Novelist Erskine Cladwell talks about his new book ANNETTE Oct. 29 at 8:30 on Channel 10 when he joins host Robert Cromis on "Book Beat." Paradise Valley, Ariz. Erskine Caldwell, a storyteller who said he liked to "hammer, hammer and make all the noise I can," and who's depictions of rural poverty in "Tobacco Road" and "God's Little Acre" outraged fellow Southerners, has died at the age of 83. The author's widow, Virginia Caldwell, said he died of lung cancer Saturday night at home in his affluent suburb of Phoenix.

Photo is dated 1973.

Photo measures 10 x 8.25 inches.