A Trip to Czardis

This novel, published in 1966, started out in 1932 as an award-winning short story of the same title. The scenario of the short story, set in Florida, was a woman and her two sons making the journey into town to see her condemned husband for the last time. The apparent purpose of the novel is to explain why he had been sentenced to death for murder. It was at that time unusual for an author to write such a prequel and although it has stylistic merits, as a plot it seems contrived and predictable, though obviously tragic. The central character is shown to be guilty of many things connected to the death of his employer but not actually of his murder.

The author, Edwin Granberry (born 18 April 1897), moved from his native Mississippi to Florida as a child. His studies at the University of Florida were interrupted in 1918 by his service with the Marine Corps. On his return he completed his degree at Columbia University in New York and pursued an academic career. Following the success of the short story, he was appointed a lecturer in English at Rollins College in central Florida and went on to become Professor of Creative Writing there.

At the beginning of novel, the central character, Jim Cameron, a ranch hand, while in conversation with his employer, Ponce Logan, owner of the ranch, explains that he had only one been in New York  and that was “on [his] way home from the war”. There are suggestions of post-traumatic stress disorder in Cameron’s behaviour but whether it is war-related depends on exactly when the novel is set and that is unclear. Jim and Martha Cameron have two young sons and it is possible they had met and married after the war. Martha observes her husband’s episodic withdrawal into silence:
“ ‘What's the matter, Jim?’ ...
‘Nothing, Marty,’... ‘It's just one of my dumb spells. It'll pass.’...
And she was eased — for he had had his ‘dumb’ spells since the time she first knew him. And she, nor anyone, could do nothing but wait until he came back from the lonely place where he wrestled with matters known only to him and his soul.”