Two Novels, One Published

Sanora Babb

Isabel Wilkerson says "there has been no novel like The Grapes of Wrath, that looks squarely at this migration." (Northern Passage, NYTBR, January 6, 2013, Page One) Though it was not published until 2004, Sanora Babb's Whose Names Are Unknown was submitted to Bennett Cerf in 1939. Babb described in detail the same poverty migration to California from Oklahoma and Texas dust bowls. Some suspect her ideas were lifted by Steinbeck. Cerf refused to publish Babb's book fearing no market for two books on the same subject. In any case there was one other novel written.