The Inheritors

Philip Atlee's debut novel, The Inheritors, is a scathing social critique and forgotten American classic that achieved a "lost book" status due to intense local controversy. Published in 1940, the novel provides an unflinching, thinly-veiled portrayal of the hedonistic lives of the "dollar aristocracy" in Fort Worth, Texas, the author's own social circle. The story, written with a style drawing comparisons to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, or O'Hara, follows two aimless young men, George Jimble and Cavin Jarvis, as they navigate a world of privilege defined by excessive drinking, casual sex, and general dissipation. These so-called "inheritors" are the well-groomed, educated, yet morally bankrupt, offspring of wealthy cattle and oil tycoons, educated in a system that prizes profit over responsibility. They express a profound disdain for the superficiality of their country club set, engaging in petty grifts and even arson out of sheer boredom and a lack of purpose.