Later novels and stories : The château, So long, see you tomorrow, stores and improvisations, 1957-1999 / William Maxwell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maxwell, William, 1908-2000.

Contributor:

Carduff, Christopher.

Series:

Library of America ; 184.

Library of America ; 184

Standardized Title:

Works. Selections. 2008

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Short stories, American.

Genre:

Short stories, American.

Physical Description:

xi, 994 pages ; 21 cm.

Other Title:

Later novels & stories

Place of Publication:

New York : Library of America : Distributed to the trade in the United States by Penguin Putnam, 2008.

Summary:

On the centennial of William Maxwell's birth, here is the second volume in a two- volume collected edition that reveals the full range of an extraordinary literary voice, a voice that John Updike has called "one of the wisest in American fiction . . . as well as one of the kindest." In Later Novels and Stories , Maxwell deepens his connection to his signature subject matter even as he broadens his canvas. The Château (1961) describes the most subtle and bittersweet encounter of American naiveté and Old World mystery since Henry James. So Long, See You Tomorrow , Billie Dyer (1992) and eleven other works of short fiction, some never before collected. The volume concludes with forty brief "improvisations"--fairy tales Maxwell wrote for his wife--and the essay "Nearing Ninety" (1997), his moving valediction to a lifetime of reading and storytelling. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Contents:

The château

Stories 1963-1976: A final report; The value of money; A game of chess; The poor orphan girl; The gardens of Mont-Saint-Michel; Over by the river; The thistles in Sweden;

So long, see you tomorrow

Billie Dyer and other stories: Billie Dyer; Love; The man in the moon; With reference to an incident at a bridge; My father's friends; The front and back parts of the house; The holy terror

Stories 1986-1999: Grape Bay (1941); The lily-white boys; What he was like; The room outside

A set of twenty-one improvisations: A love story; The industrious tailor; The country where nobody ever grew old and died; The fisherman who had nobody to go out in his boat with him; The two women friends; The carpenter; The man who had no friends and didn't want any; A fable begotten of an echo of a line verse by W.B. Yeats; The blue finch of Arabia; The sound of waves; The woman who never drew breath except to complain; The masks; The man who lost his father; The old woman whose house was beside a running stream; The pessimistic fortune-teller; The printing office; The lamplighter; The kingdom where straightforward, logical thinking was admired over every other kind; The old man at the railroad crossing; The mean and spiteful toad; All the days and nights

Other improvisations: The old man who was afraid of falling; The epistolarian; The shepherd's wife; The marble watch; The half-crazy woman; The woman who didn't want anything more; The girl with a willing heart and a cold mind; The woodcutter; The man who had never been sick a day in his life; The problem child; The woman who had no eye for small details; The man who loved to eat; The woman with a talent for talking; Perfection; What you can't hang on to; Mushrooms; The dancing; The education of Her Majesty the Queen; Newton's Law

Nearing ninety.

Notes:

"Christopher Carduff selected the contents and wrote the notes for this volume"--P. [vii].

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781598530261 :

1598530267 :

OCLC:

244795571