UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · HISTORY
Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
Also known as: Ellen Glasgow, Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson, 1873-1945
SOMETHING IS ALWAYS SAYING TO ME: Be plain.
— from Collected stories
Most acclaimed
Collected stories
This indispensable volume contains the best of Frank O’Connor's short fiction. From “Guests of the Nation” to “The Mad Lomasneys” to “First Confession” to “My Oedipus Complex,” these tales of Ireland have touched generations of readers the world over and placed O'Connor alongside W. B. Yeats and James Joyce as the greatest of Irish authors. Analyzing a Robert Browning poem, O'Connor once wrote: “Since a whole lifetime must be crowded into a few minutes, those minutes must be carefully chosen indeed and lit by an unearthly glow.” Each of the sixty-seven stories gathered here achieves the same incredible feat of the imagination, laying bare entire lives and histories within the space of a few pages. Dublin schoolteacher Ned Keating waves good-bye to a charming girl and to any thoughts of returning to his village home in the lyrical and melancholy “Uprooted.” A boy on an important mission is waylaid by a green-eyed temptress and seeks forgiveness in his mother’s loving arms in “The Man of the House,” a tale that draws on O'Connor’s own difficult childhood. A series of awkward encounters and humorous misunderstandings perfectly encapsulates the complicated legacy of Irish immigration in “Ghosts,” the bittersweet account of an American family’s pilgrimage to the land of their forefathers. As a writer, critic, and teacher, O'Connor elevated the short story to astonishing new heights. This career-spanning anthology, epic in scope yet brimming with the small moments and intimate details that earned him a reputation as Ireland’s Chekhov, is a testament to Frank O’Connor's magnificent storytelling and a true pleasure to read from first page to last.
Vein of iron
Set in the historic Great Valley of Virginia, the story centers on the love and marriage of Ada Fincastle, daughter of a Scotch-Irish family whose strength and courage across three generations reflect America's heritage from the earliest days.
Perfect companionship
"The novels of author Ellen Glasgow ushered the South into the modern era, rejecting the typically romanticized approach for a cunningly observed realism. Glasgow's originality of mind and abiding fascination with her native South are in abundant display in this new selection of her correspondence with women." "Covering more than sixty years, Perfect Companionship collects some 250 letters to and from Glasgow, many published here for the first time. The correspondents include Glasgow's family members, as well as prominent Richmonders. Also included are letters to and from authors such as Radclyffe Hall, Margaret Mitchell, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, artists Malvina Hoffman and Clare Leighton, publishing figures Blanche Knopf and Irita Van Doren, and spouses of literary and academic figures such as Eleanor Brooks, wife of Van Wyck Brooks, and Bessie Zaban Jones, wife of Howard Mumford Jones." "The letters are set in their proper context by a wealth of useful features, including a substantial introduction, a complete chronology of Glasgow's life, a comprehensive calendar listing all of her known correspondence with women, and a biographical register identifying all correspondents and persons mentioned in the letters." "The result is a collection valuable not only to Glasgow scholars but also to any reader drawn to the South and to the great contribution made by women to its literature and culture."--Jacket.