UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · SHORT
Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Because his three published novels had their locale in the state of Nevada, Walter van Tilburg Clark had come to be considered a Westerner. Actually he was born in East Orland, Maine on August 3, 1909. When he was eight years old, his father became president of the University of Nevada. Clark attended high school in Reno and received a B. A. and M. A. from the University of Nevada. After two years devoted to philosophy and literature at the University of Vermont, he accepted a post at Cazenovia, New York as a teacher and basketball coach. With the appearance of The Ox-Bow Incident in 1940, Walter Van Tilburg Clark came into immediate prominence as a writer. His novel was acclaimed by the critics and later was made into what has been acknowledged to be one of the finest motion pictures ever produced in Hollywood. The City of Trembling Leaves, published in 1945, further established Clark's literary reputation as spokesman for the new generation in the West. This novel was followed in 1949 by a Western legend, The Track of the Cat (which also became a movie), and in 1950 by a volume of short stories entitled The Watchful Gods. Then a professor of English at San Francisco State College, Mr. Clark lived with his wife in San Francisco.
Gil and I crossed the eastern divide about two by the sun.
— from The Ox-Bow incident
Most acclaimed
The Ox-Bow incident
This is a searing study of mob justice. The story takes place in the Old West, but it could happen anywhere, anytime that men of action let their anger goad them into taking the law into their own hands. Published in 1940, this powerful narrative was immediately hailed as a work of art. "The Ox-Bow Incident is a triumph of restraint and workmanship. . . . The tenseness that builds and eddies and comes back stronger is beautifully geared to the temper of each central character and the shifting emotions of the mob, as doubt, anger, stubbornness, physical cold, pity and revulsion hold them in turn," said Max Gissen in the New Republic. Ben Ray Redman described it in The Saturday Review as "A sinewy, masculine tale that progressively tightens its grip on the reader." And Clifton Fadiman summed up the verdict of all the critics when he called this modern classic "a masterpiece."
Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow
Hour after westerly / Robert M. Coates -- Housing problem / Henry Kuttner -- Portable phonograph / Walter Van Tilburg Clark -- None before me / Sidney Carroll -- Putzi / Ludwig Bemelmans -- Demon lover / Shirley Jackson -- Miss Winters and the wind / Christine Noble Govan -- Mr. Death and the redheaded woman (the rider on the pale horse) / Helen Eustis -- Jeremy in the wind / Nigel Kneale -- Glass eye / John Keir Cross -- Saint Katy the virgin / John Steinbeck -- Night Flight / Josephine W. Johnson -- Cocoon / John B.L. Goodwin -- Hand / Wessel Hyatt Smitter -- [Sound Machine]( / Roald Dahl -- Laocoön Complex / J.C. Furnas -- I am waiting / Christopher Isherwood. Witnesses / William Sansom -- Enormous radio / John Cheever -- Heartburn / Hortense Calisher -- Supremacy of Uruguay / E.B. White -- Pedestrian / Ray Bradbury -- Note for the milkman / Sidney Carroll -- Eight Mistresses / Jean Hrolda -- In the penal colony / Franz Kafka -- Inflexible Logic / Russell Maloney.