James Purdy, Children Is All

Martin Kich (Wright State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1963

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play
Story Collection

Resources

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This collection includes ten short stories and two plays. For the most part, these works focus on very ordinary characters confronting emotional crises or unexpected revelations. The psychological resources that they can bring to the situations they face are, however, so limited that they can respond only eccentrically or obliquely. In tone, the stories range from the unsettling to the absurdly pathetic to the lightly comic.

“Daddy Wolf” is a variation on Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts. Daddy Wolf is a radio version of the advice columnist, but, instead of giving us the story from the point of view of the person giving the advice, Purdy presents his story from the point of view of the person seeking it. The main character's wife had previously consulted with Daddy Wolf because her

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1213 words

Citation: Kich, Martin. "Children Is All". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6047, accessed 24 November 2024.]

James Purdy, Children Is All

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