Smith Carson August Derleth (1 results)

Quarto (23cm); decorative wrappers; 120pp. Metallic wrappers show signs of handling and modest wear to extremities; text is fresh and clean throughout; Very Good+. Important copy of this magazine "devoted solely to the short story," marking the debut of a young Carson McCullers, while she was attending New York University. While enrolled in a creative writing class taught by Sylvia Chatfield Bates, one piece in particular caught the eye of her teacher: "Wunderkind," a story about a young girl who had been told at an early age that she was a prodigy. "Some will think this story too long. I don't," Mrs. Bates wrote, but she suggested that her student make a few surgical cuts "to be on the safe side with regard to publication since you are unknown as yet." She also advised Carson to prepare it for submission to Story magazine. And so, the year before the young author married and became Carson McCullers, her debut story was accepted for publication and appeared over the byline Carson Smith. The nineteen-year-old received twenty-five dollars for her debut and celebrated by purchasing chocolate cake, a bottle of wine, and a story collection by Thomas Mann" (The Library of America).