Gary G. Steele

In the stories of a travelling gypsy circus, circus performers, gypsies, vagabonds, cowboys, and Indians meet – ordinary, low-status people wandering through the impoverished America of the 1930s – who are looking for a way to survive together the severe and long-lasting economic crisis of the Great Depression. They find a home, good treatment, and a future at the Brewer family circus. Also, they can get guidance on staying human in the hardest times because solidarity, dedication, respect for people and animals, and a sense of humour are essential not only for the survival of a nomadic society. The reader thus learns about the Prohibition era not from the perspective of bankers and stock market numbers but from the perspective of the people who had to carry the burden of the economic collapse on their shoulders.

Published by Kher, 2022

Gary G. Steele (* 1943) was born into a family that ran a travelling circus, so from birth, he spent most months of the year on the road and later as a child performer. His mother was the granddaughter of English Roma immigrants to the USA, and his father was the grandson of Franco-German immigrants. He worked as a consultant in developing countries for over twenty years. His series of three partly autobiographical books about the Roma family is his first work of fiction in a long list of primarily academic texts.