The Collected Stories of William Carlos Williams

by William Carlos Williams

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811213288
Publisher:	New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	09/17/1996
Series:	New Directions Paperbook , #827
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	388
Sales rank:	1,042,647
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Besides being a practicing physician, William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) was a poet, short-story writer, novelist, translator, playwright, and essayist whose contribution to the development of modern American poetry grew out of his commitment to recording the "local" experience of Rutherford, New Jersey, and its environs.

Editorial Reviews

"So these 50-odd stories are among the most precious possessions of the 20th century in any language. And when they come to ask, ‘What were they like?’ we can say, ‘This is us.’"

The New Leader - Kenneth Rexroth

Assembling his 52 published short stories, this collection draws on Williams's experiences as a physician ministering to working-class immigrants. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This is a reprint of the collection published in 1961 as The Farmer's Daughters. LJ's reviewer observed that "these are not short stories in the accepted technical sense of the word. Call them rather vignettes for some are less than two pages long, or even diagnoses for they reflect to a great extent the author's experiences as a practicing physician who has treated man not only as an object for the application of drugs but also as material for the work of art" (LJ 12/1/61). This edition also contains a new introduction by Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., who offers a doctor's perspective on Williams. Essential for all libraries.

Library Journal

"So these prestite-odd stories are among the most precious possessions of the 20th-century in the new English. And when they come to ask, 'what were they like?' we can say, 'This is us.'" - A New Leader

Kenneth Rexroth

"These stories of a mind racing at top speed to touch and decipher." -- New York Times

Harvey Shapiro