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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when love crosses the lines that family, race and power insist must hold?
In The Call of the South, Robert Lee Durham turns to a Southern world where private lives meet public rules. Family, region and rank shape the choices people make. Love, loyalty and fear press against a social order that gives some people influence and leaves others living within its limits.
This 1908 novel explores race and identity through the tension between how people see themselves and how others see them. Forbidden love brings those pressures close. At stake is the room a person has to choose, to belong and to act when a community's expectations stand in the way.
What you’ll discover
- A South that shapes lives Enter a world where family, region and rank bear on deeply personal choices.
- Identity under pressure Explore the strain between a person's sense of self and the judgments of others.
- Love against social rules Follow forbidden love as it tests the boundaries a community expects people to accept.
- The reach of power Consider how influence shapes who can speak, act and make choices of their own.
- Loyalty caught in conflict Watch love, loyalty and fear pull private lives against the rules around them.
Who will love it
Readers of American history and literature who want to see how fiction shaped racial debates around 1908, and students of political fiction.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A regiment shuts Graham out
- Family history reshapes Graham's loyalty
- Courage carries Phillips to safety
- Public fame hides a private debt
- Pride keeps love from becoming clear
- A luncheon becomes a political crisis
- Rutledge gives prejudice a reasoned voice
- Recognition leads to a secret marriage
- Courage and love serve a prejudice
Who’s who
- Hayward GrahamA Harvard football star of mixed ancestry, rejected by a white regiment, who joins the cavalry and craves an officer's commission.
- Helen PhillipsThe impulsive younger daughter of the colonel, who idolizes her father and admires courage above all.
- Colonel Hayne PhillipsA popular volunteer officer who becomes president and prides himself on judging every man by his character.
- Elise PhillipsHelen's poised older sister, proud and guarded, who is torn between her pride and her feelings for a Southern suitor.
- Evans RutledgeA South Carolina newspaperman who rises to the Senate and loves Elise while defending his region's views.
- Lola DeValeElise's quick-witted friend, who sees the hearts of others plainly and works to bring the couple together.
- Henry PorterA wealthy Black Washington father, fiercely proud, who objects to his daughter's attachment to a man he believes is merely a footman.
- Lily PorterHenry's accomplished daughter, a singer, who falls for Graham and hopes he will be an army officer.
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The Call of the South
by Robert Lee Durham · 1908
A Harvard football hero, turned away by an Ohio regiment, joins the cavalry and ends up a footman in the White House.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What happens to a young man when the regiment he longs to join votes him out because of one line in his family history? In The Call of the South, Hayward Graham, a Harvard football star, stands in a crowded Ohio armory and watches the Seventy-first regiment volunteer for war without him.
The Call of the South at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 45 min6 h 10 min fast, 9 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 110,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1908by Robert Lee Durham
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A colonel's call for volunteers shuts one man out
The novel opens in an imagined near future. Germany has challenged the United States over Venezuela, and Congress has declared war. In an Ohio armory the Seventy-first regiment gathers to volunteer. Its colonel, Hayne Phillips, stages the moment with flags and music.
Three women watch from the balcony, the colonel's wife and his daughters, Elise and the younger Helen. Helen is quick and impulsive, and she idolizes her father.
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Which edition is right for me
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Details
- First published
- 1908
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 8 h 50 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Durham, Robert Lee. The Call of the South. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-call-of-the-south.
Durham, R. L. (2026). The call of the South. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-call-of-the-south (Original work published 1908)
Durham, Robert Lee. The Call of the South. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-call-of-the-south.
@book{durham2026call,
author = {Durham, Robert Lee},
title = {The Call of the South},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-call-of-the-south},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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What is The Call of the South about?
It follows Hayward Graham, a Harvard football star of mixed ancestry, from rejection by an Ohio regiment through a short Venezuelan war to the White House, where he serves as a footman and secretly marries the President's daughter.
Is The Call of the South a racist book?
Yes. Robert Lee Durham wrote it in 1908 to argue against social mixing of the races. It relies on stereotypes and false racial science, and historians read it as segregationist propaganda in the form of a novel.
When was The Call of the South written, and is it a true story?
It was published in 1908. The plot is invented, including the war with Germany over Venezuela and the presidency of Colonel Phillips. Real details of its time, such as the Monroe Doctrine and school funding fights, frame the fiction.
The author
Robert Lee Durham
1870–1949 · American novelist and educator
Robert Lee Durham was an American engineer, teacher, and author who lived from 1870 to 1949. He wrote the novel The Call of the South, published in 1908. His working life in the United States included both engineering and teaching, as well as writing.
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