June 17, 1933

David Thibault died in Larchmont, New York, of meningitis. Thibault was an agricultural agent and writer whose short stories appeared in popular national magazines. His early death cut short his career before he could accumulate a large body of significant work. Some of his best fiction draws characters, settings, and themes from plantation life in Arkansas in the early twentieth century. Thibault was working on a novel, Salt for Mule, when he died. Harper’s magazine published two chapters of the incomplete Salt for Mule in 1937, with an appreciation by editor Russell Lord. The chapters, which can stand alone as independent narratives, are titled “A Man and His God” and “A Woman Like Dilsey.”