In Our Time

I first encountered the short stories of Irwin Shaw in the pony editions of The New Yorker which that magazine put out during World War II for servicemen overseas. These editions were about two-thirds the size of the magazine as we know it, printed on special, lighter paper, and they consisted mainly of the magazine’s literary matter. Of all the short stories or brief sketches written in those days, including Thurber’s and John O’Hara’s, I remember Irwin Shaw’s stories best. They remained the most meaningful even for some years after the war, when I read them in the full-scale edition of The New Yorker; and, while I began to encounter Shaw’s stories in other magazines, Esquire for example, they did not have the impact of those I had read during the war years. After reading The Young Lions and, some years later, a story called “Tip on a Dead Jockey,” I stopped reading Shaw, until recently I looked into the novel Rich Man, Poor Man.

These stories I’ve now reread, and some I’ve read for the first time, in this hefty collection. Rich Man, Poor Man is trashy, but the stories, including the most recent ones, have consistently remained on a high level of craftsmanship; and the last one in the book, “Circle of Light,” is in some ways Shaw’s most serious story.

HR

About the Author

Herbert Ruhm

I first encountered the short stories of Irwin Shaw in the pony editions of The New Yorker which that magazine put out during World War II for servicemen overseas. These editions were about two-thirds the size of the magazine as we know it, printed on special, lighter paper, and they consisted mainly of the magazine’s literary matter. Of all the short stories or brief sketches written in those days, including Thurber’s and John O’Hara’s, I remember Irwin Shaw’s stories best. They remained the most meaningful even for some years after the war, when I read them in the full-scale edition of The New Yorker; and, while I began to encounter Shaw’s stories in other magazines, Esquire for example, they did not have the impact of those I had read during the war years. After reading The Young Lions and, some years later, a story called “Tip on a Dead Jockey,” I stopped reading Shaw, until recently I looked into the novel Rich Man, Poor Man.

These stories I’ve now reread, and some I’ve read for the first time, in this hefty collection. Rich Man, Poor Man is trashy, but the stories, including the most recent ones, have consistently remained on a high level of craftsmanship; and the last one in the book, “Circle of Light,” is in some ways Shaw’s most serious story.