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The Store (novel)

novel by Thomas Sigismund Stribling

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ7766667 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Store is a 1932 novel by Thomas Sigismund Stribling. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1933. It is the second book of the Vaiden trilogy, comprising The Forge, The Store, and Unfinished Cathedral. All three books in the trilogy have been kept in print since the mid-1980s by the University of Alabama Press.

Introduction

The first book in the trilogy, The Forge, opens at the beginning of the American Civil War and ends with the abolition of slavery. Continuing the exploration of the transformation of the American South from its traditional agrarian society to a new economic and social order, The Store follows the return from war of Miltiades "Milt" Vaiden. Before the war he had been overseer on a major plantation, and he struggles to find a place for himself under new free labor conditions. The novel depicts how wealthy white planters and yeomen farmers, and newly freed African Americans attempt to adapt to life in the post-War South.

Synopsis

Colonel Miltiades "Milt" Vaiden, a decorated Civil War Confederate officer and former overseer of Crowninshield plantation, is the central figure in this and the third novel of the trilogy. As an overseer he was in a position between the wealthy planters and poor whites; his father was a blacksmith.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Store (novel)” is novel by Thomas Sigismund Stribling. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Store, novel and Thomas, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1932, 1933—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Store, novel and Thomas is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “novel by Thomas Sigismund Stribling” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7766667. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1932 and 1933.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Store (novel)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Store (novel) primary sources, The Store (novel) archive and Store research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Store (novel)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Store (novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.