A collection of classic railroad stories includes works that date from 1897 through 1941 and highlights the writings of such authors as Frank Norris, Owen Wister, Jack London, O. Henry, Christopher Morley, and Thomas Wolfe.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Before the personal computer downloaded into the American lexicon the verb "network" and the ubiquitous adjective "virtual," an older technology captured the American imagination. Many of the railroad stories in this theme anthology were tailored for popular magazines of the era by authors who used stock adventure plots and added significant doses of railroad lore, but the better stories in the collection strive for a more universal appeal. Thomas Wolfe's "The Near and the Far" is perhaps the best entry, a brief but poignant ode to the influence of perspective on the memories of a retired conductor who visits a tiny homestead that was once part of his daily route. A more pedestrian affair, O. Henry's "Holding Up a Train" is a straightforward primer on how pull off a train robbery. "Hoboes that Pass in the Night," by Jack London, reflects the writer's days of riding the rails. There is a brief chapter from The Octopus, Frank Norris's well-known railroad novel. Most of the remaining tales fall into the category of light comedy or adventure by such specialists as Harry Bedwell, Frank Hamilton Spearman and Cy Warman, among others. Written between 1897 and 1941, these tales collectively elicit nostalgia for a time when, helped by the railroads, America was just beginning to introduce itself to itself.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
All aboard for a magazine story form popular from the 1890s to the 1930s. It attracted big names like O. Henry and Jack London, but the less-renowned writers of the stories here were no slouches in creating entertaining yarns set on a moving train. Despite their common frame, their themes vary widely. A Thomas Wolfe story captures aging in a just-retired engineer's dismay at visiting a house he had often passed on his runs. Octavus Cohen constructs a clever tale of honesty lost and found in the perils of a Pullman porter; elsewhere in the collection, a comparable fixture on the railroads, the newsboy, cast in the Horatio Alger^-type mold, averts a terrible crash through his knowledge of telegraphy. Collisions between trains and encounters on them mark this compilation's motif, and whether applied seriously or to humorous effect, as in "Mrs. Union Station," concerning one man's fanatical interest in model trains, both students of short-story technique and nontechnocratic fans of tall tales of the rails will find enjoyable variety. Gilbert Taylor
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Railroad Stories - A Forgotten Literary Genre,
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This review is from: Short Lines: A Collection of Classic American Railroad Stories (Hardcover)
For nearly a century the steam locomotive symbolized American progress and adventure. By about 1950 personal travel by automobiles and commercial planes had displaced the venerable locomotive. The romance and adventure of the railroad is now history. The once widely popular literary genre - the railroad story - is seldom encountered today.Short Lines: A Collection of Classic American Railroad Stories (1897 - 1941) is a fascinating historical portrait of America. Rob Johnson's anthology introduces today's readers to the best writers of railroad fiction, authors like Bedwell, Welch, Cohen, Spearman, Warman, Packard, and Somerville. Others in this collection were penned by their more famous contemporaries, including O. Henry, Thomas Wolfe, Frank Norris, Jack London, Christopher Morley, Rudyard Kipling, and Owen Wister. These enjoyable stories span a wide range of styles and topics. O. Henry details the methodology of holding up a train, based on his actual friendship with a former train bandit. Harry Bedwell's story Smart Boomer is based on his own youthful experience as a railroad telegraph operator (a boomer). The Far and the Near by Thomas Wolfe is a poignant story of a retired engineer. I especially enjoyed Douglas Welch's hilarious story Mrs. Union Station. The excerpt from the Frank Norris novel The Octopus offers a sobering example of the excessive economic power exercised by some railroads. A Toot for a Toot (1928) by Octavus Cohen is a sympathetic look at a black railroad porter named Epic Peters. Frank Spearman, the author of The Nerve of Foley, was perhaps the best writer of railroad stories. The background to this tale was a rough and tumble railroad strike. The Locomotive That Lost Herself by Cy Warman has supernatural overtones. Hoboes That Pass in the Night is a first person narrative by Jack London. Christopher Morley's The Railway Guide uniquely describes the multitude of passenger rail routes crisscrossing America in the 1930s. The Night Operator (Frank Packard) and Wide Open Throttle (A. W. Somerville) are classic railroad adventure tales. Rudyard Kipling's unusual story, titled .007, describes the personal adventures of a new locomotive assigned to a switchyard. The last story in this collection, Stanwick's Business by Owen Wister, the famed author of The Virginian, pokes fun at journalists and writers of popular railroad fiction.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Literature comes back to life - bringing the trains with it.,
By J Willard (U.S. Intermountain) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Short Lines: A Collection of Classic American Railroad Stories (Hardcover)
A series of short stories that will leave you hungering for more. Top name authors who you never knew could even understand a train, let alone wirte about them - but they all rode them. I only read one of these stories before. The superb surprise, an O. Henry without a surprise ending.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must For RR Fans!,
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This review is from: Short Lines: A Collection of Classic American Railroad Stories (Hardcover)
I bought this used...what a deal! I wished it had gone on and on...it was that good.
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