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MARK'S OWN by Sarah Atherton Kirkus Star

MARK'S OWN

By

Pub Date: Feb. 14th, 1941
Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill

Do you remember a book, a best seller a generation ago, The Iron Woman? This book recalled that, not because of its story, but because there is, in both books, a central woman character whose personality dominates the other characters, even when she has gone. And because in both stories, a basic industry is really the focus of the story, -- in one, the steel industry, in the other, anthracite coal. ""Mark's Own"" is the name of a mine, and through the story of that mine, from the earliest tracing of boundaries, to the closing down when the coal regions seemed doomed in the '20's', one follows 75 years of American industrial battle, with labor slowly and painfully securing small gains against fearful odds. The story is not the story of the miners, although they are always an integral part of the pattern. It is the story of owners, who tried to keep ahead of their time, who built staunchly their relations with their people, who put the mine first, even at cost of life and happiness. There is plenty of tragedy in the book -- but there is nothing grim about it, somehow. It is simply a segment of life, seen from many angles. Don't pass this by, without considering it for those customers who have a forward-looking, liberal viewpoint, a sympathetic interest in the saga of industry -- and a liking for a good family story.