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...”