Stanford Short Stories Nineteen Fifty - new book

STANFORD SHORT STORIES Nineteen Fifty STANFORD SHORT STORIES Nineteen Fifty CLAY PUTMAN DONALD JUSTICE N. V. M. GONZALEZ MAXWELL ARNOLD THOMAS DOYLE ROBERT G. KELLY P. H. LOWREY JOHN A. LYNCH HARRY MUHEIM C. W. PARKER JEAN POWELL LESLIE SMITH ELIZABETH THOMPSON MILTON WHI-pl ELIZABETH WOLFE PATRICIA ZELVER STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD, CALIFORNIA PREFACE The eighteen stories which compose this volume have little in common except the fact that they were all written in classes at Stanford University. They are of every length up almost to the novelette, of every tone and approach and j Pthod except the slick, of many settings from California to the Philippines, Italy, and occupied Germany. The thirteen which have seen previous magazine publication have reached print in everything from little magazines and university quarterlies to Harpers, New Republic, Tomorrow, Common Ground, and Seventeen. Their authors are men and women, veterans and nonveterans, the young and the not so-young, those in the normal stream of their schooling and those somewhat gingerly returning after a stretch outside. Among the writers now congregated at Stanford, the war has obviously diminished in importance, both as a subject matter and as a common bond of experience and feeling. Though ten of the sixteen authors represented here are veterans, only four of the stories concern either the war or its aftermath. And the bond that before the war united three-quarters of the young men and women learning to write is not here either only two of these stories deal with childhood, and one of those is a study so objective and cool, and of so strange a child, that it is certainly not to be taken as autobiographicalrevelation. I think it a distinction among these stories that they do, pre dominantly, deal with adult themes and that when they deal with childhood they deal with it in adult ways. I think it a distinction that these sixteen writers have been able to maintain their in dividual points of view and their individual methods and that though they make up a group they make up a group with a lively variety. And I think it a final distinction that in spite of their intent and serious pursuit of excellence in an art they are so little tendentious, so little self-conscious, so little inclined to make their writing serve a pose. It is a considerable triumph in 1950 for a young writer to be himself without affectation, to follow his own STANFORD SHORT STORIES way without trying to be an original. There is very little affec tation in this book, but there is much sharp observation, much very real and cleanly communicated feeling, some humor, some bitterness, and a persistent honesty. Those are enough to justify both admiration for the present accomplishment of these writers on the brink of their careers, and optimism about those careers in future. WALLACE STEGNER STANFORD UNIVERSITY STANFORD, CALIFORNIA VI TABLE OF CONTENTS PACE PREFACE v WALLACE STEGNER THE WOUNDED 1 CLAY PUTMAN THE LADY 16 DONALD JUSTICE A WARM HAND 33 N. V. M. GONZALEZ THE CANNIBAL POT 44 MAXWELL ARNOLD EL CONQUISTADOR 65 THOMAS DOYLE THE MORNING STAR 77 N. V. M. GONZALEZ A START IN LIFE 86 ROBERT G. KELLY BIG CHLORINDA, HAPPY CHLORINDA .... 97 P. H. LOWREY THE FIELDS OF WHEAT 118 JOHN A. LYNCH THE BIG GREY PICNIC 125 HARRY MUHEIM Vll STANFORD SHORT STORIES PACE THE FLIMSY WALLS 144 C. W. PARKER THE LADY WALKS 152 JEAN POWELL THEOLD ACROBAT AND THE RUINED CITY . . 176 CLAY PUTMAN THE GRASS ON THE OTHER SIDE 193 LESLIE SMITH NO MEADOW LARK SONG 207 ELIZABETH THOMPSON THE YELLOW TURTLE-NECK SWEATER .... 215 MILTON WHITE THE THING IN THEIR HEARTS 222 ELIZABETH WOLFE THE LONG HOT DAY 230 PATRICIA FARRELL ZELVER Vlll CLAY PUTMAN was born in Quapatv, Oklahoma, in 1924. He is a gradu ate of Stanford University and plans a career of writing and teaching. He is at present holder of a Stanford Creative Writing Fellowship...