Short Story International 16 [antikvár]

Note from the Editor The English author William Hazlitt wrote: "I should like to spend the whole of my life in travelling abroad, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at home." Short Stori; International's global approach provides at least a partial answer to William Hazlitt's dilemma. Many readers write to us that SSI brings an extra dividend. It not only brings pleasure in the stories, but also the pleasure of traveling back through the stories to lands they had visited. A story from Mexico, for example, may reawaken memories of a visit there and thus enrich both the story and the memories. Other readers write SSI takes them to places they could never hope to visit, "far away places with strange-sounding names." The writer's magic carp)et transports us to the heart of other settings and envelops us in the temper, objectives, pressures and fulfillments of life in different lands. With artistry and clarity, writers from all points of the compass put before us our similarities and differences. In this issue, for example, in a South African setting Alan Paton's "The Quarry" has a young person's dramatic experience unveil prejudice and hope. And in a Puerto Rican setting, Salvador Arana-Soto's "Evil Republican" is the story of a young person's adventure which also manifests prejudice and ultimate hope. Former visitors to these lands perhaps may more quickly visualize and be more keenly affected by the writers' accounts mingled with their own evocative memories. But whether one has visited the countries or not, writers give us people, places and values that become part of our own total makeup. We recommend SS/ to all William Hazlitts.