Alvie: A Gentle Man in the American Century

By Steve Head

Alvie Head was born in 1908 on a dirt farm outside Konawa, Oklahoma. He left school after the fifth grade to work the fields. He was quiet and he worked hard, and the world beyond those cotton rows scared him more than he could ever say.

He married Opal Hankins in 1933 because, as she put it, he was a hard worker. Together they raised five children through the Dust Bowl, a drive west to California, a bus ride back to Oklahoma, and the shipyards and housing projects of the San Francisco Bay Area. Alvie spent much of his life sitting in union halls waiting to be called for work. He was usually the first one let go. At home he never once defended himself.

Written by his son, Alvie is a biographical novel built on real family records found in a wooden box in Alvie's closet after he died. It traces two poor, hardworking families and the brokenness that came down through them, and it ends in grace. This is plain American history, told through one gentle man whom almost nobody noticed.

A man not unlike Lennie in Of Mice and Men, and every bit as real.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HMX4YDX6
• ISBN13: 9798161221778
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 178 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"