A Night in June

Last updated
"A Night in June"
Short story by William Carlos Williams
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publication
Published in Blast
Publication dateNovember 1934

"A Night in June" is a work of short fiction by William Carlos Williams, first published in Blast (November, 1934). [1] The story appeared in the 1938 collection Life Along the Passaic River , New Dimensions publishers. [2]

Contents

Plot

A pediatrician delivers a child at the home of a family of poor Italian immigrants. The mother, "Angelina", is the matriarch, and the doctor has attended all of her children's births; this the ninth. The doctor has developed a sympathetic affection for the woman. She speaks very little English, but is a person of great simplicity and courage. As a younger man, he had been unable to save her first child, who died during the delivery, for which the doctor still carries regret.

Notified after dark on a pleasant June night that Angelina is in labor, he arrives at 3 a.m. The entire family has gathered quietly in the household, and offers him assistance. He naps in the kitchen awaiting her contractions. A sense of well-being comforts and refreshes him. Angelina and the pediatrician cooperate in close physical contact to deliver the child. A healthy baby girl is born. [3] [4]

Theme

Though Williams was less a political writer and more a literary artist, he collaborated with the editors of the literary journal Blast: A Magazine of Proletarian Short Stories on a number of pieces in 1933 and 1934, at the height of the Great Depression. Literary critic Robert F. Gish noted that "No more proletarian and poignant story (toughly poignant, not sentimental) can be found than 'A Night in June'." [5] [6]

Critic Linda Welshimer Wagner considered the story "One of the most direct recounting of Williams' experiences as a doctor". [7]

The rejuvenation that the doctor experiences in the presence of the birth event makes him hesitate momentarily to follow scientific protocols. Literary critic Robert F. Gish wrote:

Even in her squalid surroundings, the woman is clean, a cleanliness of a biologically ideal birth, and the doctor is tempted to resist the science's counsel to put anti-gonorrhea drops in the new baby girl's eyes ... [8] [9]

Literary Marjorie Perloff detected an erotic element in the story:

Here, delivery becomes deliverance. The physical ritual of the birth process becomes, in Williams’ account, a variation on the act of love—the welcome fell of the woman's hands, the pressing down, the strong pull, the relief and relaxation ... by such contact the doctor is "comforted and soothed." And yet this erotic experience is "permitted by the poet's medical badge" and hence domesticated, made safe. [10]

The story concludes as a celebration of the natural beauty and endurance of the working class, of which the narrator has himself evolved socially and professionally to appreciate and gladly serve. [11]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Gish, 1989 p, 80: First published in Blast, "a journal of 'proletarian short stories'". And: p. 84: Blast issue no. 5, pp. 2-4.
  2. ↑ Gish, 1989 p. 200: Selected Bibliography
  3. ↑ Gish, 1989 p. 86-88: Plot summary
  4. ↑ Perloff, 1980 p. 188-189: Plot summary
  5. ↑ Gish, 1989 p. 86
  6. ↑ Whitaker, 1968: "The story ... renders the quality of experience of a man honestly aware of his own sources of gratification—a man for whom the self-conscious imparting of 'information and tenderness' are signs of youth."
  7. ↑ Wagner, 1970
  8. ↑ Gish, 1989 p. 86-87
  9. ↑ Perloff, 1980, p. 189-190
  10. ↑ Gish, 1989 p. 189
  11. ↑ Gish, 1989 p. 87-88

Sources

Related Research Articles

"The Use of Force" is a work of short fiction by the American author William Carlos Williams. It was first published in his short story collection Life Along the Passaic River (1938); it is also available in The Doctor Stories (1984), a collection of Williams' fiction.

<i>The World of Apples</i> Book by John Cheever

The World of Apples is the sixth collection of short fiction by author John Cheever, published in 1973 by Alfred A. Knopf. The ten stories originally appeared individually in The New Yorker, Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post or Playboy.

