Progress Of Stories

A new, enlarged edition with commentary by Laura (Riding) Jackson

1935;1982; Persea Books, 1994

"...unique and uniquely delightful.... One has to suspect these modern fairy tales of being perhaps quite a lot wiser than the ordinary realistic novel".
Rebecca West (1935)

"...one of the most important works of twentieth century fiction... When the history of modern literature is written some years from now, it will have to take [Progress of Stories] into account..."
John Ashbery, New York Times Book Review

This expanded edition of the 1935 classic collection includes the original eighteen stories, which "progress" from "Stories of Lives" to "Stories of Ideas" to "Nearly True Stories," plus twelve more early stories and one late story, all selected and arranged by Laura (Riding) Jackson in 1982. Though the principle of all her writing is that "words are for truth," she has said these "made-up" stories are designed to appeal to our universal love of storytelling, "the zest, the yearning, for the true".

Privateness by Laura Riding

Mademoiselle Comet by Laura Riding Jackson