The Great Tradition was published by Julian Messner in 1939 and draws directly on Keyes’s own experience as the wife of a United States Senator. Henry Wilder Keyes represented New Hampshire in the Senate from 1919 to 1937, and Frances’s intimate knowledge of political life — the campaigning, the social obligations, the personal sacrifices — informs every page of this novel.
The story follows a young woman who marries into a Vermont political dynasty and must learn the rules of political society: how to campaign, how to entertain, how to manage the public and private dimensions of a political marriage, and how to maintain her own identity within the demanding role of a politician’s wife. The “great tradition” of the title refers to the New England tradition of public service — the belief that men (and their wives) of good family owe service to their communities — a tradition that Keyes presents as both noble and oppressive.
The novel is less exotic than Keyes’s later Louisiana works, but it shares their essential method: immersive social documentation, a strong female protagonist navigating a complex social world, and meticulous attention to the rituals and customs that structure upper-class American life. Published on the eve of World War II, it captures a moment in American political culture — pre-television, pre-modern campaigning — that would soon be transformed beyond recognition.
Collecting The Great Tradition
First edition (Julian Messner, New York, 1939): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $20–$50
- Without jacket: $5–$10