" Rawlings is] among the first ten American story writers today."--"The New Republic," 1940"She will help to make the American short story a living part of our literature."--"Boston Transcript," 1940"One of the two or three "sui generis" storytellers we have."--"Atlantic Monthly," 1940
In "The Yearling," her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of 1939, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote the bleak but noble life of the Florida Cracker into American hearts. She secured her popularity as a storyteller and her status as a major voice in American literature in 1942 with the instant success of "Cross Creek," the autobiographical vignettes that highlight her ability to create short fiction.
Still, no assessment of the full range and power of her talent has been possible without this volume of all twenty-three of her published short stories, collected together here for the first time. Most appeared in "Scribner's Magazine, The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine" and the" Saturday Evening Post."
"Scribner's" printed Rawlings's first short story, "Cracker Chidlings," in 1931, just three years after she moved to an orange grove in the backwoods of north-central Florida. With a mix of frontier morality, ingenuity, and humor, the story introduced readers to Fatty Blake's squirrel pilau and 'Shiner Tim's corn liquor. Just as important, it brought her work to the attention of Maxwell Perkins, the famous Scribner's editor, who recognized her talent for storytelling and her eye for detail and who encouraged her to capture human drama in more "Cracker" stories.
Though Rawlings was at home in a man's world, much of her short fiction is told in a woman's voice. She is merciless in "Gal Young 'Un" as she bores in on two women, both competing for the same man and struggling for their dignity. The story, published in "Harper's," was awarded the O. Henry Memorial Prize for best short story of 1932 and was made into a prize-winning movie in 1979. Her most autobiographical story, "A Mother in Mannville," describes the sense of personal loss endured by a childless woman writer.
Often at her best combining satire and sarcasm, Rawlings wrote a series of comic stories that featured Quincey Dover, her alter ego. "She is, of course, me," Rawlings wrote, "if I had been born in the Florida backwoods and weighed nearly three hundred pounds." One story Quincey narrates, "Benny and the Bird Dogs," reportedly amused Robert Frost so much that he fell off a rocking chair in a fit of uncontrollable laughter while listening to Rawlings read from it.
Like others who wrote about the South, Rawlings grappled with the problem of how to portray honestly, yet without racism, the situation and the language of her neighbors. Her empathetic description of blacks and her portrayal of the Florida Cracker contribute a valuable perspective on twentieth-century American culture in transition.

Born in 1795, Thomas Carlyle was a preeminent figure in Victorian letters. Carlyle was widely reviewed, discussed, praised and criticized during his lifetime, because of his controversial ideas as well as his masterful biographies, histories and extended essays, all forms deemed more canonical in the nineteenth century. Although opinion about him and assessments of his work have fluctuated greatly in the years since his death in 1881, interest in his writings has seldom waned. This volume presents some of the most inaccessible and some of the best critical opinion dealing with four of Carlyle's major works that are arguably most representative of his thought. These include"Sartor Resartus" (1833-34), "The French Revolution" (1837), "On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History" (1841), and DEGREESIPast and Present DEGREESR (1843). Through reviews and essays, this reference work summarizes the critical reception of Carlyle's writings from their initial appearance to the present day.

Born in 1795, Thomas Carlyle was one of the preeminent figures of Victorian letters. Carlyle was widely reviewed, discussed, praised and criticized during his lifetime, primarily because of his masterful biographies, histories, and extended essays, all forms deemed more canonical in the nineteenth century. His "Sartor Resartus" (1833-34) anticipated the spiritual crisis of the Victorian period, engaged the ideas of German philosophers, and was influential in shaping American Transcendentalism and the works of such authors as Emerson and Thoreau. Carlyle's historical writings were consistently praised for their vigorous style, their vividness, and their accuracy. Although opinion about him and assessments of his work have fluctuated greatly in the years since his death in 1881, interest in his writings has seldom waned.

This volume presents some of the most inaccessible and some of the best critical opinion dealing with four of Carlyle's major works that are arguably most representative of his thought. These include DEGREESISartor Resartus DEGREESR (1833-34), DEGREESIThe French Revolution DEGREESR (1837), DEGREESIOn Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History DEGREESR (1841), and DEGREESIPast and Present DEGREESR (1843). Through reviews and essays, this reference work summarizes the critical response to Carlyle's writings from their initial appearance to the present day. The volume emphasizes early reviews while the selections of critical articles from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries reflect mature assessments of Carlyle and include pieces that are not well known or easily accessible. The volume begins with an introductory essay that discusses Carlyle's response to his reviewers, and it closes with a bibliography of major studies.

