We Are the Living
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 First edition | |
| Author | Erskine Caldwell |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Published | 1933 |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
We Are the Living is a 1933 collection of short stories by Erskine Caldwell, comprising some of his earlier works.
Background[edit]
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.[1]
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,[2] the social milieu most familiar to the author; some are specifically located in his home state of Georgia.
Contents[edit]
The stories in the book include:
- "Warm River"
- "We Are Looking at You, Agnes"
- "The People's Choice"
- "Indian Summer"
- "Rachel"
- "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[edit]
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.[2]
TIME 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 [these stories] -- in private."[3]
References[edit]
- ^ MacDonald, Scott (1981). Critical Essays on Erskine Caldwell. G-K. Hall. ISBN 9780816182992. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
- ^ a b Mixon, Wayne (1995). The People's Writer: Erskine Caldwell and the South. University of Virginia Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-8139-1627-9. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
- ^ "Books: U. S. Humorist". TIME. 2 October 1933. Retrieved 14 April 2023.