Guardian Angel and Other Stories

This outstanding selection of short stories, published in 1984, is taken from two books published during the author's life (Guardian Angel and other stories, published in 1932, and Nellie Bloom and other stories, published in 1929). In the story Marriage Eve, the central character seeks her father’s approval for her imminent marriage. He's matter of fact about her plans for the future:
“It's a good thing to have a family — we live for that — we have to keep the world going — happiness doesn't count here in America — we have a bigger ideal than that — the next generation does count and nothing else matters.” All his talk of the importance of the next generation is contradicted by his glorification of Woodrow Wilson:
“If you want a worthwhile book I've got one for you. Wilson’s speeches all collected in one volume.”
In the story Death of Mrs Vanderwood, the title character is awaiting her death in the care of her servant girl Mady. Mady complains on the telephone to her friend Katie about Mrs Vanderwood:
“Why, she's going crazy. Honest, I think she is. You'd think she'd want her mind on something different than dying, wouldn't you? Say, she's got me wild. Talks about it all the time.”

The author, Margery Latimer (born 6 February 1899), grew up in Portage, Wisconsin. As a teenaged girl she was contributing short stories to her local newspaper. These brought her to the attention of local author Zona Gale (later a Pulitzer Prize winner). In 1918 she went to Wooster College in Ohio but withdrew after one semester. The following year she entered the University of Wisconsin and remained there until 1921. She then moved to New York where she quickly started work on her first novel. With financial support from Zona Gale, she returned to the University of Wisconsin. By 1923, she had finished her novel and decided to concentrate on writing rather than study. Her first published novel, however, did not appear until 1928. A further novel was published in 1930 as well as two collections of short stories prior to her death in Chicago in 1932 after giving birth of her first child. A contemporary reviewer of her short stories compared her to Katherine Mansfield and D.H. Lawrence.

The central character in the story Death of Mrs Vanderwood frantically sifts through memories of life and thoughts of death while she is dying. She looks in vain for certainty and concludes:
“I've fallen apart. I haven't any shepherd to gather me together”. Feeling a sense of disintegration, she pleads to Mady “I can't remember my life — I want it saved — all of it — please...”

Eternity in an Hour

This novel, published in 1932, has the subtitle A study in childhood and is largely autobiographical. With his father an army officer, Frank, the central character, had an interest in the military from an early age — “Father was ‘the major’... His military training reflected itself in all his habits: he was punctual, precise, methodical.” The final chapter describes the outbreak of war and his brother’s exultant response to it: “What I've been waiting for! I knew it would come and now it has!” For Frank, however, there was only the disappointment of being too young to serve:
“If only he could join too! In four years’ time he'd be 18 — but the war would be over and done with long before then. Perhaps, though it wouldn't?”

The author, Vernon Knowles (born 17 April 1899), grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. His English father,  a major in the army, died in 1911. Both of his brothers served in the First World War: Harold with the 44th Battalion and Lyndon in the 3rd Battalion. He attended the University of Western Australia but did not graduate. His first book of poetry was published in 1917. He moved to London in 1921 and his first short stories and his first novel appeared in 1926. He returned home to Adelaide in 1938 and, claiming to be destitute, sought a grant from the Commonwealth Literary Fund. With this funding, he went back to London but did not prosper. Towards the end of his life he received a pension from the Royal Literature Society and he died in 1968 in conditions of miserable squalor.


From his father the central character he had learnt a military sense of patriotism: in response to a question how he would show his love for his country, he knew to say “By being ready to die for it” — “This love was expected of him. The necessity of his having it had been drilled into him assiduously and he had naturally accepted the duty without question.”
 By the time the First World War had started, the central character had suffered two major bereavements: his father had a stroke and died within a few days; his friend Edgar was killed by a shark. His emotional response was one of self-pity:
“There's no more comfort left in the world [he thought]... He felt afraid, dreadfully afraid...”

Fabian: the story of a moralist

This novel, published in 1931, is set in Berlin at a time when Nazi violence is already evident on the streets. The central character, Jakob Fabian, works in advertising for a daily newspaper. The novel traces the changing outlook of Fabian and his close friends Stephan Labude, a postgraduate literature student, and Cornelia Battenberg, an aspiring actor. Each of the three has personal ambitions but for each of them success is dependent on decisions made by others. When Fabian, having been made redundant, abandons the city, and returns to his childhood home, he aspires to retreat to the Hartz Mountains to “find himself again”. His outlook is that “by the time he came back, the world would have taken a step forward or maybe two steps back. Whichever way it went, no situation could be worse than the present.”

