About this Book

The Disinherited is a proletarian novel written by Jack Conroy in 1933. Conroy wrote it initially as nonfiction, but editors insisted he fictionalize the story for better audience reception. The novel explores the 1920s and 30s worker experience through the eyes of Larry Donovan, a young boy growing up in the Monkey Nest coal mine camp. It is a difficult life, and after Larry's brother Dan starts working in the mines, Larry's father prods Larry to do well in school so he too won't have to go into the mines.