John William Corrington's contribution to American literature is generally underappreciated. In James Dickey's assessment--quoted on the cover of The Collected Stories of John William Corrington (1990)--"A more forthright, bold, adventurous writer than John William Corrington would be very hard to find." Such praise was well earned. Corrington looked at the depths of human experience, examining the interplay between the human extremes of the grotesque and the spiritual and offering insights into how the two opposing natures co-exist. Though Corrington produced quality work in several genres, his reputation rests most securely on his short stories.

In the nineteen stories published in his three collections of short fiction, Corrington examined a changing--at times frightening--society, demonstrated by his characters' questionable adherence to the manners and customs of time and place. His stories use metaphors of war, justice, and the human capacity for evil to illuminate vital responses to the moral...