{{short description|Αmerican writer (1907–2005)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox writer | name = Sanora Babb | image = Sanora_Babb.jpg | pseudonym = Sylvester Davis<ref name=UTexasBiography>{{cite web|title=Sanora Babb: An Inventory of Her Papers in the Manuscript Collection at the Harry Ransom Center|url=http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00501.xml|quote=The Photography of James Wong Howe, notes and photocopy of published article by Sylvester Davis, pseudonym used by Sanora Babb (published in California Arts and Architecture, 1939) |publisher=University of Texas|access-date=3 April 2013}}</ref> | birth_name = Sanora Louise Babb | birth_date = {{birth date|1907|4|21}} | birth_place = Leavenworth, Kansas, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2005|12|31|1907|4|21}} | death_place = {{nowrap|Los Angeles, California, U.S.}} | occupation = {{flatlist| * Novelist * editor * poet }} | alma_mater = University of Kansas<br>Garden City Community College | notableworks = ''An Owl on Every Post''<br>''Whose Names Are Unknown'' | spouse = {{marriage|James Wong Howe|1937|1976|reason=died}}<br>{{nowrap|{{small|(marriage not recognized in California until 1948)}}}} }}
'''Sanora Louise Babb''' (April 21, 1907 – December 31, 2005) was an American novelist, poet, and literary editor known for her realistic portrayal of life during the Great Depression Era.
Over the span of her career, she published eight books including novels, a memoir, short story collections, and a volume of poetry. After her death, she was featured in the Ken Burns 2012 documentary ''The Dust Bowl''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Dust Bowl |url=https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-dust-bowl/ |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=The Dust Bowl {{!}} Ken Burns {{!}} PBS |language=en}}</ref>
Her best known work, ''Whose Names Are Unknown'' (2004), received much critical acclaim and was a finalist for the 2005 Spur Award for the Best Western Novel<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spur Award Finalists |url=https://groups.io/g/WesternPulps/topic/spur_award_finalists/9579921 |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=groups.io |language=en-US}}</ref> and the 2005 PEN Center USA Literary Award for fiction.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2006-01-08 |title=Sanora Babb, 98; Writer Whose Masterpiece Rivaled Steinbeck's |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jan-08-me-babb8-story.html |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> The novel had been written decades prior; John Steinbeck's 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ''The Grapes of Wrath'' had been based on Babb's field notes from interviews of migrant camp families compiled for her own book. Her boss, camp manager Tom Collins, had asked her to provide a copy of her notes to Steinbeck, who dedicated his novel to his wife and to Collins, "who lived it," with no attribution to Babb, whose own work was submitted to her publisher shortly thereafter.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-10-18 |title=She Shared Her Notes with John Steinbeck. It was Her Novel's Undoing. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/18/books/booksupdate/iris-jamahl-dunkle-sanora-babb-.html |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=The New York Times |language=en-US}}</ref>
Her short stories and poems have also won recognition. Her short stories "Wildflower" and "Santa Ana" were included in ''The Best American Short Stories'' (1950 and 1960 editions) edited by Martha Foley.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Babb, Sanora {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/babb-sanora |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Her poetry collection, ''Told in the Seed'', won the Borestone Mountain Poetry Award in 1967 and her poem "Captive" from the ''Mitre Press Anthology'', London won the Gold Medal Award in 1932.<ref name="sanorababb.com">{{Cite web |title=Sanora Babb – Told in the Seed and Selected Poems |url=https://www.sanorababb.com/told_in_the_seed_and_selected_poems_.htm |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=www.sanorababb.com}}</ref> Babb's writing focuses on the themes of marginalized people and their connection to nature during the Great Depression.<ref name="sanorababb.com"/> Her other works include ''The Lost Traveler'' (1958), ''An Owl on Every Post'' (1970), ''The Dark Earth and Other Stories'' (1987), ''Cry of Tinamou'' (1997), ''Told in the Seed'' (1998), ''On the Dirty Plate Trail'' (2007), and ''The Dark Earth and Selected Prose from the Great Depression'' (2021).
