The Collected Short Works, 1920-1954

Book excerpt: During the first half of the twentieth century, Bess Streeter Aldrich became one of the most highly paid and widely read American authors of her time. Among the most noteworthy of frontier writers, Aldrich published her short work in such leading magazines as Cosmopolitan, Colliers, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and the Saturday Evening Post. Her most famous novel, A Lantern in Her Hand, has remained a favorite since it was first published in 1928. All of her subsequent novels were also bestsellers. Aldrich’s portrayals of pioneers, farm people, and small town traders—their spirit and enterprise—won the admiration of the nation. Unlike such contemporaries as Sinclair Lewis and Hamlin Garland, Aldrich saw the better side of Main Street. Honesty, hard work, friendship, and family life are constant themes in her writings. This second volume of The Collected Short Works brings together over thirty of Aldrich’s short stories and essays published between 1920 and 1954, the year of her death. With this collection Aldrich’s admirers have ready access to many hard-to-find works. Some of the stories appear here for the first time since their original publication.