Capital City

First published in the dark days immediately before World War II, Capital City is Mari Sandoz’s angriest and most political novel. Like many important American novels of the 1930s—John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Jack Conroy’s The Disinherited, Robert Cantwell's Land of Plenty—Capital City depicts the troubles of working people trapped in the Great Depression. A unique portrayal of how the Depression affected the Great Plains, it examines the forces that bitterly contended for wealth and power. Sandoz researched the daily life and behind-the-scenes operations of several state capitals in the thirties before synthesizing them in this novel, which is part allegory, part indictment, part warning. Famous for her passionate writing, Sandoz imbued Capital City with the full measure of her outrage.

Mari Sandoz (1896–1966) is one of Nebraska’s foremost authors. She wrote twenty-three books about the High Plains region, including Crazy Horse, Cheyenne Autumn, and Old Jules, available in Bison Books editions.

Terese Svoboda is the author of four novels, most recently Tin God (Nebraska 2006), and grew up on the edge of the Sandhills.