For the first time, the complete stories of the Pulitzer
Prize-winning master chronicler of tradition and transformation in the
twentieth-century South
Born and raised in Tennessee, Peter Taylor was the great chronicler of
the American Upper South, capturing its gossip and secrets, its divided
loyalties and morally complicated legacies in tales of pure-distilled
brilliance. Now, for his centennial year, the Library of America and
acclaimed short story writer Ann Beattie present an unprecedented
two-volume edition of Taylor's complete short fiction, all fifty-nine of
the stories published in his lifetime in the order in which they were
composed.
This second volume presents thirty stories including many of his most
ambitious works, among them "Dean of Men," a monologue delivered by a
middle-aged father to his long-haired son about the limits of idealism;
"In the Miro District," a parable of the Old South's enduring
persistence in the New; and "The Old Forest," one of Taylor's most
celebrated works, the story of a young man who jeopardizes his impending
marriage by consorting with a girl deemed beneath his station. Here too
are all five of Taylor's remarkable prose poems, stories in free verse
that demonstrate that great fiction is, at its highest pitch, a
line-by-line, image-by-image high-wire act. Two of the stories in this
volume, "A Cheerful Disposition" and "The Megalopolitans," are collected
here for the first time.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization
founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by
publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most
significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than
300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in
length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are
printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
