Short stories about writers
 

Can anyone think of short stories in which a writer (in any genre) is a prominent character? So far I have "Builders" by Richard Yates, but I'm drawing a blank otherwise.

Sam,

I'm drawing a blank too. But if I were searching, I think I'd look at Borges, Barthelme, Anderson, Mary Robison...

Do you have a specific timeframe? Region? Subgenre?

Thanks,

Bill

Wow, that's a difficult question. There are a number of novels, but short stories? (There's always the Murder She Wrote series, but I don't think that's what you're looking for!) If you'd accept a novella, there's A Death in Venice. And the Brad Pitt character in A River Runs Through it was a reporter. That was Norman Maclain's (sp?) book and could probably be called a novella. I think there were two other stories published with it (and they were rather good!)

Kevin

Borges used librarians more than writers I think. (It's been some time.)

Kevin

Papa's rod
 

Nick in Papa's "Big Two Hearted River": "He felt he had left everything behind, the need for thinking, the need to write, other needs. It was all back of him."

Ralph

Hem's Fisher King is also the hero of The Sun Also Rises.

Preferences
 

And, oddly enough, "Bartleby the Scrivener."

John Updike wrote three or so collections worth of stories about the writer Henry Bech, including a sometimes anthologized story, The Bulgarian Poetess. Bech was Jewish, not at all prolific, and won the Nobel prize.

Alice Munro's short stories contain some writers and many would-be writers. One of my favorites is The Office, from her first collection, The Dance of the Happy Shades.

The Borges story is "The Secret Miracle." "Bartleby" would be a stretch, I think. Thanks for the reminder about "The Bulgarian Poetess." Others?

Raymond Carver wrote a terrific short story about the death of Chekhov.
Kipling wrote one about Shakespeare (talking to Jonson I think). It's a cracker too, unless I totally misremember.

There are quite a few Henry James stories about writers; here are a few titles to be going on with: "The Author of Beltraffio", "The Lesson of the Master", "The Death of the Lion", "The Figure in the Carpet".

two short stories about writers
 

Frank Conroy's "Gossip" in his short story collection, Midair, is a terrific story about a writer who teaches at a fiction workshop.

Thomas Williams's "Paranoia" - in his short story collection, Leah, New Hampshire - is another terrific short story about a writer who teaches in a university writing program. About a writer who comes to grips with his subject matter. The story contains a horrific bar encounter with a paranoid student.

My favourite is 'Enoch Soames' by Max Beerbohm, where a terrible Victorian poet sells his soul to the devil in order to visit the British Museum 100 years hence to discover how his reputation stands, to find his only mention is as a character in a story by Max Beerbohm.

Holly, let's not forget that Greene novella with the execrable writer of westerns at its center. What was his name?

Holly, "Enoch Soames" is one of my favorite short stories of all time. I kept track of the magic date when he was supposed to appear at the British Museum, and I believe they made sure that somebody did it.

Thanks to all. I made up my course list of short stories largely guided by what's been offered here--James, Conroy, Williams, etc.

People did gather to wait for him (and probably to drink a bit), June 3, 1997. I hadn't heard about any put up appearance, but shall see if I can find the old news.

Holly, Soames' poetry, though terrible, was so within the current of poetry being written. I'm not sure I can trust my memory, but I think he would more likely be thought of as a decadent than a Victorian, though she was alive ... (Lisa Rodensky has a fine anthology of the decadents, Penguin, 2007.)

Great story,
Marcia

I know this isn't on-point, but I just heard a very good review of The Last Station, the Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer movie about Tolstoy's last days. Until now, I'd been unaware of the film.

Thanks, Marcia. For those unfamiliar with Beerbohm's story, 'Enoch Soames' complete with extracts from Soames' masterpiece, 'Fungoids' may be found here:

http://emotional-literacy-education....-c/enoch11.htm