==Early life== Sanora Louise Babb was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, the elder daughter of Walter L. and Anna Jeanette "Jennie" ({{nee}} Parks; later Kempner) Babb, while her father was living in what is now Red Rock, Oklahoma.<ref name="DirtyPlateTrail">{{cite book |last=Babb |first=Sanora |title=On the dirty plate trail remembering the Dust Bowl refugee camps |year=2007 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |isbn=978-0-292-71445-8 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kG6E5GrB5NoC&dq=%22Sanora%20Babb%22&pg=PA28 |edition=1st}}</ref> While neither of her parents belonged to the Otoe tribe, living in a Native American community gave Babb a heightened sensitivity to the relationship between the land and its people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sanora Babb |url=https://www.sanorababb.com/ |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=www.sanorababb.com}}</ref> Her father was a professional gambler who moved his family frequently.<ref name=":9"/> After betting on a future in dry-land farming, Walter moved his wife, Sanora, and her younger sister Dorothy to a one-room dugout on a broomcorn farm settled by her grandfather, Alonzo Babb, near Lamar, Colorado.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last1=Babb |first1=Dorothy |last2=Babb |first2=Sanora |last3=Bradbury |first3=Ray |last4=Bulosan |first4=Carlos |last5=Collins |first5=Tom |last6=Crichton |first6=Kyle |last7=Ellison |first7=Ralph |last8=Howe |first8=James Wong |last9=Koerner |first9=Henry |title=Sanora Babb: An Inventory of Her Papers in the Manuscript Collection at the Harry Ransom Center |url=https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00501 |access-date=2024-11-05 |website=norman.hrc.utexas.edu}}</ref>
Babb wrote about her experiences from this time period in her life in her ''The Lost Traveler'' (1958), an autobiographical novel that depicts a rambling gambling father from his daughter's perspective as she comes of age in the Great Depression and in ''An Owl on Every Post'' (1970), a memoir that tells Babb's story of homesteading in the Great Plains from the time she was seven years old. The town in ''An Owl on Every Post'' is Two Buttes, in Baca County, to the south of Lamar which is in Prowers County.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}
After four unsuccessful years in farming, her father moved the family to Elkhart, Kansas and then to Forgan, Oklahoma in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Babb began attending school at eleven.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Babb, Sanora 1907–2005 {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/babb-sanora-1907-2005 |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> She graduated from high school as the Valedictorian.<ref name=":102">{{Cite book |last1=Babb |first1=Sanora |title=On the dirty plate trail: remembering the Dust Bowl refugee camps |last2=Babb |first2=Dorothy |date=2007 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-71445-8 |editor-last=Wixson |editor-first=Douglas C. |edition=1. |series=Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center imprint series |location=Austin, Tex}}</ref> Afterwards, her father moved the family again to Kansas. She began studying at the University of Kansas<ref name="HTC">[http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/babb/bio/ Biography] at the Harry Ransom Center</ref> but after one year, her lack of financial resources forced her to transfer to a junior college in Garden City, Kansas.<ref name=":102"/>
== Career == Babb's volunteer work brought her alongside migrant farming communities. This volunteer work with the Farm Security Administration<ref name=":04">{{Citation |title=11 Whose Names Are Unknown |date=2024-12-31 |work=Riding Like the Wind |pages=171–185 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/9780520395473-013 |access-date=2024-11-17 |publisher=University of California Press |doi=10.1525/9780520395473-013 |isbn=978-0-520-39547-3|url-access=subscription }}</ref> would greatly influence her novel ''Whose Names Are Unknown''.
