The Long Valley Read Online Free PDF

discerning criticism he may become a genuinely great American writer.”
    Upon reflection, one does not find either the range of reviewer opinion or the adamancy of that opinion particularly surprising. Steinbeck’s restless imagination constantly carried him in different artistic directions. He often took both readers and reviewers by surprise, remaining faithful only to his primary artistic aim of telling a good story. Techniques and subjects differed in nearly every story told. Particularly at this early stage of his career, many reviewers were simply uncertain what to make of it all.
    It is not surprising either that some of this mixed opinion prevailed in the later critical appraisal of individual stories as lengthier analyses began to appear in the scholarly journals. The most popular subjects during the early years of this academic analysis, and such critical studies began to appear in earnest during the 1960s, were the Red Pony stories. During the late 1970s and 1980s, newer critical approaches began to mine other stories for ore. By the mid-1970s the critical attention had accelerated to the point where Tetsumaro Hayashi, then editor of the Steinbeck Quarterly, collected a selection of essays in the first book-length volume exclusively on the stories: A Study Guide to Steinbeck’s The Long Valley. Critical interest in the stories was not the exclusive province of the Steinbeck Quarterly, however. Increasingly, studies began to appear in such journals as Modern Fiction Studies, Explicator, Western American Literature, College English, and others. During recent years, several book-length studies devoted exclusively to Steinbeck’s short stories have appeared.
    The short stories of The Long Valley continue to attract scholarly attention. Were that not the case, however, the stories would endure in importance for the simple fact of reader interest. Steinbeck’s primary aim as a writer was always to tell a good story. The Long Valley testifies to this aim. The general public as well as those in the academic setting return to these stories over and over. It is primarily there, in the hearts and minds of individual readers, that the significance of these stories persists.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
    Extensive bibliographies on The Long Valley may be found in Tetsumaro Hayashi, ed., A Study Guide to Steinbeck’s The Long Valley (Ann Arbor, MI: Pierian Press, 1976); Robert Hughes, Beyond The Red Pony, (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1987); and John H. Timmerman, The Dramatic Landscape of Steinbeck’s Short Stories (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990). The Steinbeck Quarterly has published articles on The Long Valley stories virtually from its beginning. The following bibliography lists only those works mentioned in the introduction or notes, or those of further bibliographical significance.
     
    Byrd, Charlotte. “The First-Person Narrator in ‘Johnny Bear’: A Writer’s Mind and Conscience.” Steinbeck Quarterly 21 (Winter-Spring 1988): 6-13.
    Davis, Robert Murray. “Steinbeck’s ‘The Murder.’ ” Studies in Short Fiction 14 (1977): 63-68.
    DeMott, Robert. “Voltaire Didn’t Like Anything: A 1939 Interview with John Steinbeck.” Steinbeck Quarterly (Winter-Spring 1986): 5- 11. Reprinted in Conversations with John Steinbeck, edited by Thomas Fensch (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1988): 21-27.
    Ditsky, John M. “Steinbeck’s ‘Slav Girl’ and the Role of the Narrator in ‘The Murder.’ ” Steinbeck Quarterly 22 (Summer-Fall 1989): 68-76.
     
    Girard, Maureen. “Steinbeck’s ‘Frightful’ Story: The Conception and Evolution of ‘The Snake.’ ” San Jose Studies 8 (Spring 1982): 33-40.
    Hayashi, Tetsumaro, and Thomas J. Moore, eds. Steinbeck’s The Red Pony: Essays in Criticism. Steinbeck Monograph Series no. 13. Muncie, IN: Ball State University Press, 1988.
    Osborne, William R. “The Texts of Steinbeck’s ‘The Chrysanthemums.’ ” Modem Fiction Studies 12