First published in 1938, this volume of stories collected with the encouragement of his longtime editor Pascal Covici serves as a wonderful introduction to the work of Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Set in the beautiful Salinas Valley of California, where simple people farm the land and struggle to find a place for themselves in the world, these stories reflect Steinbeck's characteristic interests: the tensions between town and country, laborers and owners, past and present. Included here are the O. Henry Prize-winning story "The Murder"; "The Chrysanthemums," perhaps Steinbeck's most...

It is a testament to the enduring power and beauty of Jane Kenyon's poetry that many people - even those not particularly interested in poetry - know her work. What forces and influences shaped Kenyon's writing? And what shaped her as a person and a poet? These are the questions that John Timmerman seeks to answer in Jane Kenyon: A Literary Life. In the opening chapters Timmerman beautifully limns the story of Kenyon's life, drawing on unpublished journals and papers of hers and recollections by her husband, the poet Donald Hall. To show how her art grew out of her life, Timmerman proceeds to...