Thanks for Listening: Stories and Short Fictions

by Buckler, Ernest

• ISBN13: 9780889204386
• ISBN10: 0889204381
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ Pr

Summary

treasure chest of exceptional stories by one of Canadas classic authorsall now available in one volume. Ernest Buckler, best known as the author of the Canadian classic, The Mountain and the Valley, never achieved the lasting fame he deserved. His first story was published in Esquire, a significant American literary magazine known for publishing leading writers such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sinclair Lewis. Over the years, nearly forty more of Buckler's short stories were published in several popular magazines, including Maclean's where his story "The Quarrel" won first prize for fiction. In this new book, Thanks for Listening: Stories and Short Fictions by Ernest Buckler, Marta Dvorak gathers together many of those stories as well as some previously unpublished pieces. At times she has chosen to include the fuller, original versions, and has reinstated some of the lost passages that were cut from stories to fit popular magazine requirements.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(12)
Stories
Just Like Everyone Else	13	(72)
The Balance	13	(7)
A Present for Miss Merriam	20	(15)
The Clumsy One	35	(11)
The Harness	46	(12)
Just Like Everyone Else	58	(12)
Cleft Rock, With Spring	70	(7)
The Wild Goose	77	(8)
Desire	85	(76)
The Quarrel	85	(12)
Goodbye, Prince	97	(10)
It Was Always Like That	107	(10)
The First Born Son	117	(9)
Return Trip to Christmas	126	(17)
The Locket	143	(10)
The Choice	153	(8)
A Million Things to Tell	161	(28)
Thanks for Listening	161	(5)
Glance in the Mirror	166	(5)
Another Christmas	171	(5)
No Matter Who's There	176	(13)
Sentiment/Sentimentality	189	(48)
The Christmas Order	189	(18)
Penny in the Dust	207	(5)
The Finest Tree	212	(4)
The Dream and the Triumph	216	(14)
The Bars and the Bridge	230	(7)
Short Fictions	237	(62)
Long, Long After School	239	(5)
Humble Pie	244	(4)
Nettles into Orchids	248	(4)
The Doctor and the Patient	252	(4)
You Could Go Anywhere Now	256	(4)
The Snowman	260	(8)
The Orchard	268	(4)
Why Must It Sound Like a Cowboy Song?	272	(2)
The Widow	274	(3)
Muse in Overalls	277	(5)
Education at Mimi's	282	(4)
Squares	286	(5)
Children	291	(8)
Appendix of Publishing History	299	(2)
List of Abbreviations	301