The Pushcart War

The Pushcart War is the 1964 children’s novel written by American author Jean Merrill and illustrated by her companion of 50 years, Ronni Solbert. Set in New York City, the structure of the novel is written as a historical recollection from the future, recalling the past events of a street-war between truckers and pushcart operators who use pea shooters as guns to disable the trucks. Merrill drew inspiration for the story from her time living in Greenwich Village, during which she saw a parallel between heavy truck traffic and oppressive bullying. The Pushcart War was named winner of the 1964 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, as well as a 1965 Horn Book Fanfare Best Book. Merrill won a Fulbright Scholarship in 1965 for the novel, which has been called “an utterly captivating book” by The New York Times Book Review, and that “its message remains urgent” by Paris Review. Thematically, the book deals with class warfare, economic oppression, community resistance, and grassroots revolution.

Narrated in the objective third-person perspective, the story begins in the heart of New York City on March 15, 1976. Subsequent editions change the date from 1976 to 1986, then 1998, to ensure the story is always set in the future. Post-millennium versions have altered the date to 2016 and 2036, respectively. As the story begins, driver Albert P. Mack attempts to park a large delivery truck on the street and runs over a pushcart vendor peddling flowers in the process. The vendor is referred to as Morris the Florist, and after he’s sent flying into a pickle barrel, the accident is dubbed the Daffodil Massacre. This prompts a war between pushcart vendors and the three biggest truck companies in the city, known as The Three, as traffic has become stifling and unbearable. The trucks blame the vendors for the clogged streets and vice versa. The Three consist of Big Moe Mammoth of Mammoth Moving, Walter Sweet of Tiger Trucking, and Louie Livergreen of LEMA (Lower Eastside Moving Association). The Three hold a secret meeting and devise a plot to overtake the city streets for themselves by getting rid of all other forms of traffic, no matter what it takes. The first to be targeted are the lower-class pushcart operators, which are much smaller and easier to bully off the street than any other form of transportation. According to the Large Object Theory of History presented by Professor Cumberly, truck drivers plan to increase in size in order to become so large that they don’t “have to get out the way of anybody.”

A group of fed-up pushcart vendors, led by Pushcart King and repair shop owner Maxie Hammerman, plans a way to fight back. The vendors include Frank the Flower, General Anna, Harry the Hot Dog, Mr. Jerusalem, Eddie Moroney, Papa Peretz, and Carlos, all of which peddle various wares on the street. The pushcart resistors come up with a scheme to use pea shooters to blowout the truck tires, thereby taking the trucks off the streets. Known as The Pea Shooter Campaign, the vendors fill the shooters with tiny pins that can puncture and flatten truck tires. Harry the Hotdog proves to be the best shot with pea shooters. The biggest trucks targeted include the Mighty Mammoth, the Ten-Ton Tiger, and the Leaping Lema. During the course of the pushcart war, the vendors penetrate 18,991 truck tires. When Frank the Flower is arrested, he falsely claims to have shot out every single tire. After the arrest, the Pea Shooter Campaign is discontinued. However, Frank’s unjust arrest causes local children to join the cause and begin sabotaging the truck tires. A man named Joey Kafflis, who began the war as a driver for Tiger Trucking, joins the resistance. Once Joey voices his displeasure over all the traffic and his support for the pushcarts, he’s immediately fired. Also helping the pushcart resistance is a high-profile movie star named Wanda Gambling, a political hopeful and mayoral candidate named Archie Lowe, and a rogue Police Commissioner quietly fighting the system.



As the resistance grows and the truckers begin to lose power, Moe and Louie attempt to kidnap Maxie Hammerman. The attempt fails however. The truck companies begin to seize more control by overtaking the newspapers. The corrupt NYC mayor, Emmett P. Cudd, sides with the truckers and does all he can to keep them in power. Mayor Cudd tries to convict Hammerman of conspiring as the leader of the pushcarts, but the trial is thrown out when poor evidence is submitted. The pushcart vendors organize a Peace March that is violently attacked by the truckers, prompting the press and local citizens to side with the vendors. Eventually, a new law is passed in the city that mandates the reduction of the number of trucks on the street by one half. Another law dictates that the trucks be reduced to the size of the smallest vehicles on the street. When The Truce is ratified, the law makes it illegal for any large vehicle to take advantage of any smaller vehicle, under any circumstance. When Albert P. Mack is caught violating The Truce 19 times in a cruel act of revenge, he is arrested by the police and sentenced to life in jail. At the end of the novel, the city fashions a statue of General Anna to honor the civil battle.

In 1980, The Pushcart War was adapted as a stage play by the Young ACT Company in Seattle, directed by Gregory Falls. In 2006, a musical adaptation of the novel was helmed by Edric Haleen in Holt, Michigan. In addition to The Pushcart War, Merrill has written several novels, including The Woover, Boxes, Shan’s Lucky Knife: A Burmese Folk Tale, The Superlative Horse: A Tale of Ancient China, The Travels of Marco, The Black Sheep, The Toothpaste Millionaire, Seraphina: An Edwardian Love Story, and many more.