The History of Wally Stokes

About the Book

The History of Wally Stokes is the hilarious story of an unlikely hero who finds himself caught up in the turbulent events of a big city during the Great Depression. The setting is Hudson City, a New Jersey working-class city during the harsh winter of 1936. The whimsical mock-epic narrative is filled with fast-talking theatrical impresarios, over-the-hill vaudevillians, boarding-house eccentrics, inept union leaders, oddball newspaper writers, and a odd collection of felonious capitalists, blue-collar workers, and common vagabonds. Into this free-for-all steps Wally Stokes, a retiring correspondence-school graduate, whose life unexpectedly transformed on day in the waiting room of the Hudson City Evening Gazette.

About the Author

Russel E. Higgins is a former teacher of English Literature and humanities who received his MA in English literature from New York University and is the recipient of an National Endowment to the Humanities grant for the study of literature. The History of Wally Stokes is his second literary work. His first book - Tales from the Pioneer League - was a collection of related stories about a blue-collar, industrial baseball league during the Great Depression. Mr. Higgins was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1934 and still lives native state with his wife of forty years.