Rock Island Line by David Rhodes (i am reading a book TXT) 📕

headed forward. There’s nothing easy in this world—and to give up is to lose everything. Do what you feel you have to, but do it in order to improve yourself. No running. Learn how to suffer and nothing will ever be able to hurt you. Reach as far as you possibly can, without pride. Be more than you are able.”

In lurching slow motion, gaining speed, the Rock Island Line pulled out of the freight yard, headed southwest, toward Kansas City, Coffeyville, Scottsdale, Spring Valley and Moline.

As a young man, DAVID RHODES worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa. After receiving an MFA degree from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1971, he published three novels in rapid succession: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (Atlantic/Little, Brown, 1972), The Easter House (Harper & Row, 1974), and Rock Island Line (Harper & Row, 1975). In 1977 a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the chest down. He lives with his wife, Edna, in rural Wonewoc, Wisconsin.

MORE FICTION FROM MILKWEED EDITIONS

To order books or for more information, contact Milkweed

at (800) 520-6455 or visit our Web site (www.milkweed.org).

Visigoth

Gary Amdahl

I Am Death

Gary Amdahl

The Farther Shore

Mathew Eck

Crossing Bully Creek

Margaret Erhart

Thirst

Ken Kalfus

Ordinary Wolves

Seth Kantner

Roofwalker

Susan Power

Sky Bridge

Laura Pritchett

Cracking India

Bapsi Sidhwa

Water

Bapsi Sidhwa

Aquaboogie

Susan Straight

Gardenias

Faith Sullivan

The Blue Sky

Galsan Tschinag

Montana 1948

Larry Watson

MILKWEED EDITIONS

Founded in 1979, Milkweed Editions is one of the largest independent, nonprofit literary publishers in the United States. Milkweed publishes with the intention of making a humane impact on society, in the belief that good writing can transform the human heart and spirit.

JOIN US

Milkweed depends on the generosity of foundations and individuals like you, in addition to the sales of its books. In an increasingly consolidated and bottom-line-driven publishing world, your support allows us to select and publish books on the basis of their literary quality and the depth of their message. Please visit our Web site (www.milkweed.org) or contact us at (800) 520-6455 to learn more about our donor program.

Milkweed Editions, a nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from Anonymous; Emilie and Henry Buchwald; the Bush Foundation; the Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation; the Dougherty Family Foundation; the Ecolab Foundation; the General Mills Foundation; the Claire Giannini Fund; John and Joanne Gordon; William and Jeanne Grandy; the Jerome Foundation; the Lerner Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; Mid-Continent Engineering; a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and private funders; Kelly Morrison and John Willoughby; an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art; the Navarre Corporation; the Starbucks Foundation; the St. Paul Travelers Foundation; Ellen and Sheldon Sturgis; the James R. Thorpe Foundation; the Toro Foundation; Moira and John Turner; United Parcel Service; U. S. Trust Company; Joanne and Phil Von Blon; Kathleen and Bill Wanner; Serene and Christopher Warren; and the W. M. Foundation.

Interior design by Wendy Holdman

Typeset in ITC New Baskerville by BookMobile

Design and Publishing Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Printed on acid-free, recycled (100 percent postconsumer

waste) Rolland Enviro paper by Friesens Corporation.

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

© 1975, Text by David Rhodes

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.

(800) 520-6455

www.milkweed.org

Please turn to the back of the book for a list of the sustaining funders of Milkweed Editions.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the cloth edition as follows:

Rhodes, David.

Rock Island Line.

I. Title.

PZ4.R4755Ro [PS3568.H55] 813’.5’4

74-15888

eISBN : 978-1-571-31824-4

This book is printed on acid-free, recycled (100 percent postconsumer waste) paper.