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The Old Man at the Railroad Crossing: And Other Tales
A collection of twenty-nine short stories that provide insight into many types of human characters and traits.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
175 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
3 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
William Maxwell
122 books371 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
William Keepers Maxwell Jr. was an American novelist, and fiction editor at the New Yorker. He studied at the University of Illinois and Harvard University. Maxwell wrote six highly acclaimed novels, a number of short stories and essays, children's stories, and a memoir, Ancestors (1972). His award-winning fiction, which is increasingly seen as some of the most important of the 20th Century, has recurring themes of childhood, family, loss and lives changed quietly and irreparably. Much of his work is autobiographical, particularly concerning the loss of his mother when he was 10 years old growing up in the rural Midwest of America and the house where he lived at the time, which he referred to as the "Wunderkammer" or "Chamber of Wonders". He wrote of his loss "It happened too suddenly, with no warning, and we none of us could believe it or bear it... the beautiful, imaginative, protected world of my childhood swept away." Since his death in 2000 several works of biography have appeared, including A William Maxwell Portrait: Memories and Appreciations (W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), My Mentor: A Young Man's Friendship with William Maxwell by Alec Wilkinson (Houghton-Mifflin, 2002), and William Maxwell: A Literary Life by Barbara Burkhardt (University of Illinois Press, 2005). In 2008 the Library of America published the first of two collections of William Maxwell, Early Novels and Stories, Christopher Carduff editor. His collected edition of William Maxwell's fiction, published to mark the writer's centenary, was completed by a second volume, Later Novels and Stories in the fall of 2008.'
William Keepers Maxwell Jr. was an American novelist, and fiction editor at the New Yorker. He studied at the University of Illinois and Harvard University. Maxwell wrote six highly acclaimed novels, a number of short stories and essays, children's stories, and a memoir, Ancestors (1972). His award-winning fiction, which is increasingly seen as some of the most important of the 20th Century, has recurring themes of childhood, family, loss and lives changed quietly and irreparably. Much of his work is autobiographical, particularly concerning the loss of his mother when he was 10 years old growing up in the rural Midwest of America and the house where he lived at the time, which he referred to as the "Wunderkammer" or "Chamber of Wonders". He wrote of his loss "It happened too suddenly, with no warning, and we none of us could believe it or bear it... the beautiful, imaginative, protected world of my childhood swept away." Since his death in 2000 several works of biography have appeared, including A William Maxwell Portrait: Memories and Appreciations (W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), My Mentor: A Young Man's Friendship with William Maxwell by Alec Wilkinson (Houghton-Mifflin, 2002), and William Maxwell: A Literary Life by Barbara Burkhardt (University of Illinois Press, 2005). In 2008 the Library of America published the first of two collections of William Maxwell, Early Novels and Stories, Christopher Carduff editor. His collected edition of William Maxwell's fiction, published to mark the writer's centenary, was completed by a second volume, Later Novels and Stories in the fall of 2008.'
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 25, 2019
Matter of fact reflections on the human condition, bits and snippets of life told in deceptively simple stories that carry the weight of truth. The beauty of a single moment, the aroma of fresh baked bread, the balance of nature. Twenty-nine short stories that read like fables.
April 17, 2023
This collection of twenty-nine stories was a bit of a disappointment to me. I had read another collection of Maxwell's short stories and would count it among some of the best I had ever read. Cannot say that for these. They are all fairly mediocre, or perhaps it is just the way he has set them up as fairy tales that makes them less appealing to me. None of them seems to have anything particularly erudite to say, which is rather unusual for Maxwell, as I have found all his other stories and novels to have unexpected depths.
September 23, 2023
I read this 23 years ago and gave it an A. This scares me because I am the same person...and this time around I did not like the book overall. Maxwell said he carried around these stories in his head for years, and he would sit down at a typewriter and let the stories do the typing.
• These 29 tales were written over a period of many years, usually for an occasion, and I didn’t so much write them as do my best to keep out of the way of their writing themselves. I would sit with my head bent over the typewriter waiting to see what was going to come out of it. The first sentence was usually a surprise to me. From the first sentence everything else followed...
