The Promised Land

THE PROMISED LAND is the story of Theodor, a Danish immigrant, who struggles to integrate into the American culture. It is his love-hate story; the awe, the wonder, the ecstasy of experiencing all things new, versus the stress of loneliness, the humiliation of being considered stupid, the agony of being shunned. He works with machines he knows nothing about, with people who speak a language that boggles his mind. Enamoured with American affluence, he strikes out on his own. He lives in a dugout, and plants his corn by hand. He is overjoyed with an unusually large crop, but when he attempts to sell it, the market has collapsed and he is reduced to sharing the grain with his animals. He becomes despondent, depressed. He wants to go home, but he cannot. He had come to America on someone else's papers...

Edith was born in 1923 near Nora, Nuckolls County, Nebraska, the seventh child of immigrant parents. Edith began classes in a one-room country school, then moved with her family to northwestern Nebraska where she attended the city schools, graduating in 1940 with honors. That fall she enrolled in the local college. In 1941 Edith married Cyrus Hall. While each of the four children were receiving an education, Edith worked twelve years in several banks, followed by twelve years in the medical field, the last two, as a hospital administrator. Edith suffered a heart attack in 1976 and her interest turned to creative writing, taking several writing courses from the University of Iowa, and completing the Advanced Novel writing course offered by the Writer's Digest School. Her first novel, SWEET PROMISES, was published in 1996. THE PROMISED LAND is its sequel.