Babb began working as a printer's assistant at 12 years old.<ref name=":04"/> Following this, she worked as a schoolteacher for a short time,<ref name=":04"/> before beginning her journalism career at the ''Garden City Herald'',<ref name=":102"/> where several of her articles were redistributed by the Associated Press. She moved to Los Angeles in 1929 to work for the ''Los Angeles Times'', but the newspaper retracted its initial offer following the U.S. stock market crash of 1929.<ref name=":04"/> Babb was occasionally homeless during the Depression, sleeping at times in Lafayette Park. She eventually found secretarial work with Warner Brothers and wrote scripts for radio station KFWB. Babb joined the John Reed Club and was a member of the U.S. Communist Party for eleven years.<ref name="ClassStruggle">{{cite book |last=Horne |first=Gerald |url=https://archive.org/details/classstrugglehol00horn |title=Class struggle in Hollywood, 1930–1950: moguls, mobsters, stars, Reds, & trade unionists |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-292-73138-7 |edition=1st |location=Austin |page=[https://archive.org/details/classstrugglehol00horn/page/n105 89] |quote=a party member of 11 years |url-access=limited}}</ref> She visited the Soviet Union in 1936.<ref name=":102"/>
In 1938, Babb returned to California to work for the Farm Security Administration,<ref name="LATimes">{{cite news | first = Elaine | last= Woo | url =https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jan-08-me-babb8-story.html | title = Sanora Babb, 98; novelist's masterpiece rivaled Steinbeck's | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | date = January 21, 2006}}</ref> a position that would deeply influence the composition of her novel ''Whose Names Are Unknown''.<ref name=":04"/> While with the FSA, she kept detailed notes on her experiences in the tent camps with the Dust Bowl migrants.<ref name="LATimes" /> Babb's supervisor, Tom Collins, shared the notes with John Steinbeck,<ref name="KenBurns">{{cite web|title=The Dust Bowl – Sanora Babb biography|url=https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/bios/sanora-babb/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116090747/http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/bios/sanora-babb/|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 16, 2012|publisher=PBS|access-date=21 November 2012|quote=Unbeknownst to Babb, Collins was sharing her reports with writer John Steinbeck. Some of this reporting informed Steinbeck's 1936 series of articles The Harvest Gypsies. By the time she was ready to publish her work, in the winter of 1939, Steinbeck had come out with his own Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, ''The Grapes of Wrath''. Steinbeck's book was dedicated to Tom Collins and was an immediate best-seller—such a hit, New York editors told Babb, that the market could not bear another on the same subject.}}</ref> who had recently published several articles on migrants for the ''San Francisco News.''<ref name=":102"/> Babb turned the stories she collected into ''Whose Names Are Unknown'' and sent the first few chapters to Random House.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dunkle |first=Iris Jamahl |date=2024-10-15 |title=Steinbeck plundered her work for "The Grapes of Wrath" |url=https://www.salon.com/2024/10/15/steinbeck-mined-her-research-for-the-grapes-of-wrath-then-her-own-dust-bowl-novel-was-squashed/ |access-date=2024-10-17 |website=Salon |language=en}}</ref> Editor Bennett Cerf gave Babb an advance for her novel asking her to finish it.<ref name=":102"/> Unfortunately, with the publication of Steinbeck's ''The Grapes of Wrath,'' Cerf voided Babb's contract in 1939<ref>{{Cite news |last=Associated Press |date=January 9, 2006 |title=Novelist and Poet Sanora Babb |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> for fears that there would not be enough public support for two similar novels.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 10, 2006 |title=Sanora Babb; 1907–2005; Author who wrote of Depression era; Upstaged by Steinbeck, her book languished for 65 years |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/420372465 |work=Chicago Tribune|id={{ProQuest|420372465}} }}</ref> Babb's novel ''Whose Names Are Unknown'' was not published until 2004.