I have a lot of respect for William Maxwell who was fiction editor for the New Yorker for many years, and whose prose is considered excellent by his peers. And I have read 2-3 of his other books, and liked them a lot. Clearly the man knows how to write. But this collection...I thought most of the short stories were nonsensical...what was their point? A couple of nonsensical stories are fine but these were so much over the top in terms of having no meaning that I find it hard to believe that a whole book of such tales were published.
Albeit a few were good...but I wish they were in the majority and not, in my estimation, in the minority.
Here are the 29 stories’ titles and my ratings....most of these had been previously published in The New Yorker:
1. The man who had no enemies — 4.5 stars
2. The blue finch of Arabia — 3.5 stars (these first two stories were good, and I was assuming the rest of the 27 stories would be similar to these ones in terms of quality....)
3. The girl with a willing heart and a cold mind — 3 stars
4. The poor orphan girl — 2.5 stars
5. The country where nobody ever grew old and died — 1.5 stars
6. The woman who lived beside a running stream — 1.5 stars
7. The marble watch — 1.5 stars (my comment: nonsensical tripe)
8. The half-crazy woman — 3 stars
9. The two women friends — 2 stars
10. The fisherman who had no one to go out in his boat with him — 3 stars
11. The carpenter — 2.5 stars
12. The man who lost his father — 3.5 starts
13. The industrious tailor — 1.5 stars
14. The woman with a talent for talking — 2.5 stars
15. The man who took his family to the seashore — 2.5 stars
16. The woman who didn’t want anything more — 4 stars
17. The kingdom where straightforward, logical thinking was admired over every other kind — 2.5 stars
18. The woman who had no eye for small details — 5 stars
19. The woodcutter — 2.5 stars
20. The shepherd’s wife — 3 stars
21. The man who loved to eat — 2 stars
22. The epistolarian — 2.5 stars
23. The problem child — 2 stars
24. The printing office — 2 stars
25. The lamplighter — 2 stars
26. The old man who was afraid of falling — 2 stars
27. The man who had never been sick a day in his life — 2 stars
28. The woman who never drew breath except to complain — 1.5 stars
29. The old man at the railroad crossing — 2 stars
Reviews:
• I couldn’t find any reviews. However this is from an interview given by Christopher Carduff, who was editor for the collection ‘Later Novels & Stories’ from the Library of America. Carduff said this about Maxwell’s tales or improvisations that included those in ‘The Old Man and the Railroad Crossing’. Maxwell loved fairy tales. These improvisations are his contribution to the tradition of Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, Walter de la Mare and Andrew Lang, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Isak Dinesen. I admire them very much, but I do not love them as I do the longer fiction. They seem to be addressed to someone whose tastes are not mine, someone standing a little off to one side of me. My favorites? I, too, like “All the days and nights”; also the wise, sad, late one called “What you can’t hang on to,” a gentle protest against nostalgia, the collector’s impulse, and all of man’s vain attempts to divert the flow of time.”
• This blurb is from the year it was published, 1966, by Kirkus Reviews: The author's penchant for attracting critical acclaim because of his stylistic elegance, if not for spurring cash register activity, may be buoyed by this collection of fables, radiant with a tender, gentle view of human tragedy and strengths. Contemporary fables are often unusually tiresome, working busily as they do the mother lode of wretched folk characters--a beloved (or unbeloved) King of the Country; always a woodcutter; dim witted Old Women who Live Alone, and garrulous animals. Fortunately in these tales, not only are we spared articulation by non-human forms (with the exception of some discerning plants and a solemn bird), but also the characters' abstract outlines are shaded entertainingly with sprightly dialogue and activity. One is easily lured to follow the Old Woman as she winds up her affairs and traces a heretofore ignored stream to its source and a happy, translucent death; the slovenly King who orders a marble clock built (to withstand time); the woman whose mystic gift for talking plants into luxuriant growth illuminates for her the meaning of motherhood; a glimpse of infinity by the sea that snaps shut at the end of a vacation: tales of joy and innocence swallowed up in an uncaring world--these are winning and disturbing vignettes, sometimes heartbreaking in their obvious application to universals of the human condition. A special taste, perhaps more easily acquired through familiarity with the author's name. [March 1, 1966]
Notes:
• I was looking at a website from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign that houses his literary archives and saw this interesting note: The collection is open for research. Per agreement with the donor, correspondence from J.D. Salinger to William Maxwell and from William Maxwell to J.D. Salinger is sealed until February 9, 2032. See: https://archon.library.illinois.edu/r...
