Talking Steel Towns: The Men and Women of America's Steel Valley

Talking Steel Towns captures the voices of the steel-driving men who built the ships and tanks for two World Wars as well as the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the United Nations and the Twin Towers&mdsah;and the voices of the Steel Valley women who fought their own battles against poverty and prejudice in the harsh world of the blast furnace.

Ellie Wymard

Dr. Ellie Wymard is the director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Carlow University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she is also a professor of English. Her most recent book is Conversations With Uncommon Women (AMACON Books). Her essays on contemporary writers are published in professional journals. She has appeared on radio and television shows nationwide on topics related to her books. She lives in Pittsburgh with her husband, Attorney Joseph M. Wymard.

Reviews

Ellie Wymard's Talking Steel Towns offers an illuminating look into the day-to-day realities of some of America's hardest working men and women. The recounted memories of ever-present danger, death, hardship, and perseverance are as vivid as a ribbon of molten steel.

—Dinty W. Moore

Complex, insightful, wonderfully engaging, Ms. Wymard illuminates souls, a community, an industry, and an era. Beautifully written, this book is filled with poignant revelations.

—Jewell Parker Rhodes

Reading through these conversations and reminiscences with the men and women who lived through the birth, the heydey, and the death of big steel in the Mon Valley is like taking a tour through Moloch's Secret Rooms. The courage, the valor, and the willingness of these workers to believe in the promise of a better world is inspiring; the sense of the unbridgeable divide between labor and capital is palpable, and at times heart-rending. It's a compelling and a valuable document. Bravo, Ms. Wymard.

—Les Standiford

Ordering Information

To purchase Talking Steel Towns: The Men and Women of America's Steel Valley by Ellie Wymard, please contact our distributor, University Press of New England toll free at 1-800-421-1561 or by fax at 1-603-448-9729. The book is also available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other fine retailers.

To request a copy for review, please contact the Carnegie Mellon University Press Editorial Offices at (412) 268-2861 or by email at CarnegieMellonUniversityPress@gmail.com.