PREPOSTEROUS PAPA

by Lewis Meyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 1959

In 1906 Max Meyer, the papa of the title, moved with his new wife to Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and proceeded to acquire land, children, buildings, oil-wells, gall stones, and friends. As the ""only Jewish farmer in Oklahoma"" he sparked a back-to-the-land movement for American Jews by providing an ethnic journal with photographs of himself in ten-gallon hat and Cadillac, but neglected to mention that his income derived entirely from 32 gushers which fortuitously developed on his otherwise unproductive ranch. During the terrible thirties he set up his own WPA operations and as part of his philanthropic programme forced his dependents (as he did his own family and himself) to drink large tumblers of epsom salts and hot lemon tea once a week. An orthodox Jew from Arkansas (he spoke Yiddish with an Ozark accent) he personally established the only shul in Sapulpa, practiced every known superstition, and became the best local friend to down and out Indians, for one of whom he was frequently taken himself. Lewis Meyer recounts all this and much much more in a pleasantly relaxed fashion which is replete with quite genuine humor and affection for the old Oklahoma and his gargantuan father.

Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1959

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1959

Categories: NONFICTION