“Sucker” by Carson McCullers
“Sometimes when a person admires you, you despise him and don’t care.” Read “Sucker” by Carson McCullers
“The Good Provider” by Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst’s writing career began in the pages of The Saturday Evening Post. The all-but-forgotten author was one of the highest paid writers in the United States after World War I. Of Hurst, it was said that “no other living American woman has gone so far in fiction in so short a time.” Her novels …
“The Girl Who Went Right” by Edna Ferber
Pulitzer Prize winner Edna Ferber moved in the same circles as Dorothy Parker and Noël Coward in the Algonquin Round Table. Ferber wrote Show Boat, So Big, and Giant, in addition to several other novels adapted into musicals and Oscar-winning films. Her 1913 story “The Girl Who Went Right” follows a new department store salesgirl …
“Captain Schlotterwerz” by Booth Tarkington
American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner Newton Booth Tarkington has been heralded as one of the best authors of the 20th century. His work explored middle America and often romanticized the life of Midwesterners. In his story “Captain Schlotterwerz” published in 1918, two German-Americans living in Cincinnati venture to Mexico to escape the tense political …
Music of Angels
A young man was staring at the display case underneath the information desk in the lobby of the student union when Anna Harris marched in, took a seat behind the desk, and said, “You parked in my spot.” He looked up at her. “Excuse me?” She nodded toward the window and the parking lot beyond. …
“The Black Coat” by John Galsworthy
Noble Prize winner John Galsworthy was an English novelist and playwright who wrote stories about social grievances of both the upper and lower class. In his short story “The Black Coat,” published in 1926, A Russian general of the Great War reminisces on a past with simpler times. A problem arises when he misplaces his …
The Wooing of Dolores McDougal
Dolores McDougal believed breaking wind was an act of God. She embraced this natural phenomenon with the full-blooded gusto worthy of divine gifts, openly sharing her odoriferous benedictions whenever the spirit moved her. Dolores’ zeal for her credo set the town biddies of West Ambrosia to tongue-wagging of the highest order. “It’s a blessing she …
Bavaria’s Romantic Road
Where to stay, where to eat, and what to see in one of the most scenic regions of Germany: The Romantic Road stretches a little over 200 miles from Würzburg to Füssen. Starting from the north and ending at Neuschwanstein Castle and views of the alps is the popular route. For that very reason, this …
The Benefits of a Good Walk
The very act of lacing up her boots for her daily hike brings back fond memories for Michele Straube. Her parents, German immigrants, took the family on long, meandering walks in the woods nearly every Sunday afternoon. (The Germans even have a word for such walkabouts: wanderung.) Michele does her wanderung these days in the …
Since the Shawnee
Sheriff Lovell was almost, absolutely one hundred percent sure there were no wild turkeys left in Muhlenberg County. He couldn’t say exactly when they disappeared, but it was sometime after the Shawnee, after everybody except Mennonites gave up horses for cars and after the invention of the telephone, but before anybody got a single line. …