<i>Thirteen Uncollected Stories by John Cheever</i>

Thirteen Uncollected Stories by John Cheever is a volume of short fiction by John Cheever published in 1994 by Academy Chicago Publishers. Most of the works in this collection were written between 1931 and 1942 during which Cheever was in his late teens to his late twenties.

"Expelled" is a short story by John Cheever published by The New Republic in 1930. The story appears in a collection of Cheever's short fiction, Thirteen Uncollected Stories by John Cheever, published in 1994 by Academy Chicago Publishers

"Fall River" is a short story by John Cheever which originally appeared in the political journal The Left in the fall of 1931. The story is included in Thirteen Uncollected Stories by John Cheever (1994) published by Academy Chicago Publishers.

<i>The Knife of the Times and Other Stories</i> Collection of short fiction by William Carlos Williams

The Knife of the Times and Other Stories is a collection of 11 works of short fiction by William Carlos Williams published by Dragon Press in 1932. The stories also appear in The Farmers' Daughters: The Collected Short Stories of William Carlos Williams (1961).

<i>Life Along the Passaic River</i> Literature collection by William Carlos Williams

Life Along the Passaic River is a collection of 18 works of short fiction by William Carlos Williams published in 1938 by New Directions Publishers. The stories were also collected in Make Light of It: Collected Stories of William Carlos Williams (1950) and The Farmers' Daughters: The Collected Short Stories of William Carlos Williams. (1961)

"A Face of Stone" is a work of short fiction by William Carlos Williams written in 1934 and first collected in Life Along the Passaic River (1938) and The Doctor Stories (1984) by New Directions Publishing.

Make Light of It: Collected Stories of William Carlos Williams is a collection of short fiction by William Carlos Williams published in 1950 by Random House. The volume is an amalgamation of the stories previously included in The Knife of the Times and Other Stories (1932) and Life Along the Passaic River (1938), as well as 20 stories first collected in this volume and presented under the heading Beer and Cold Cuts.

<i>The Farmers Daughters: The Collected Short Stories of William Carlos Williams</i> Short story collection by William Carlos Williams

The Farmers' Daughters: The Collected Short Stories of William Carlos Williams is a collection of short fiction by William Carlos Williams published in 1961 by New Directions Publishing. The volume is an amalgamation of the stories previously included in The Knife of the Times and Other Stories (1932) and Life Along the Passaic River (1938), as well as 20 stories first collected in Make Light of It (1950) and presented under the heading Beer and Cold Cuts.

<i>The Doctor Stories</i> 1984 short story collection by William Carlos Williams

The Doctor Stories is an eclectic collection of 13 works of short fiction by William Carlos Williams published by New Directions Publishing in 1984.

The Girl With a Pimply Face is a work of short fiction by William Carlos Williams, first published in the literary journal Blast (1934). The story appeared in the 1938 collection Life Along the Passaic River issued by New Directions Publishers.

The Knife of the Times is a work of short fiction by William Carlos Williams first published in the collection The Knife of the Times and Other Stories (1932) by New Directions Publishing.

"Jean Beicke" is a work of short fiction by William Carlos Williams first published in Blast: A Magazine of Proletarian Short Stories in 1933. The story appeared in the 1938 collection Life Along the Passaic River

“An Old Time Raid” is a work of short fiction by William Carlos Williams first published the collection The Knife of the Times and Other Stories (1932) by New Directions Publishing

"The Sailor's Son" is a work of short fiction by William Carlos Williams, first published in The Knife of the Times and Other Stories (1932).

The Colored Girls of Passenack—Old and New is a work of short fiction by William Carlos Williams first published in the collection The Knife of the Times and Other Stories (1932) by Dragon Press.

<i>One Arm and Other Stories</i>

One Arm and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction by Tennessee Williams published by New Direction in 1948.

“Desire and the Black Masseur” is a work of short fiction by Tennessee Williams first appearing in the collection One Arm and Other Stories, published by New Directions in 1948.

<i>Act of Faith and Other Stories</i> 1946 short story collection by Irwin Shaw

Act of Faith and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction by Irwin Shaw, published by Random House in 1946.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.