• Maxwell was literary editor for The New Yorker and a number of Salinger’s short stories were published in this periodical during Maxwell’s tenure. This is said about Salinger’s short story ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’: One of the most important stories of Salinger's career – William Maxwell at *The New Yorker*, which had previously published only one other Salinger story, liked the initial draft but asked Salinger to revise it. Whereas he had previously just taken his writing elsewhere upon any initial rejection, this time he decided to work with editors Maxwell and Gus Lobrano. Upon its publication he was immediately hailed as an important new and singular voice in American fiction. The partnership with *The New Yorker* was sufficiently agreeable on both sides that the magazine signed him to a first-refusal contract, a great coup for any young writer.
• These 29 tales were written over a period of many years, usually for an occasion, and I didn’t so much write them as do my best to keep out of the way of their writing themselves. I would sit with my head bent over the typewriter waiting to see what was going to come out of it. The first sentence was usually a surprise to me. From the first sentence everything else followed...
I have a lot of respect for William Maxwell who was fiction editor for the New Yorker for many years, and whose prose is considered excellent by his peers. And I have read 2-3 of his other books, and liked them a lot. Clearly the man knows how to write. But this collection...I thought most of the short stories were nonsensical...what was their point? A couple of nonsensical stories are fine but these were so much over the top in terms of having no meaning that I find it hard to believe that a whole book of such tales were published.
Albeit a few were good...but I wish they were in the majority and not, in my estimation, in the minority.
Here are the 29 stories’ titles and my ratings....most of these had been previously published in The New Yorker:
1. The man who had no enemies — 4.5 stars
2. The blue finch of Arabia — 3.5 stars (these first two stories were good, and I was assuming the rest of the 27 stories would be similar to these ones in terms of quality....)
3. The girl with a willing heart and a cold mind — 3 stars
4. The poor orphan girl — 2.5 stars
5. The country where nobody ever grew old and died — 1.5 stars
6. The woman who lived beside a running stream — 1.5 stars
7. The marble watch — 1.5 stars (my comment: nonsensical tripe)
8. The half-crazy woman — 3 stars
9. The two women friends — 2 stars
10. The fisherman who had no one to go out in his boat with him — 3 stars
11. The carpenter — 2.5 stars
12. The man who lost his father — 3.5 starts
13. The industrious tailor — 1.5 stars
14. The woman with a talent for talking — 2.5 stars
15. The man who took his family to the seashore — 2.5 stars
16. The woman who didn’t want anything more — 4 stars
17. The kingdom where straightforward, logical thinking was admired over every other kind — 2.5 stars
18. The woman who had no eye for small details — 5 stars
19. The woodcutter — 2.5 stars
20. The shepherd’s wife — 3 stars
21. The man who loved to eat — 2 stars
22. The epistolarian — 2.5 stars
23. The problem child — 2 stars
24. The printing office — 2 stars
25. The lamplighter — 2 stars
26. The old man who was afraid of falling — 2 stars
27. The man who had never been sick a day in his life — 2 stars
28. The woman who never drew breath except to complain — 1.5 stars
29. The old man at the railroad crossing — 2 stars
Reviews:
• I couldn’t find any reviews. However this is from an interview given by Christopher Carduff, who was editor for the collection ‘Later Novels & Stories’ from the Library of America. Carduff said this about Maxwell’s tales or improvisations that included those in ‘The Old Man and the Railroad Crossing’. Maxwell loved fairy tales. These improvisations are his contribution to the tradition of Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, Walter de la Mare and Andrew Lang, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Isak Dinesen. I admire them very much, but I do not love them as I do the longer fiction. They seem to be addressed to someone whose tastes are not mine, someone standing a little off to one side of me. My favorites? I, too, like “All the days and nights”; also the wise, sad, late one called “What you can’t hang on to,” a gentle protest against nostalgia, the collector’s impulse, and all of man’s vain attempts to divert the flow of time.”
