Return the Innocent Earth

In a novel even more timely now than when it first appeared, Wilma Dykeman interweaves past and present. The Clayburn family perseveres to create a canning company in the Great Smoky Mountains of the South at the turn of the last century, while in the present, Clayburn descendant Jon struggles against cousin and company-head Stull's amoral vision. This struggle unfolds during a crisis involving the testing of a new spray to retard growth of vegetables on the vine. Her rich variety of characters dramatizes how society and the individual can achieve a mutual understanding in the context of nature and the community.