Douglas Wixson's introduction to this new edition of Conroy's classic provides biographical information on the aspects of Conroy's life that influenced his writings, explores the socialist movement of the 1930s, and examines the critical reaction to the novel, showing why The Disinherited has endured both as historical document and as fiction.

Jack Conroy (1898-1990) was a Missouri-born writer who founded The Anvil, a Depression-era proletarian magazine famous for launching the careers of such writers as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and William Carlos Williams.

Douglas Wixson is Associate Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Rolla.  He edited The Weed King and Other Stories by Jack Conroy and is Jack Conroy's literary executor.