In the early 1940s, Babb was the West Coast secretary of the League of American Writers. She edited the literary magazine ''The Clipper'' and its successor ''The California Quarterly'', helping to introduce the work of Ray Bradbury and B. Traven. At the same time, she ran a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles called Ching How, owned by her future husband James Wong Howe.<sup>[https://research.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00501 <nowiki>[52]</nowiki>]</sup>
During the early years of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings investigating Hollywood for communist influence which began in 1947, Babb was blacklisted<ref name="AsianArt" /> and moved to Mexico City to protect Howe, who was "graylisted", from further harassment.<ref name="HTC" />
Babb resumed publishing books in 1958 with her novel ''The Lost Traveler'', followed in 1970 by her memoir ''An Owl on Every Post''. Babb's shelved Dust Bowl novel ''Whose Names Are Unknown'' was released by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2004.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lanzendorfer|first=Joy|date=May 23, 2016|title=The Forgotten Dust Bowl Novel That Rivaled ''The Grapes of Wrath''|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/forgotten-dust-bowl-novel-rivaled-grapes-wrath-180959196/|journal=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>
== Personal life == [[File:James Wong Howe with his wife, Sanora Babb.jpg|thumb|Babb with her husband James Wong Howe]] Starting in 1932 Babb had a long friendship with writer William Saroyan that grew into an unrequited love affair on Saroyan's part.<ref name=Balakian>{{cite book|last=Balakian|first=Nona|title=The World of William Saroyan|year=1998|publisher=Bucknell University Press|location=Lewisburg, Pennsylvania |isbn=978-0-8387-5368-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/worldofwilliamsa00bala/page/273 273]–75|url=https://archive.org/details/worldofwilliamsa00bala|url-access=registration|edition=2. print.|quote=I have never stopped thinking of you as somebody rare and extraordinary and fine and wonderful and truly beautiful.}}</ref> She also had an affair with Ralph Ellison between 1941 and 1943.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jackson|first=Lawrence|title=Ralph Ellison : emergence of genius|year=2007|publisher=University of Georgia Press| location=Athens, Georgia |isbn=978-0-8203-2993-2| pages=215–16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCEV37_oA2AC&dq=Sanora+Babb&pg=PA215|access-date=30 March 2011}}</ref>
She met the Chinese-American cinematographer James Wong Howe, and they traveled to Paris in 1937 to marry.<ref name=AsianArt>{{cite book|editor-first=Gordon H. |editor-last=Chang| editor-first2 = Mark Dean |editor-last2 = Johnson | editor-first3=Paul J. | editor-last3 = Karlstrom| editor-first4=Sharon |editor-last4=Spain|title=Asian American Art: a history, 1850-1970|year=2008|publisher=Stanford University Press|location=Stanford, California |isbn=978-0-8047-5752-2|page=333|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q2Dzco1DhfsC&dq=%22Sanora+Babb%22&pg=PA333}}</ref> Their marriage was not recognized in California because the state had an anti-miscegenation law that prohibited marriage between people of different races.<ref name="LATimes" /> Howe's traditional Chinese views prevented him from cohabiting with Babb while they were not legally married, so they maintained separate apartments in the same building.<ref name=LisaSee>{{cite book|last=See|first=Lisa|title=On Gold Mountain|year=2009|publisher= Rosetta Books |isbn=978-0-7953-0496-5|pages=214–15|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fb37jTpg3foC&dq=Sanora+Babb&pg=PA214|access-date= March 29, 2011}}</ref> Furthermore, Howe's studio contract had a "morals clause" that prohibited him from publicly acknowledging their relationship.
Howe and Babb did not legally marry in California until 1948, after the court case ''Perez v. Sharp'' overturned the state marriage ban.<ref name=":0">32 Cal. 2d 711, 198 P. 2d 17 (Cal. 1948).</ref> When the couple found a judge who agreed to perform the marriage, he reportedly stated: "She looks old enough. If she wants to marry a chink, that's her business".<ref name="MovieMaker">{{cite magazine|last=Lee|first=James|title=Master DP James Wong Howe|date=August 1, 1996|url=https://www.moviemaker.com/master-dp-james-wong-howe-3161/|magazine=MovieMaker|access-date=May 1, 2023|quote=When the miscegenation laws were repealed, it took them three days to find a judge who would marry them. When they finally did, the judge remarked 'She looks old enough. If she wants to marry a chink, that's her business.'}}</ref>
Babb's political connections indicate a leftward, progressive lean. Mish and Whisenhunt note that Babb's connections to the Communist Party, among other liberal organizations, indicate Babb was "influenced by leftist ideals".<ref name=":23">{{Cite book |last1=Mish |first1=Jeanetta Calhoun |title=Transcending Regional Literature: Teaching Sanora Babb |last2=Whisenhunt |first2=Cullen |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=2021}}</ref> In fact, she would sever ties with the Communist Party-USA because the party was not liberal enough for her views.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Wald |first=Alan |title=Sanora Babb In Her Time and Ours |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=2021 |location=Unknown No More: Recovering Sanora Babb. Edited by Joanne Dearcopp and Christine Hill Smith}}</ref> Babb's engagement with the John Reed Club in the 1930s connected her to other writers of the time, such as Edna St. Vincent Millay.<ref name=":3" />