The author, Erich Kästner (born 23 February 1899), grew up in Dresden. In 1917 he was conscripted into the army and he served in a heavy artillery company. His experience of war, even though he did not see action, shaped his antimilitarist views and also caused an enduring heart condition (in an autobiographical reference, he refers to Fabian being physically active “within the limits imposed by his weak heart”). The damage was believed to have been done by the gruelling regime of the company training sergeant; he wrote about his ill-treatment in the acerbic poem Sergeant Waurich, referring to him as “an animal”. After the war, he completed his secondary education and then studied at the University of Leipzig, receiving a doctorate in literature in 1925. He moved to Berlin in 1927 His first book of poetry was published in 1928 and later in the same year his children's book Emil and the Detectives was an instant success and led to numerous further books for children. Though condemned by the Nazi regime, he refused to go into exile, considering it important to stay so as to chronicle what was happening. He fled Berlin for Austria in early 1945 and settled in München after the war. There he worked in journalism and wrote further children's books as well as political satire. His 1957 autobiography won several prestigious awards.

The author describes the impact of the First World War on Fabian (again Kästner is writing autobiographically) and on a generation of young men:
“Damn the war! Of course to have escaped with a weak heart was mere child’s play but the souvenir was enough for Fabian. They said there were isolated buildings, scattered about the provinces, still full of mutilated soldiers. Men without limbs, men with ghastly faces, without noses, without mouths. Nurses whom nothing could scare poured food into these disfigured creatures, poured it through thin glass tubes, speared into scarred and suppurating holes where once there had been a mouth. A mouth that could laugh and speak and cry aloud.”

The Story of Babar

This children's story, published in 1931, is a development of a spontaneous story told by the author's wife to their young children. The central character, Babar, is a young elephant whose mother is shot dead by “a cruel hunter”. He runs for his life and eventually reaches a colonial town (looking so French that it could be France itself — there are no African people shown on the streets, only Europeans). There he's adopted by a wealthy old lady who “loved making others happy”.

The author, Jean de Brunhoff (born 9 December 1899), was born in Paris. On leaving school, he joined the army and began active service on the Western Front in the last weeks of the First World War. After the war he trained in art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. His first book (this one), with his own colourful illustrations, appeared in 1931 and was an instant success. Six more Babar books followed before the author's premature death from tuberculosis in October 1937. His son, Laurent, wrote and illustrate Babar stories after his father’s death, staying faithful to the style of the original.

It's significant that the plot of this children's story first told in the 1920s is about the violent death of a family member of a young child. There were thousands of French children growing up without a father and this kind of story would help to encourage them to see beyond their loss and deprivation. The author brings the Babar character from a situation of terror to a situation in which he feels loved and protected. Even then, however, he “was not altogether happy” and “when he thought of his dear mother, he used to cry”.

Little Caesar

This gangster novel, published in 1929, was the forerunner of several iconic screenplays of the 1930s, including Scarface, co-written by this author. Set in Chicago, the obvious model for this gangster novel was Al Capone. The central character, Cesare Bandello (known as Rico), deposes the boss of his Italian crime gang and quickly outmanoeuvres rival gangs and tries to keep Flaherty, the Irish police sergeant, at bay. When, however, one of his gang members is arrested and turns state evidence against him, he's forced to abandon the city and lose his status in an attempt to preserve his freedom and his life.

The author, William Riley Burnett (born 25 November 1899), was born in Springfield, Ohio. He dropped out of Ohio State University after his first semester and then worked in various unexciting jobs. He moved to Chicago in the late 1920s and while working as a hotel clerk, he came to know a minor gangster and through him was introduced to the city's underworld. This led to him writing his first novel (this one), which was published in 1929. The following year he won the prestigious O. Henry Award for his 1929 short story Dressing-Up. A film version of Little Caesar, quickly followed and in 1930, Burnett moved to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter. He became one of the highest paid screenwriters there and was successful in getting 17 of his screenplays made into films, two of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay. In addition he wrote numerous gangster novels and Westerns. In 1980 he was awarded the Edgar Award for lifetime achievement (Grand Master) in recognition of his role as originator of the subgenre of gangster fiction.

Like many a superstitious soldier, the central character, Rico, muses about the ups and downs of life:
“You never know. When you're looking for things to go right they never do. When you're looking for trouble, why, things are O.K.”
Often his first response to confrontation or danger is to reach for his gun. Ultimately, its his shooting of a policeman that is his downfall. Trapped in a blind alley in the town of his exile, Rico's frantic as he faces his pursuer, a big man in a derby hat:
“He wanted to live. For the first time in his life he addressed a vague power which he felt to be stronger than himself,
‘Give me a break! Give me a break!’ he implored.”