Description
Book SynopsisBefore Lanford Wilson became a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright he wrote dozens of short stories and poems, many of which take place in the 1950s, small-town Missouri where he grew up. This selection of Wilson's early work, written between 1955 and 1967 provides a rare look at a young writer developing his style.
Trade ReviewA significant addition to the published work of Lanford Wilson, illuminating his work as a playwright and enlarging the scope of his work as a writer, adding a substantial group of stories and poems to Midwest, and particularly Missouri regional literature, and adding an important group of stories to the coming-of-age and LGBTQ literature of the 1950s."" - Brenda Murphy, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Connecticut, author of
The Theatre of Tennessee WilliamsTable of Contents
- Lanford Wilson: Early Stories, Sketches, and Poems
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction by David Crespy
- SECTION 1: Six Stories
- A Section of Orange
- Goodbye Sparta
- Miss Misty
- The Beautiful Children
- The Polar Bear
- The Canary (A Fairy Tale)
- SECTION 2: Travels to and from the City
- The Train to Washington
- The Water Commissioner
- Fish Kite
- SECTION 3: Sketches of Town Life
- The Rimers of Eldritch
- Green Grow the Rushes
- Chalk Eye
- Drift
- SECTION 4: Sketches of City Life
- Mama
- Fuzz on Orion’s Sword
- Uptown in Snow
- Dear Mr. Goldberg
- Doors
- SECTION 5: Poems
- Outside Tulsa
- Mountains
- Orange Grove
- Flower Box
- Marigold
- Oakwood Gothic
- [Well, there she is, after all]
- Cathedral of St. Paul
- The Street Artist
- Village Walking Rhyme
- On a Day of Crisis
- Fifth Avenue was quiet
- Winter
- So the Sky
- Lullaby
- Lullaby (2)
- If Yours Cannot Be
- I Saw All the Workers in the Field at Noon
- Why When I Love You
- Notes on a Poem for Bill
- Noel
- The great-hearted Dean
- A Love Story about the Next Best Thing
- Afterword by Marshall W. Mason
- Editorial Note