Babb's progressive leanings ultimately lead her to being blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Dunkle |first=Iris Jamahl |title=Riding like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb |publisher=Lightning Source Inc. |year=2024}}</ref> At one point, she was forced to flee the United States for Mexico.<ref name=":3" /> Babb returned to the U.S. in 1951 and settled in Los Angeles, California. Babb became part of the LA writing group started by Ray Bradbury<ref name=":102"/> and taught classes on fiction at UCLA.<ref name=":42">{{Cite journal |last=Larson |first=Mary A |date=2022-10-18 |title=Unknown No More: Recovering Sanora Babb. Edited by Joanne Dearcopp and Christine Hill Smith |url=https://academic.oup.com/whq/article/53/4/436/6655573 |journal=Western Historical Quarterly |language=en |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=436–456 |doi=10.1093/whq/whac056 |issn=0043-3810|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Babb continued to write and publish well into her eighties.<ref name=":102" />
==Death and posthumous publications== Babb died in her Los Angeles home on December 31, 2005, at the age of 98 due to natural causes according to her editor, Joanne Dearcopp.<ref>{{Cite news |last=The Associated Press |date=2006 |title=Sanora Babb, 98, Writer of Novel of the Depression, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/arts/sanora-babb-98-writer-of-novel-of-the-depression-dies.html |access-date=November 24, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> Before her death, she was widowed by her husband, James Wong Howe, who died in 1976.<ref name=":8">{{Cite news |last=Hanley |first=Robert |date=July 16, 1976 |title=James Wong Howe Dies: Noted Cinematographer |work=New York Times}}</ref> She left no immediate survivors, but Joanne Dearcoppe, who knew Babb for over 60 years, was named literary executor.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |date=January 8, 2006 |title=Sanora Babb, 98; Writer Whose Masterpiece Rivaled Steinbeck's |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jan-08-me-babb8-story.html |access-date=November 24, 2024 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>
Dearcopp has published additional work by Babb posthumously in addition to pursuing recovery work of Babb's writings. At the time of Babb's death, only one year had passed since ''Whose Names Are Unknown'' was published by the University of Oklahoma Press, which both ''The New York Times'' and ''Los Angeles Times'' noted in the obituaries they published.
== Reception and legacy == The reception for ''Whose Names Are Unknown'' has been largely positive. Scholars and reviewers have praised its realistic depiction of a family affected by The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl in addition to its role in introducing a progressive, feminist approach to a story known most famously from a male author, John Steinbeck. Despite critical acclaim, much speculation has ensued on the relationship (or lack thereof) between Babb and Steinbeck.
Babb's works are tied to many areas of contemporary literary and cultural studies, including Regional Studies, Great Plains Studies, Dust Bowl Studies, California Studies, and Rural Studies. Her works are also relevant to Working Class Studies, Migrant Literature, and Environmental/Nature Writing.<ref name=":23"/> Additionally, her writing has been compared to Willa Cather and Laura Ingalls Wilder.<ref name=":42"/>
Babb's life and work featured prominently in Ken Burns's documentary ''The Dust Bowl''<ref name=":12"/> and Kristin Hannah's ''Four Winds'' was influenced by ''Whose Names Are Unknown'' and Babb's related fieldwork. Most recently, Iris Jamahl Dunkle's biography, ''Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb,'' seeks to recover her works, arguing that Babb's work was not only overshadowed by Steinbeck, but that her notes provided the basis for his novel.<ref name=":12" />
== ''Whose Names Are Unknown'' Summary == Babb's critical dustbowl novel, ''Whose Names Are Unknown'', was published a year before her death after being shelved for over 60 years. The novel, which centers on the hardship and ultimate westward migration of the Dunne family, was a victim of "poor timing",<ref name=":42"/> as John Steinbeck's ''Grapes of Wrath'' was published concurrently. An observant narrator follows the family, consisting of father Milt, mother Julia, their two daughters Myra and Lonnie, and Milt's father, affectionately called Konkie by his granddaughters. Konkie (Old Man Dunne) was influenced Babb's real-life grandfather, Alonzo Babb.<ref name=":23"/> The family resides on an Oklahoman farm in a tiny dugout which is far too small for the family.
