Fruits of the Earth

Fruits of the Earth, a novel by Frederick Philip Grove, was published 1933 in Toronto. To dramatize the tragedy of the pioneer, Grove charts the life of Abe Spalding, a man imbued with an indomitable drive to impose his will on the prairie. Spalding leaves Ontario for Manitoba, where, through years of unrelenting work, he masters his land, builds a mansion and becomes a power in the community. But his triumphs are fleeting: in time he becomes alienated from his family, and the natural world begins to prove itself impervious to human designs. In the end, the pioneer's great dream - to conquer raw nature - does violence to his own human nature.