''We Are the Living'' is a 1933 collection of short stories by
Erskine Caldwell
Erskine Preston Caldwell (December 17, 1903 – April 11, 1987) was an American novelist and short story writer. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native Southern United States, in novels such as '' Tobacco Road'' (1 ...
, comprising some of his earlier works.
Background
Viking Press published the collection in September 1933. 16 of its 20 stories were previously published in various magazines, while four -- "The Medicine Man," "Meddlesome Jack," "The Grass Fire," and "A Woman in the House" -- were new.
Some stories in the collection are humorous or
satirical, while others are lyrical, romantic and/or tragic. Several of them are laid against the background of the lives of ordinary people in the contemporary US South,
the social milieu most familiar to the author; some are specifically located in his home state of
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
.
Contents
The stories in the book include:
* "
Warm River"
* "
We Are Looking at You, Agnes"
* "
The People's Choice"
* "
Indian Summer
An Indian summer is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Several sources describe a true Indian summer as not occurring until after the first frost, or more s ...
"
* "
Rachel
Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aun ...
"
* "
The Medicine Man"
* "
Picking Cotton"
* "
Meddlesome Jack"
* "
The Picture"
* "
Yellow Girl"
* "
August Afternoon"
* "
Mama's Little Girl"
* "
The First Autumn"
* "
After-Image"
* "
Crown-Fire"
* "
The Empty Room"
* "
Over the Green Mountains"
* "
The Grass Fire"
* "
A Woman in the House"
* "
Country Full of Swedes"
Critical reception
Biographer Wayne Mixon wrote that ''We are the Living'' largely "went unnoticed in the southern press." Mixon suggests that the inclusion of "August Afternoon" -- a story about a lazy white farmer, a drifter who seduces the farmer's wife, and his Black field hand who refuses Vic's order to accost him -- was to blame.
''
TIME
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine, reviewing the collection in 1933, highlighted Caldwell's more bawdy, humorous stories as standouts. Of those, they wrote: "
Mark Twain would have roared over
hese stories-- in private."
References
External links
Cover of the first edition
{{Erskine Caldwell
1933 short story collections
American short story collections
Viking Press books
Works by Erskine Caldwell