The family faces hardship, from geographical hardship related to crops and farming as well as the Dust Bowl. Further, their finances are deeply intwined in the local grocery, as well as land taxes. There is animosity between ranchers and farmers, not to mention family farmers and local banks.
At the beginning of the novel, Julia is pregnant with a son she loses. The community, even in their own dire straits, rallies to emotionally support the family. Poverty and lack of resources contribute to Julia's child loss, and the daughters continue to grow more and more frail. The family sells what they can including limited crops and Julia's treasured piano.
During the Dust Bowl, Julia chronicles the oppressive dust in diary entries. These journals reflect Babb's mother's observations of the Dust Bowl.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMIQ5P0vMDs |title=Metropolitan Library System: Oklahoma Moments – Sanora Babb |date=2010-05-28 |last=metrolibrary |access-date=2024-11-27 |via=YouTube}}</ref>
After a series of continued oppressive events, the family is forced to flee to California, leaving Konkie behind. In California, the family experiences more hardship, staying in migrant farm camps like those Babb had volunteered in and observed. The family is forced to work for pittance, and it is only through banding together with other migrant farm workers that they begin to exert agency.
Schooling of children features prominently in the novel. Even as the poor Oklahoma farm families struggle to survive, they are devoted to providing school access for their children. This is continued in California, although the children resist attending school, even with threat of truancy charges, due to the use of the pejorative "Okie" against migrant farmworkers and their children.
==Works==
=== Books === * ''The Lost Traveler'', 1958 * ''An Owl on Every Post'', 1970 * ''Dark Earth and Other Stories from the Great Depression'' — printed in one volume with Lew Amster, ''The Killer Instinct and Other Stories from the Great Depression'', Santa Barbara, CA : Capra Press, 1987, {{ISBN | 978-0-88496-283-0}} * ''Cry of the Tinamou'', 1997, Muse Ink Press (27. Juli 2021), {{ISBN | 978-0985991555}} * ''Told in the Seed'', 1998, Muse Ink Press (30. Juli 2021), {{ISBN | 978-0985991548}} * ''Whose Names Are Unknown'', Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004, {{ISBN | 0-8061-3579-4}} * ''On the Dirty Plate Trail: Remembering the Dust Bowl Refugee Camps'', 2007, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007, {{ISBN | 978-0-292-71445-8}} * ''The Dark Earth and Selected Prose from the Great Depression'', Muse Ink Press (24 Aug. 2021), {{ISBN|978-0985991579}}
=== Short stories === * "The Larger Cage"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1953 |title=The Larger Cage |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4609627 |journal=The Antioch Review |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=168–180 |doi=10.2307/4609627 |jstor=4609627 |issn=0003-5769|url-access=subscription }}</ref> ''The Anitoch Review,'' vol. 13, no. 2, 1953, pp. 168–80. * "The Tea Party"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=March 1956 |title=The Tea Party |url=https://ezp.twu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/tea-party/docview/2007367349 |journal=Seventeen |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=110–11, 142, 145, 175–77 |id={{ProQuest|<!-- Add ProQuest data here -->}}}}</ref> ''Seventeen'', vol. 15, no. 3, 1956, 0p. 110, 142, 145, 175–77. * "The Wild Flower"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Babb |first=Sanora |title=The Best American Short Stories 1950 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=1950 |editor-last=Foley |editor-first=Martha |location=Boston |chapter=The Wild Flower}}</ref> in ''The Best American Short Stories 1950,'' edited by Martha Foley. * "Night of Yearning"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1959 |title=Night of Yearning |url=https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezp.twu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=eed53fa4-014d-4c65-a098-e0bfcbc61cf7%40redis |journal=Saturday Evening Post |volume=232 |issue=22 |pages=20–106 |via=EBSCOhost}}</ref> ''Saturday Evening Post'', vol. 232, no. 22, Nov. 1959, pp. 20106. * "The Santa Ana"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Babb |first=Sanora |title=The Best American Short Stories 1960 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=1960 |editor-last=Foley |editor-first=Martha |location=Boston |publication-date=1960 |chapter=The Santa Ana}}</ref> in ''The Best American Short Stories 1960,'' edited by Martha Foley.
