Frank Carlson Library

The small Kansas county of McPherson experienced such a renaissance of art and culture in the early decades of the 20th century that the prestigious International Studio magazine proclaimed the per-capita art ownership there to be higher than anywhere in the world. The man behind the movement was Carl J. Smalley, the son of a seed store owner, whose passion for original art was fueled by a visit to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

During Sarah Smarsh's turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, the forces of cyclical poverty and the country's changing economic policies solidified her family's place among the working poor. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country and examine the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less. Her personal history...