Pity Is Not Enough is a 1933 semi-autobiographical modernist novel by American author Josephine Herbst and the first book in her Trexler family trilogy.

A majority of the political events and themes represented in the novel and its sequels are based on experiences stemming from Herbst's prior work as a Leftist journalist, which was published in The New Masses and The Nation.

Victoria recalls her mother, Catherine, telling the story of her unfortunate brother Joe Trexler, a man who had left his family's home in Philadelphia to work as a carpetbagger in Reconstruction-era Georgia.

When trouble began to hound him, he escaped first to Canada, where he made acquaintances with the Governor of Georgia, and then returned home for a short while.

He manages to escape from the local law by moving again, this time to the west where he joined the gold rush in the Black Hills in Dakota Territory.