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I got a heap of books to read and ne’er a one have I read yet but two or maybe three. You could never read all the books in the world, I reckon, if you read all your days until you’re old.
-Elizabeth Madox Roberts, The Time of Man

Literary Works of Elizabeth Madox Roberts

In the Great Steep's Garden (1915)
Privately published.

Early poetry depicting the wildflowers of Colorado.

Photography by Kenneth Hartley.
Under the Tree (1922)
Viking Press.

Fifty-nine poems which constitute a complete and beautifully realized child's eye world of a family and a small Kentucky farm town of a century ago.  As a poetic realization of the author's childhood in Springfield, KY, it is a classic of children's literature.

Illustrations by F.D. Bedford.
The Time of Man (1926)
Viking Press.

The story of one exceptional woman--Ellen Chesser--and the epic drama of the common human struggle to live and love honorably, yet with passion.
My Heart and My Flesh (1927)
Viking Press.

The overwhelming novel of a girl driven by the brutalities of passion and life.  A young girl, Theodosia, is driven to the far edges of madness by the blows of fate and the wayward passions of others.
Jingling in the Wind (1928)
Viking Press.

A glowing romance of love and joy in the wide open hill country.  The story of an unforgettable hero, Jeremy, and Tulip, the girl who captures his heart.
The Great Meadow (1930)
Viking Press.

The sweeping romantic saga of young lovers on the Kentucky trail in a richly woven tapestry of Colonial America.  A stunning and lyrical contrast between genteel, pre-Revolutionary Virginia and the wild, terrifying landscape beyond the Cumberland Mountains.  Young Berk Jarvis and his new bride, Diony Hall, bid farewell to the peaceful Virginia countryside on their way to a new life in the harsh wilderness of Kentucky.
Under the Tree (Revised Edition - 1930)
A Buried Treasure (1931)
The Literary Guild.

A novel filled with simple beauty and unexpected love.  Andy Blair lived in the Kentucky hills, absorbed in the family struggle of wresting a living from the soil.  Then one day he discovered a pot of gold--a literal buried treasure--and believed he was rich beyond his dreams.  But was he?  This is the story of what happened next--of footsteps in the dark, whispered secrets, sudden and surprising marriage, of how in a few days the lives of several people changed.
The Haunted Mirror (1932)
Viking Press.

A volume of seven short stories.
He Sent Forth A Raven (1935)
Viking Press.

The powerful novel of a man's obsession and the women he enslaved.  When the woman he loved died, Stoner Drake's magnificent world shattered.  That was when he made his strange vow.  This is the story of Stoner Drake's haunting obsession, of his hold over Martha's will, and of Jocelle's fight for freedom from those whose love threatened to smother her.
Black is My Truelove's Hair (1938)
Viking Press.

The story of an innocent girl's impassioned love affair.  Dena Janes, a pretty girl from a small Kentucky village, had never known adult passion until she met Langtry--darkly handsome, brutally masculine, and persuasive.  In Langtry's arms, Dena became a woman, but this did not prepare her for what was to follow.
Song in the Meadow (1940)
 Viking Press.

Fifty-six mature, deep-flowing, and marvelously lyrical poems.  The first group includes poems of childhood in the vein of her first work.  The lyrics of the second group concern themselves with the contemporary world, and embrace an astonishing variety of moods and scenes.  The final section contains Kentucky legends in verse.
Not by Strange Gods (1941)
 Viking Press.

A volume of six short stories.
Flood (2012)
Des Hymnagistes Press.

Roberts' unfinished novel about the 1937 Louisville Flood was posthumously published by the Elizabeth Madox Roberts Society in 2012. The 96 page manuscript tells the story of Joel Marsh, a 26 year old farm boy from Roberts’ native Washington County, Kentucky, who travels to flooded Louisville in order to rescue his sister, Tansy, and her two children who live in the hard-hit Portland neighborhood in the west end of the city.

Edited and with an introduction by Vicki Barker.

Selected Criticism

The EMRS Bibliography of Roberts Criticism is a work in progress.
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