State Fair (novel)

This article is about the original 1932 novel. For the later film and musical versions, see State Fair (1933 film), State Fair (1945 film), State Fair (1962 film), State Fair (1976 film), and State Fair (musical).
State Fair
Dust jacket art for 1932 first edition
AuthorPhil Stong
LanguageEnglish
GenreRealistic fiction
Published1932 by Century Co. of Philadelphia
Publication placeUnited States
ISBN9780854681877

State Fair is a 1932 novel by Phil Stong about an Iowa farm family's visit to the Iowa State Fair, where the family's two teenage children each fall in love, but ultimately break up with their respective new loves and return to their familiar life back on the farm. Thomas Leslie, the author of Iowa State Fair: Country Comes to Town, wrote that the novel State Fair is "a surprisingly dark coming-of-age story that took as its major plot device the effects of the 'worldly temptations' of the Iowa State Fair on a local farming family", capturing tensions between urban Des Moines and rural Iowa.[1]

The novel is apparently set in 1928: two fairgoers are overheard discussing the merits of the presidential candidates Herbert Hoover (born in West Branch, Iowa) and Al Smith (on page 109). Also, the wise Storekeeper character later says "We're going to have a depression and a big one before another year's out." (p. 262)

The novel became a bestseller and established Stong as a popular author.[2] Shortly after its publication, the novel was made into a Hollywood film starring Will Rogers[3] (albeit with the addition of a happy "Hollywood ending" not in the book[4]), and was subsequently adapted for the stage and screen several more times, including as a Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musical in 1945.[4][5][6]

  1. ^ Leslie, Thomas (2007). Iowa State Fair: Country Comes to Town. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-1568985688.
  2. ^ Rasmussen, Chris (2015). Carnival in the Countryside: The History of the Iowa State Fair. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. pp. 134–135. ISBN 978-1-60938-357-2.
  3. ^ Rasmussen, p. 142.
  4. ^ a b Rasmussen, p. 144.
  5. ^ Hassler, Donald M. (2001). "Phil(ip) (Duffield) Stong". In Greasley, Philip A. (ed.). Dictionary of Midwestern Literature: The Authors. Vol. 1. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 474–475. ISBN 0253336090.
  6. ^ McCown, Robert A. (1996). "Foreword". In Stong, Phil (ed.). State Fair (Harold Matson Co. ed.). Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press. pp. vii–xiv. ISBN 0877455694.