Long Gone - Paperbackby Richard Willis (Author) Life in the 1930s and '40s on the small family farms in eastern Iowa was threadbare and tough. It was made endurable by the web of humanity spun by the men and women who built their lives there. The land itself seemed indifferent to its relentless exploitation and yet people, towns, farms and landscape endured in some fashion. The best parts of the farm stayed with Richard Willis when he left, while the rest is long gone.