=== Poems === * "Spring Wooing"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1933 |title=Spring Wooing |journal=Prairie Schooner |volume=7 |issue=1 |page=66 }}</ref> ''Prairie Schooner'', vol. 7, no. 1, 1933, p. 66. * "Essence"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1933 |title=Essence |journal=Prairie Schooner |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=93 |jstor=}}</ref> ''Prairie Schooner,'' vol. 7, no. 2, 1933, p. 93. * "Why Does the Dog Howl on the Midnight Hill?"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1956 |title=Why Does the Dog Howl on the Midnight Hill |url=https://hdl.handle.net/10222/58682 |journal=Dalhousie Review |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=58|hdl=10222/58682 }}</ref> ''Dalhousie Review'', vol. 36, 1956, p. 58. * "Allegro Con Fuoco"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1956 |title=Allegro Con Fuoco |url=https://hdl.handle.net/10222/58682 |journal=Dalhousie Review |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=58|hdl=10222/58682 }}</ref> ''Dalhousie Review'', vol. 36, 1956, p. 58. * "The Visitor"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1963 |title=The Visitor |journal=Dalhousie Review |volume=36 |pages=189}}</ref> ''Dalhousie Review,'' vol. 43, no. 2, 1963, p. 189. * "Old Snapshots: Poem."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1965 |title=Old Snapshots: 'Poem' |journal=Prairie Schooner |volume=39 |pages=302}}</ref> ''Prairie Schooner'', vol. 39, 1965, p. 302. * "Told in the Seed"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1966 |title=Told in the Seed |url=https://thesouthernreview.org/contributors/detail/sanora-babb/96 |journal=The Southern Review (Baton Rouge) |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=117}}</ref> ''The Southern Review (Baton Rouge)'', vol. 2, no. 1, 1966, p. 117. * "Night Visit"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1981 |title=Night Visit |url=https://thesouthernreview.org/contributors/detail/sanora-babb/96 |journal=The Southern Review (Baton Rouge) |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=583}}</ref> ''The Southern Review (Baton Rouge)'', vol. 17, no. 3, 1981, p. 583. * "The Last Year"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1987 |title=The Last Year |journal=Hawaii Review |issue=21 |pages=20}}</ref> ''Hawaii Review,'' 1987, p. 20. * "Above Malpaso Creek"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1988 |title=Above Malpaso Creek |journal=Hawaii Review |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=54}}</ref> ''Hawaii Review,'' vol. 12, no. 2, 1988, p. 54. * "Night in a Greek Village"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Babb |first=Sanora |date=1990 |title=Night in a Greek Village |url=https://thesouthernreview.org/contributors/detail/sanora-babb/96 |journal=The Southern Review (Baton Rouge) |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=679}}</ref> ''The Southern Review (Baton Rouge)'', vol. 26, no. 3, 1990, p. 679.
==References== {{Reflist}}
=== Further reading === * Joanne Dearcopp, Christine Hill Smith (Ed.): ''Unknown no more: recovering Sanora Babb'', Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, (2021), {{ISBN | 978-0-8061-6936-1}} * Iris Jamahl Dunkle: ''Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb'': University of California Press, (2024), {{ISBN|978-0520395442}}
==External links== * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=freqeMXgrvk Riding Like the Wind: Sanora Babb Book Club with presenter Iris Jamahl Dunkle] * [https://sites.utexas.edu/ransomcentermagazine/2012/11/15/sanora-babb/ Sanora Babb: Stories from the American High Plains] * [http://www.sanorababb.com/ Sanora Babb Website] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7xvYYZdj-s YouTube video about Sanora Babb: The Greatest Writer You've Never Heard Of] * [https://www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/10-facts-about-fearless-writer-sanora-babb Ten Intriguing Facts About the Fearless Sanora Babb] * [https://research.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00501 Sanora Babb: An Inventory of Her Papers in the Manuscript Collection at the Harry Ransom Center]
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