• This blurb is from the year it was published, 1966, by Kirkus Reviews: The author's penchant for attracting critical acclaim because of his stylistic elegance, if not for spurring cash register activity, may be buoyed by this collection of fables, radiant with a tender, gentle view of human tragedy and strengths. Contemporary fables are often unusually tiresome, working busily as they do the mother lode of wretched folk characters--a beloved (or unbeloved) King of the Country; always a woodcutter; dim witted Old Women who Live Alone, and garrulous animals. Fortunately in these tales, not only are we spared articulation by non-human forms (with the exception of some discerning plants and a solemn bird), but also the characters' abstract outlines are shaded entertainingly with sprightly dialogue and activity. One is easily lured to follow the Old Woman as she winds up her affairs and traces a heretofore ignored stream to its source and a happy, translucent death; the slovenly King who orders a marble clock built (to withstand time); the woman whose mystic gift for talking plants into luxuriant growth illuminates for her the meaning of motherhood; a glimpse of infinity by the sea that snaps shut at the end of a vacation: tales of joy and innocence swallowed up in an uncaring world--these are winning and disturbing vignettes, sometimes heartbreaking in their obvious application to universals of the human condition. A special taste, perhaps more easily acquired through familiarity with the author's name. [March 1, 1966]
Notes:
• I was looking at a website from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign that houses his literary archives and saw this interesting note: The collection is open for research. Per agreement with the donor, correspondence from J.D. Salinger to William Maxwell and from William Maxwell to J.D. Salinger is sealed until February 9, 2032. See: https://archon.library.illinois.edu/r...
• Maxwell was literary editor for The New Yorker and a number of Salinger’s short stories were published in this periodical during Maxwell’s tenure. This is said about Salinger’s short story ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’: One of the most important stories of Salinger's career – William Maxwell at *The New Yorker*, which had previously published only one other Salinger story, liked the initial draft but asked Salinger to revise it. Whereas he had previously just taken his writing elsewhere upon any initial rejection, this time he decided to work with editors Maxwell and Gus Lobrano. Upon its publication he was immediately hailed as an important new and singular voice in American fiction. The partnership with *The New Yorker* was sufficiently agreeable on both sides that the magazine signed him to a first-refusal contract, a great coup for any young writer.
December 28, 2014
I'm loving this :-)
Enchanting tales :-)
Thank you :-) Teresa !!
This has been my Elsewhere short story collection. Lovely to revisit at every visit here.
Rich characters
enchanting tales
Each one original :-)
Enchanting tales :-)
Thank you :-) Teresa !!
This has been my Elsewhere short story collection. Lovely to revisit at every visit here.
Rich characters
enchanting tales
Each one original :-)
September 6, 2014
If I ever need to choose only 10 books that I can read til I die, this one will be one of them. I first read it when I was just a silly high-schooler half of my age now, and over the years it has never lost its magic. I've just picked it up again and was amazed on the beauty of the writing & how it can touch my heart without being corny.
February 18, 2017
Carefully crafted tales, they read to me as oral stories, deceptively simple in style, and with a moral commentary. In his own introduction to (presumably) the original publication he says he didn't plan these stories, but emptied his mind when he sat down to write, and then tried to stay out of their way. If that is true then they are all the more remarkable.
April 12, 2015
The blurb on the back cover from a NYT book review says it all:
"[These tales] blend . . . the quality of classic fables with the form of fairy tales. They combine the traditions of Aesop and the Brothers Grimm and are faithful to both . . . [Mr. Maxwell's] morals and proverbs are always original, frequently funny . . . often ironic and profound . . ."
Beautiful prose that has put me in search of more of his work.
"[These tales] blend . . . the quality of classic fables with the form of fairy tales. They combine the traditions of Aesop and the Brothers Grimm and are faithful to both . . . [Mr. Maxwell's] morals and proverbs are always original, frequently funny . . . often ironic and profound . . ."
Beautiful prose that has put me in search of more of his work.
May 30, 2022
William Maxwell must have been one very unique human. This collection of short stories walks a fine line between fairy tales, ghost stories, horror, and Winesburg, Ohio (by Sherwood Anderson-highly recommended). No one character is normal. Nothing they do is normal. But, most of the time, it's the kind of abnormal that masquerades as normal, so you do a lot of looking over your shoulder to make sure you aren't the one who's abnormal. I'm trying to remember if anyone in the stories was happy. Maybe. When a few of them figured out they were dead, I think that made them happy.
That's pretty much how the book went.
That's pretty much how the book went.
January 27, 2023
Fun and cute but also sometimes very stirring
August 13, 2015
"The fisherman who had no one to go out in his boat with him"
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews