ERSKINE CALDWELL'S MEN AND WOMEN

The 22 short stories here follow a life pattern, from adolescence to youthful courting, marriage, old age and death, and combine to display most of Caldwell's virtues. Here is the erratic humor, the feeling for social outrage, the projection of indomitable humanity, and here too is sex -- not in overpotent emphasis but with goodnatured unconventionality. The splendid Kneel to the Rising Sun and Country Full of Swedes (award winner in 1933) are among the chosen; and Where the Girls Were Different, Horse Thief, Yellow Girl, Midsummer Passion and The Negro in the Well represent the vitality and variety of his work. The introduction by the editor is a good guide to the selections and an interesting discussion of ""the world's most popular author of fiction"".