The Red Door

The Complete English Stories 1949-76

Iain Crichton Smith, Kevin MacNeil

• Publisher: Birlinn
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780857907165
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

'When the breathing got worse he went into the adjacent room and got the copy of Dante. All that night and the night before he had been watching the dying...When a mirror was required to be brought she looked at it, moving her head restlessly this way and that. He knew that the swelling was a portent of some kind, a message from the outer darkness, an omen' - The DyingAlthough best known as one of Scotland's greatest modern poets, Iain Crichton Smith was also prolific as a writer of short stories. These pieces form a central part of his oeuvre, demonstrating the full range and versatility of his literary talent. From humour to tragedy, from inner monologues to extrovert surrealism, the diversity of his writing indicates the extraordinary range of his own reading and mental world. Crichton Smith wrote short stories throughout his life. Some are fragments, others almost novellas, and the best of them all show him to be an author of unique sensitivity and intelligence.These two collections, comprising the complete English stories, include over 45 stories never before published in book form, as well as others that have been out of print for many years, thus making it possible to judge Crichton Smith's achievement as a writer in full. Incorporates stories from Survival Without Error, The Black and the Red and The Village.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author biography
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Editor’s Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• SURVIVAL WITHOUT ERROR AND OTHER STORIES
• The Ships
• Survival without Error
• The Exiles
• Close of Play
• ‘Je t’aime’
• Goodbye John Summers
• The Black and the White
• Sweets to the Sweet
• Murder without Pain
• The Adoration of the Mini
• Home
• On the Island
• Joseph
• The Idiot and the Professor and some others
• THE BLACK AND THE RED AND OTHER STORIES – PART I
• The Dying
• At the Party
• In the Station
• An American Sky
• After the Dance
• The Telegram
• The Wedding
• Getting Married
• The Little People
• God’s Own Country
• By the Sea
• The Black and the Red
• A Day in the Life of . . .
• The Crater
• The Fight
• In Church
• Through the Desert
• The Return
• The End
• Journeying Westwards
• The Professor and the Comics
• THE VILLAGE
• Easter Sunday
• Sunday
• The Old Woman and the Rat
• The Delicate Threads
• The Conversation
• I’ll Remember You
• The Ghost
• The Red Door
• The Blot
• The Vision
• The Phone Call
• The House
• The Painter
• The Existence of the Hermit
• Fable
• The Old Man
• The Prophecy
• The Letter
• Jimmy and the Policeman
• After the Film
• Moments
• Old Betsy
• UNCOLLECTED STORIES
• Mother and Son
• New Stocking for Young Harold
• The Scream
• The Angel of Mons
• The General
• Incident in the Classroom
• The Hermit
• The Long Happy Life of Murdina the Maid
• The Injustice to Shylock
• In the Maze
• The Meeting
• Waiting for the Train
• In the Café
• On the Road
• Publication Acknowledgements