Pioneer, Go Home!
First edition
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| Author | Richard P. Powell |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Satire |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
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Publication date
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1959 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 320 pp |
| OCLC | 4840153 |
Pioneer, Go Home! is a satirical novel by Richard P. Powell, first published in 1959. The novel follows a New Jersey family, The Kwimpers, who relocate to Columbiana, a fictional state that resembles Florida, and squat on the side of a highway where a new bridge is being built, outraging local officials. The book was adapted into a play by Herman Raucher and also an Elvis Presley movie, Follow that Dream (1962).
In 2009 a 50th anniversary edition of Pioneer, Go Home! was released and includes a previously unpublished preface by the author.
The Kwimper family of Cranberry County, New Jersey is on a vacation in Columbiana when their car runs out of gas. Somewhere along the way, the Kwimpers had made a wrong turn and ended up on an unfinished highway. While waiting for assistance to arrive they set up shacks on the side of the road to live out of.
The Kwimper clan consists of Pop Kwimper who has lived his entire life off government welfare programs such as unemployment compensation and Aid to Families with Dependent Children, his happy-go-lucky son Toby Kwimper (whose "Strength is as the strength of ten because his heart is pure"), adopted identical twins Eddy and Teddy that nobody can tell apart (and whose parents "tried to beat a train to a crossing and only came out tied"), and the family baby sitter Holly Jones.
When confronted by state officials and treated poorly Pop Kwimper decides that the family will settle on the side of the highway permanently. Pop learns of old squatting statutes in the state and determines that he has a legal right to occupy the land.
The novel revolves around the family's comical battles with the government, as they establish their lives on the squatted land and are eventually joined by other squatters. The family also contends with social workers, their own poverty, a hurricane, and a group of gangsters that tries to squat on nearby land to run an illegal casino.
Of the novel's satire, in the first edition of the novel the publisher writes:
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