In 1932, Erskine Caldwell’s first novel, Tobacco Road, was the center of controversy. Some critics condemned the book; others considered it to be the work of a genius. Today Caldwell’s fifty-plus books have sold more than 80 million copies worldwide, and his stature as a writer has been firmly established.

In With All My Might, his definitive autobiography, Caldwell tells about his work as a cotton picker, stagehand, professional football player, and war correspondent for Life magazine during World War II. He describes his four marriages (including the much-publicized divorce from photographer Margaret Bourke-White). He writes of the sacrifices he made and the rejections he suffered during the years he was struggling to have his work published.