Wright Morris, My Uncle Dudley

Martin Kich (Wright State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1942

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Morris’ first novel, My Uncle Dudley was published in 1942. It is narrated by a teenager known only as “The Kid.” The Kid’s Uncle Dudley is a genuine American character, more slippery than a “respectable” citizen but not heartless enough to be a full-blown confidence man. The novel is an account of a road trip in the mid-1920s from Los Angeles to Chicago. Dudley recruits a group of seven passengers who want to travel east and uses their deposits for the trip to purchase the rattletrap automobile that they will travel in. Along the way, the group must deal with mechanical breakdowns, inclement weather, and unfriendly local law enforcement. Although the Kid greatly admires his uncle’s ability to improvise a …

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317 words

Citation: Kich, Martin. "My Uncle Dudley". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 February 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=15147, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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