77
Cautionary Tales for the Farm Hobbledehoy     81
The "Scrap Heap" for Boys     81
About the Hardup Family     84
About the Richman Family     88
About the Hardman Family     93
Commercial Morality     99
The Brodhead Family     105
Letters to the Farm Folk     109
Uncle Henry's Preface to Letters to the FarmFolk     111
Advice for the Farm Parent     111
The Mother on the Farm     111
The Home Life of the Farm Folk     114
The Social Life of the Farm Folk     117
Improving the Social Life in the Country     120
Getting the Farm Boy Started Right     123
Proper Brain Food for Farm Folks     126
Differences in the Farm Home     130
Advice for the Farm Couple     134
Friction in the Farm Home     134
Work on the Farm     138
Farm Folks and their Neighbors     140
Advice for the Farm Grandparent     144
Farm Folks Who Have Failed     144
Growing Old on the Farm     147
Rounding Out Life on the Farm     150
Uncle Henry's Own Story, Letters to the Great-Grandchildren     155
The Wallace Boys' Preface to Uncle Henry's Own Story     157
Uncle Henry's Own Story     158
Recreations     159
The New Barn     161
Manners and Customs     165
The Small College     168
Corn Growing and the First Corn Train     173
Letters from Tributes to Henry Wallace     177
A Letter from the Sons of Henry Wallace     179
A Letter from the Daughters of Henry Wallace     185
Compositions from Wallace School Pupils     186
Excerpts from Henry Wallace's Last Will     187
About the Editor     191
Notes     193