Exploring the rich, enduring companionship shared by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Julia Scribner Bigham through never-before-published letters, Marge and Julia provides a revelatory depiction of these two literary women's experiences in mid-twentieth-century America. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rawlings was first introduced to Julia Scribner (later Bigham), daughter of publishing magnate Charles Scribner III, shortly after the legendary House of Scribner published The Yearling to runaway success. Though Julia's New York City life was far removed from the rural world of Cross Creek, the two women remained close until Rawlings's death in 1953, after which Scribner Bigham served as Rawlings's literary executor. In this documentary edition of 211 of their letters, Rawlings's and Bigham's perspectives on the world are woven through over a decade of intimate discussion and advice about relationships, motherhood, mental health, politics, art, and literature. Supplementing the letters with an introduction, explanatory footnotes, and a reminiscence by Scribner Bigham's eldest daughter, Hildreth Scribner Bigham, MD, this edition provides historical context and prompts readers to inspect the facets of both women's complex relationship with issues such as racial discrimination, class, and gender inequality. These letters offer an unprecedented performance of two women's intimate friendship, one that transcended the limitations of patriarchy as they wrote their lives in letters.

The Carlyles at Home and Abroad explores the extensive influence of Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh Carlyle in England and Scotland, Europe, and the United States. The contributors explore a wide range of topics, such as aesthetics, history, biography, literature, travel writing, feminism and race. The result is a volume that offers a fresh assessment of the couple as national and international figures.

"When I found these cigarettes you had left I thought at first to keep them as a remembrance. But I am far from needing a remembrance." --From Max Perkins's first letter to Elizabeth Lemmon, dated 14 April 1922

Maxwell E. Perkins, famed editor of such literary luminaries as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Thomas Wolfe, was a man whose personal and professional lives often intersected. Nowhere is this more evident than in his correspondence with Elizabeth Lemmon, the Virginia socialite who became his long-distance confidante. Despite the platonic nature of their relationship, others realized the intensity of their connection. The letters contained in As Ever Yours, published here for the first time, reveal an epistolary love story--and they provide fresh insights into Perkins the man and Perkins the editor.

Max first met Elizabeth in 1922 at the Perkins home in Plainfield, New Jersey. Immediately drawn to her stark beauty and southern charm, he struck up a correspondence with her that lasted until his death in 1947. As Ever Yours contains 121 of Perkins's letters to Lemmon as well as the twenty extant letters from Lemmon to Perkins; the rest are presumed lost or destroyed. Letters from Fitzgerald and Wolfe also shed light on the pair's dynamic relationship.

The letters make for compelling reading as Perkins details his personal life in New Jersey and Connecticut and his professional life in the New York publishing world. The writers he discovered, edited, and encouraged at Charles Scribner's Sons emerge as endearing and believable characters, brought to life in Perkins's vivid narrative voice. He is witty, self-deprecating, and painterly in his descriptions of people and locales together with the social milieu of his day. Protected by distance, Max used his letter-writing relationship to unburden himself in a way he could not with his coworkers, his authors, or even his wife--and these letters simultaneously highlight his editorial judgment and disclose his private feelings.

Expertly edited by Rodger L. Tarr, As Ever Yours will be important to students and scholars of the history of publishing. The Perkins-Lemmon letters illuminate the thoughts and experiences of the greatest literary editor of the twentieth century.

"Sartor Resartus" is Thomas Carlyle's most enduring and influential work. First published in serial form in "Fraser's Magazine" in 1833-1834, it was discovered by the American Transcendentalists. Sponsored by Ralph Waldo Emerson, it was first printed as a book in Boston in 1836 and immediately became the inspiration for the Transcendental movement. The first London trade edition was published in 1838. By the 1840s, largely on the strength of "Sartor Resartus," Carlyle became one of the leading literary figures in Britain.
"Sartor Resartus" became one of the important texts of nineteenth-century English literature, central to the Romantic movement and Victorian culture. At the time of Carlyle's death in 1881, more than 69,000 copies had been sold. The post-Victorian influence continued and extends to writers as diverse as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, Willa Cather and Ernest Hemingway.
This edition of "Sartor Resartus" is the first publication of the work that uses all extant versions to create an accurate authorial text. This volume, the second in an eight-volume series, includes a complete textual apparatus as well as a historical introduction and full critical and explanatory annotation.