Customer Reviews

The Collected Short Stories of Harriette Simpson Arnow

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In this long overdue collection, Ballard and Chung have carefully presented Harriette Arnow's twenty-five extant stories, including fifteen previously unpublished ones. Arranged roughly in the order in which they were written, each one is prefaced with one or two paragraphs documenting the circumstances in which it was written, published or rejected. These stories range from the simple and naïve to the learned and sophisticated. "Winky Creek's New Song" and "Dreams Come True" were written when Ms Arnow was still in high school, while later stories like "King Devil's Bargain" and "Ketchup-Making Saturday" were studies for two of her novels. One of the most terse and stunning short pieces I have ever read and originally published in the small literary journal THE NEW TALENT in 1935, "A Mess of Pork" alone is worth the price of the volume.

The ten previously published stories are:
Marigolds and Mules
A Mess of Pork
The Washerwoman's Day
The Two Hunters
Blessed-Blessed
The First Ride
Fra Lippi and Me
The Hunter
Love?
Interruptions to School at Home

Author of Hunter's Horn, Mountain Path and other novels, and several historical works concerning Appalachia, Arnow was National Book Award winner in 1955. Although her most famous work, The Dollmaker, has enjoyed much success and was dramatized for television in 1984 with Jane Fonda playing Gertie Nevels, her works have been largely relegated to "regional" literature and subsequently her short stories, up until now, have been hard to find. So it is with special pleasure that we can now trace some of Arnow's evolving artistry and sociopolitical consciousness through these works she left behind.