The Watchful Gods and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Walter Van Tilburg Clark published in 1950. It brings together eight stories and one novella (the title story). Three of the stories had already appeared in the annual anthology of O. Henry Award-winning stories, most notably "The Wind and the Snow of Winter" which was selected by that anthology, in 1945, as their "first-place winner."[1] Since this book's publication, two other stories have remained notable: "The Portable Phonograph" and "Hook" have both been widely anthologized since they were published.[2]
This is the only short story collection that Clark ever published. Along with a few of these stories, Clark is best known for his first novel, the classic Western The Ox-Bow Incident, which was published in 1940.
Contents
The stories in the book appear in the following sequence:
"Hook" (Atlantic Monthly, August 1940)
"The Wind and the Snow of Winter" (Yale Review, Winter 1945) [n 1][3][4]
"The Rapids" (Accent, Winter 1941)
"The Anonymous" (Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer 1941)
"The Buck in the Hills"* (Rocky Mountain Review, Spring/Summer 1943)
"Why Don't You Look Where You're Going?"* (Accent, Summer 1941)
"The Indian Well" (Accent, Spring 1943)
"The Fish Who Could Close His Eyes" (Tomorrow, February 1946)
"The Portable Phonograph" (Yale Review, Spring 1941) [n 2]
"The Watchful Gods"
Background
Of the nine stories in this volume, "Hook" first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly; "The Wind and the Snow of Winter" and "The Portable Photograph" in The Yale Review; "The Rapids", "Why Don't You Look Where You're Going?", and "The Indian Well" in Accent; "The Anonymous" in The Virginia Quarterly Review; "The Buck in the Hills" in The Rocky Mountain Review; "The Fish Who Could Close His Eyes" in Tomorrow. The novella, "The Watchful Gods" is published here for the first time.
Clark dedicated this book: for A.E. Hill.
Reception
After they began appearing in national magazines during the 1940s, Clark's short stories gained national recognition, and earned five O. Henry Prize's between 1941 and 1945.[5] These were:
"Hook" in 1941.
"The Portable Photograph" in 1942. Note that this story was published 3 years before the first atomic bomb was dropped. It’s often speculated that the plot of this story occurs after a nuclear war.
"The Return of Ariel Goodbody" in 1943. Note that this story was not republished in The Watchful Gods and it remains uncollected.
“The Buck in the Hills” in 1944.
"The Wind And The Snow Of Winter" in 1945, and was the O. Henry anthology "first prize winner" for that year.
Since this initial success, some of these stories, notably "Hook" and "The Wind And The Snow Of Winter,"[6] have consistently been anthologized as classic examples of the genre.[7][8] "The Portable Phonograph" has also received steady attention in the years since it was first published.[9]
Notes
↑ The narrative strings together various memories that filter through the mind of Mike Braneen as he makes his way into the town of Gold Rock for the winter:
"Braneen spends eight months of every year—from April to December—in the mountains, and when the first snow falls he takes refuge in the little mining town of Gold Rock. For eight months, Mike is alone, with only his burro for company. However, in his loneliness be perpetually relives the social phase of his life. Though comfortable with his solitary life, Mike’s self-identity is clearly defined by his human relationships."
↑ Clark's short story, "The Portable Phonograph" is also well known. It’s a depiction of the last survivors in the world after the total destruction of a war. Clark gives hints of this destruction throughout the beginning of the story in a narrative voice that describes the scene in dark war-like terms. The characters are then introduced as a group of men huddled around a fire. One of them, a doctor, has a portable phonograph.
↑ The Watchful Gods and Other Stories, Random House (New York, NY), 1950. Reprinted, University of Nevada Press (Reno, NV), 2004. With a "Foreword" by Ann Ronald
↑ "The Portable Phonograph". Studyworld.com. Archived from the original on May 21, 2006. Retrieved August 24, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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