Synopsis
Southeast Texas at the turn of the century was a territory most often passed through on the way to someplace else. That is, until the Lucas gusher at Spindletop spewed forth its sulphurous black crude in 1901. Then the boom was on--fortune-seekers, speculators, farm boys, prostitutes poured into Beaumont, sleeping in thrown-together wooden buildings, wagons, mildewy tents, or on derrick floors of rough pine. In just three months that year, the population of Beaumont mushroomed from nine thousand to thirty thousand. Society in that time and place exploded with a chaos and lawlessness every bit as violent as a gushing, uncontrollable stream of evil-smelling oil. In rapid succession, the boom spread to other parts of East Texas--Sour Lake, Batson, Humble. The wildcatters and wigglestickers frantically competed with the conglomerates and the geologists. Scores of people got rich quick, but at the same time others lost their money, their health, even their lives. fever in the earth tells the story of the Texas oil boom in terms of its human costs. When the oil fever got hold of you, it could be as deadly as the swamp fever, malaria, that plagued oilfield workers during the steamy, mosquitoey season. Oil fever could lead to a recklessness that ignored the dangers of gas blowouts and oilfield fires. And it could sometimes tempt a man to forget his loyalty to his friends and family, in a desperate struggle to realize a dream. fever in the earth tells the story of the boomers with uncompromising truthfulness. But more than this, it is an interesting story about people. Hale Carrington, product of a used-up East Texas farm, heads for Beaumont to seek a new life in the oil fields. Gaither Ware, a country schoolteacher from Louisiana, loses her job and arrives penniless in Beaumont looking for help from an uncle she hardly knows. Preacher, Jonesy, Blackie, Shoemate--men who work the fields--all are characters with the ring of truth in them, simple men who work hard together, enduring the hardships and sharing a piece of the dream.
