The Watchful Gods and Other Stories explained
The Watchful Gods and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Walter Van Tilburg Clark published in 1950. It brings together eight stories and one novella (the title story). Three of the stories had already appeared in the annual anthology of O. Henry Award-winning stories, most notably "The Wind and the Snow of Winter" which was selected by that anthology, in 1945, as their "first-place winner."[1] Since this book's publication, two other stories have remained notable: "The Portable Phonograph" and "Hook" have both been widely anthologized since they were published.[2]
This is the only short story collection that Clark ever published. Along with a few of these stories, Clark is best known for his first novel, the classic Western The Ox-Bow Incident, which was published in 1940.
Contents
The stories in the book appear in the following sequence:
- "Hook"
- "The Wind and the Snow of Winter" [3] [4] [5]
- "The Rapids"
- "The Anonymous"
- "The Buck in the Hills"*
- "Why Don't You Look Where You're Going?"*
- "The Indian Well"
- "The Fish Who Could Close His Eyes"
- "The Portable Phonograph" [6]
- "The Watchful Gods"
Background
- Of the nine stories in this volume, "Hook" first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly; "The Wind and the Snow of Winter" and "The Portable Photograph" in The Yale Review; "The Rapids", "Why Don't You Look Where You're Going?", and "The Indian Well" in Accent; "The Anonymous" in The Virginia Quarterly Review; "The Buck in the Hills" in The Rocky Mountain Review; "The Fish Who Could Close His Eyes" in Tomorrow. The novella, "The Watchful Gods" is published here for the first time.
- Clark dedicated this book: for A.E. Hill.
Reception
After they began appearing in national magazines during the 1940s, Clark's short stories gained national recognition, and earned five O. Henry Prize's between 1941 and 1945.[7] These were:
- "Hook" in 1941.
- "The Portable Photograph" in 1942. Note that this story was published 3 years before the first atomic bomb was dropped. It’s often speculated that the plot of this story occurs after a nuclear war.
- "The Return of Ariel Goodbody" in 1943. Note that this story was not republished in The Watchful Gods and it remains uncollected.
- “The Buck in the Hills” in 1944.
- "The Wind And The Snow Of Winter" in 1945, and was the O. Henry anthology "first prize winner" for that year.
Since this initial success, some of these stories, notably "Hook" and "The Wind And The Snow Of Winter,"[8] have consistently been anthologized as classic examples of the genre.[9] [10] "The Portable Phonograph" has also received steady attention in the years since it was first published.[11]
Notes
- Web site: Bold Type: O. Henry Award Winners 1919-1999. 11 December 2013. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/20131211033348/http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/ohenry/0999/winnerslist.html. 11 December 2013.
- The Watchful Gods and Other Stories, Random House (New York, NY), 1950. Reprinted, University of Nevada Press (Reno, NV), 2004. With a "Foreword" by Ann Ronald
- The narrative strings together various memories that filter through the mind of Mike Braneen as he makes his way into the town of Gold Rock for the winter:
- Web site: Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Shortstorymagictricks.com. 31 January 2015 . 5 January 2022.
- Web site: The Wind and the Snow of Winter Summary. eNotes.com. 5 January 2022.
- Clark's short story, "The Portable Phonograph" is also well known. It’s a depiction of the last survivors in the world after the total destruction of a war. Clark gives hints of this destruction throughout the beginning of the story in a narrative voice that describes the scene in dark war-like terms. The characters are then introduced as a group of men huddled around a fire. One of them, a doctor, has a portable phonograph.
- Web site: Walter Van Tilburg Clark Biography. Chipublib.org.
- Web site: University of Nevada Press. 4 March 2016. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304042501/http://unevadapress.com/Browse/Titles/The%20Watchful%20Gods%20and%20Other%20Stories;1972;1153. 4 March 2016.
- Web site: Walter Van Tilburg Clark - ONE. Onlinenevada.org.
- Web site: Walter Van Tilburg Clark: The reason for the Nevada author's sudden silence is still shrouded in mystery. Michael Engelmann. https://web.archive.org/web/20100226124344/http://www.nevadamagazine.com/index.php/issues/read/walter_van_tilburg_clark/. 8 November 2014. 2010-02-26.
- Web site: The Portable Phonograph. Studyworld.com. 2010-08-24. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/20060521045437/http://www.studyworld.com/newsite/ReportEssay/literature/Novel/The_Portable_Phonograph-40544.htm. 2006-05-21.
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