Book Review of Tom Grogan by Francis Hopkinson Smith
Tom Grogan's fight for justice against a patriarchal and highly corrupt Union turns violent and life-threatening. Tom Grogan by Francis Hopkinson Smith is an American bestseller first published in 1896. For those who have no idea who F. Hopkinson
Smith was, here are a few useful facts about him. F. H. Smith was a very
accomplished engineer who was famous for building, among other things, the
foundation the foundation of the Statue of Liberty. He was probably the best
lighthouse engineer in America that time. Besides being a bestselling author,
F. H. Smith was a talented artist. According to Wikipedia, he was one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence. Like the character Babcock, in this book F.
Hopkinson Smith led the construction of a sea-wall around Governor’s Island. Probably,
that explains why his characters are so relatable.
Tom Grogan had been working for Mr. Babcock for four years
now and never gave him a reason to complain. Mr. Thomas Grogan, the stevedore
had always been punctual until one day when four of his horses were down and
two of his men had diphtheria. The delay
made Mr. Babcock extremely anxious. He was suspicious about the weather and
time was running by. For the first time Babcock realized that during all those
years Tom had been working with him, Babcock never actually met the man in
person. Then the stevedore finally arrived and started with the work
immediately. Babcock was surprised to discover that Tom Grogan was in fact, a
woman – with large, clear gray eyes, made
all the more luminous by the deep, rich colour of her sunburnt skin. Even
after the unloading was done, she stayed and actively participated in the
construction, as if to compensate for the delay that was caused by her. Her
integrity impressed Babcock. He also became curious. Why did she have a name
like that? A man’s name. Was it her husband’s name? It was, Babcock later
discovered. The more he knew about her, the more he admired her. However, he
found her strangely reticent when asked about her husband. It seemed her husband had met with an accident
seven years ago. He had been living in an asylum since then, and Tom took over
his business and also his name. “Everybody
calls her Tom Grogan,” said Crane another person Tom worked for, “It’s her husband’s name. Call her anything else
and she don’t answer. She seems to glory in it, and after you know her a while
you don’t want to call her anything else yourself.”
Tom Grogan won most of the
contracts, because she always bid the lowest. That made some people
uncomfortable. Daniel McGaw was one of them. He schemed and plotted against her
to take away some of the jobs from her. Finally he went to the stevedore Union.
With some ingenious machinations he was able to stir the Union. With their help
McGaw almost succeeded in making Tom’s life a living hell. Some of them tried
to make her employees leave her. They failed. They tried to reason with her and
even threaten her. Despite all their efforts they couldn’t make her join the
Union. They hated her for being independent and prospering. But nothing made
Tom back down. The more vicious the fight turned, the more determined Tom became.
Somebody tried to set her house on fire. She was assaulted by one of them to
prevent her from attending a meeting where she was supposed to sign a contract.
She was drawn to court on the charge of doing business in her husband’s name.
Nothing could daunt her. She was this unstoppable force that trampled down
every opposition.
Tom Grogan by Francis Hopkinson Smith makes you sad. Not
because, there’s a sad ending or something, no. It’s just that it’s so much
difficult to accept that an honest, independent and hard-working woman like Tom
should endure so much. Perhaps deep inside, Francis Hopkinson Smith was a
staunch feminist. Probably, Tom was exactly the kind of woman he thought women
should be – someone who could stand against the force of patriarchy and fight.
Tom Grogon has been a real inspiration. However it shocked me to find that such
a great literary work has been discussed so little. Most of the reviews I could find were multiple copies of the same Wikipedia entry. Despite its being a bestselling novel, it was Smith’s artworks
that were reviewed more widely.
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