Tobacco Road is one of the most widely read and discussed books of our time.  Brilliantly realistic in its picture of moral and physical decay among the impoverished sharecroppers and tenant farmers of the South, this novel has been universally acclaimed for its high literary merit and for its socially significant viewpoint. Throughout the book there runs a skillfully drawn thread of rich humor, imparting to the reader a sympathetic understanding of the shocking state in which many Americans still live.  Erskine Caldwell has long been regarded as one of our foremost writers, and most readers would give Tobacco Road a prominent place in the list of his writings.