In these fast-buck days for global publishers, many of their “greatest ever” new titles are not worth reading.
It’s disappointing, but blame the marketers who control the trade. Without them a truly great author can languish. This has happened to more than one past-generation genius, available now at $1.
My newest find among these neglected gems is Jessamyn West. She ranks alongside the best short story writers in the English language.
Her humour reflects dilemmas of a gentle kind. She is funnier than Mark Twain and more original in her plots. Married life is her strongest theme, while situations, characters and dialogue are her greatest skills.
Jessamyn West (1902-1984) found fame in 1945 with “The Gentle Persuasion”, a collection of short stories about a Quaker family. It became a movie starring Gary Cooper. It’s just one of her marvellous creations.
These days her books can be bought for $1 (www.abebooks.com), and I have just ordered a stack of them.
Since she’s not of my time, I was ignorant of this literary homebody until she popped up during an internet browse. It’s ironic that our high-tech tool of the Space Age was the means to discover a woman chronicling life in the Old West and, additionally, in the family suburbs many of us grew up in.
What a shame it would be for readers of the present generation to miss her folksy yarns, so this is my pitch for Jessie. She has a magic that soothes and tickles and regards the world with sympathetic grace.
You’ll find 30 PC pages listing her works at abebooks, my favourite browse after www.booktaste.com
What a shame that publishers have let this virtuoso lapse into the $1 shelves. But what a delight to come across her there-an everlasting source of mirth and philosophical musings.
Current good-humour authors who spring to mind are Alan Coren, Bryce McBryce, Susan Kurosawa, John Mortimer and Alexander McCall Smith. There may be others I have yet to read.
Real Diamonds in the Bookworld Dross
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