Synopses & Reviews
WCW, Collected Stories. Fifty-Two stories by the late, great William Carlos Williams.
Synopsis
New Directions has long published poet William Carlos Williams' entire body of short fiction as The Farmers' Daughters (1961). This new edition of The Collected Stories of William Carlos Williams contains all fifty-two stories combining the early collections The Knife of the Times (1932), Life Along the Passaic (1938) with the later collection Make Light of It (1950) and the great long story, "The Farmers' Daughters" (1956). When these stories first appeared, their vitality and immediacy shocked many readers, as did the blunt, idiosyncratic speech of Williams' immigrant and working-class characters. But the passage of time has silenced the detractors, and what shines in the best of these stories is the unflinching honesty and deep humanity of Williams' portraits, burnished by the seeming artlessness which only the greatest masters command.
Table of Contents
The knife of the times. The knife of the times ; A visit to the fair ; Hands across the sea ; The sailor's son ; An old time raid ; The buffalos ; Mind and body ; The colored girls of Passenack, old and new ; A descendant of kings ; Pink and blue ; Old Doc Rivers -- Life along the Passaic river. Life along the Passaic river ; The girl with a pimply face ; The use of force ; A night in June ; The dawn of another day ; Jean Beicke ; A face of stone ; To fall asleep ; The cold world ; Four bottles of beer ; At the front ; The right thing ; Second marriage ; A difficult man ; Danse pseudomacabre ; The Venus ; The accident ; Under the greenwood tree ; World's end -- Beer and cold cuts. The burden of loveliness ; Above the river ; No place for a woman ; In northern waters ; The paid nurse ; Frankie the newspaper man ; Ancient gentility ; The final embarrassment ; The round the world fliers ; The redhead ; Verbal transcription: 6 a.m. ; The insane ; The good old days ; A good-natured slob ; A lucky break ; The pace that kills ; Lena ; Country rain ; Inquest ; Comedy entombed ; The zoo -- The farmers' daughters.