Out of This Furnace

Last updated
Out of This Furnace
OutofThisFurnaceCover.jpg
Paperback Edition
Author Thomas Bell
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Novel, family saga
Publisher Little, Brown & University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date
1941 (rediscovered & reissued 1976)
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages424
ISBN 0-8229-5273-4
OCLC 2610527
813/.5/2
LC Class PZ3.B4153 Ou12 PS3503.E4388
Preceded byAll Brides are Beautiful 
Followed byTill I Come Back to You 

Out of This Furnace is a historical novel and the best-known work of the American writer Thomas Bell. It was first published in 1941 by Little, Brown and Company.

Contents

Description

The novel is set in Braddock, Pennsylvania, a steel town just east of Pittsburgh, along the Monongahela River. Based upon Bell's own family of Rusyn and Slovak immigrants, the story follows three generations of a family, starting with their migration in 1881 from Austria-Hungary to the United States, and finishing with World War II. The novel focuses on the steelworkers' attempt to unionize from 1889, the first Homestead strike (mentioned by Andrej on p. 38) through the big Homestead Steel Strike of 1892, the Great Steel Strike of 1919 right after World War I, and the events of the 1930s.[ citation needed ] Struggle, poverty, discrimination, and other forces beyond the characters' control tell the story of a troubled group of people. The novel's title refers to the central role of the steel mill in the family's life and in the history of the Pittsburgh region.

Reissue

Long out of print, the novel was rediscovered in the 1970s by David P. Demarest, a professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, who convinced director Frederick A. Hetzel at the University of Pittsburgh Press to reissue it in 1976. The book quickly became a regional bestseller.[ citation needed ] By the 1980s, however, it found an even larger readership on American college campuses. Out of This Furnace is regularly used as required reading in universities to introduce students to the history of immigration, industrialization, and the rise of trade unionism, as well as to the genre of the American working class novel.[ citation needed ]

Adaptations

The novel was adapted into a play by Andy Wolk, and Pittsburgh theatre company Iron Clad Agreement mounted a well-received production of it in 1977. [1] [2] Unseam'd Shakespeare Company mounted successful productions of the play in 2008 (as part of Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary) [3] and 2011. [4] [5]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Braddock, Pennsylvania</span> Borough in Pennsylvania, United States

Braddock is a borough located in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, 10 miles (16 km) upstream from the mouth of the Monongahela River. The population was 1,721 as of the 2020 census, a 91.8% decline since its peak of 20,879 in 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homestead strike</span> 1892 labor strike

The Homestead strike, also known as the Homestead steel strike, Homestead massacre, or Battle of Homestead, was an industrial lockout and strike that began on July 1, 1892, culminating in a battle in which strikers defeated private security agents on July 6, 1892. The governor responded by sending in the National Guard to protect strikebreakers. The dispute occurred at the Homestead Steel Works in the Pittsburgh-area town of Homestead, Pennsylvania, between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company. The final result was a major defeat for the union strikers and a setback for their efforts to unionize steelworkers. The battle was a pivotal event in U.S. labor history.

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References

  1. Conner, Lynne (2007). Pittsburgh In Stages: Two Hundred Years of Theater. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 178. ISBN   978-0-8229-4330-3. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
  2. Royall, Julia (2008-07-30). "Annals of Theater: The Iron Clad Agreement (1976-83) and 'Out of This Furnace'." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Post-Gazette.com). Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  3. Rawson, Christopher (2008-06-20). "Stage Review: Constraints Limit Dramatic Impact of 'This Furnace'.". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Post-Gazette.com). Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  4. "Untitled Document". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2011-07-24.
  5. Carter, Alice T. (2011-06-03). "'Out of This Furnace' Returns on a Smaller Production Scale." [ permanent dead link ]TribLive.com. Trib Total Media, Inc. Retrieved 2016-04-16.