 First edition | |
| Author | Tennessee Williams |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | New Directions Publishers |
Publication date | 1948 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 210 |
| ISBN | 978-1135114442 |
One Arm and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction by Tennessee Williams published by New Direction in 1948. [1]
The volume was released the same year that Williams received the Pulitzer Prize for his play A Streetcar Named Desire . [2]
Those pieces originally published in magazines before being collected in this volume are indicated. [3]
Though granting that Tennessee Williams is "an interesting writer and a sensitive man," and that these eleven works of fiction in the collection are “electrifying,” The New York Times critic James Kelly reports: "[E]ven healthy optimism is nearly invisible in the lurid studies of perversion, madness and human decay covered…" [4]
In the Saturday Review , literary critic William H. Peden wrote that Williams "is at his best" in several of the stories: [5]
Tennessee Williams is in a class by himself. Even at his worst he creates magical, terrifying, and unforgettable effects; his only limitations seem to be self-imposed. [6]
Twenty years later, in Sewanee Review, Peden stated that "The Field of Blue Children" and "Portrait of a Girl in Glass" and several other pieces from the collection were "as good as anything produced during recent years." [7]
"I cannot write any kind of story unless there is at least one character in it for whom I have physical desire."—Tennessee Williams, as reported by biographer Gore Vidal, in the Introduction to Tennessee Williams: Collected Stories (1985) [8]
Literary critic Signi Falk offers this overview of the thematic elements that appear in One Arm and Other Stories:
Some of the stories have the aura of confession. Williams indicates his sympathy for the unfortunate and his fascination for the macabre. He also indicates his own system of values as he rejects workers in favor of ne’er-do-wells and seems to prefer the vagrant of both sexes. [9]
Falk emphasizes that the stories were informed by "Williams' wandering years through sordid rooming houses, on city streets, and on obscure corners where derelicts hide." [10] [11]
Thomas Lanier Williams III, known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.
Hard Candy: A Book of Stories is a collection of short stories by American writer Tennessee Williams, which was first published in 1954 by New Directions.
"The Hartleys" is a work of short fiction by John Cheever, first published in The New Yorker on January 22, 1949. The story was included in The Enormous Radio and Other Stories (1953), and in The Stories of John Cheever (1978).
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"The Brothers" is a short story by John Cheever which first appeared in The Yale Review in June 1937. The work was included in the short fiction collection The Way Some People Live (1943), published by Random House.
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“The Mysteries of the Joy Rio” is a work of short fiction by Tennessee Williams. Written in 1941, the work first appeared in the collection Hard Candy: A Book of Stories (1954), published by New Directions.
“The Angel in the Alcove” is a work of short fiction by Tennessee Williams. It first appeared in the collection One Arm and Other Stories, published by New Directions 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.
"The Yellow Bird" is an American short story by Tennessee Williams which first appeared in the magazine Town and Country in 1947 and was first collected in One Arm and Other Stories (1948), published by New Directions.
“The Night of the Iguana” is a short story by Tennessee Williams first appearing in the collection One Arm and Other Stories (1948) published by New Directions. Elements of the story provided the basis for Williams's play The Night of the Iguana (1961).
“Portrait of a Girl in Glass” is a work of short fiction by Tennessee Williams, first appearing in the collection One Arm and Other Stories published in 1948 by New Directions.
Act of Faith and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction by Irwin Shaw, published by Random House in 1946.
"Walking Wounded” is a work of short fiction by Irwin Shaw, originally appearing in The New Yorker on May 13, 1944, and first collected in Act of Faith and Other Stories (1946) by Random House. The story was carried by Stars and Stripes during the war.