SOURCE: "Good-bye, Wisconsin; The Babe's Bed; and Other Stories," in Glenway Wescott: The Paradox of Voice, Kennikat Press, 1971, pp. 83-111.

Here, Johnson provides an overview of the major themes, characterization, symbolism, and narrative structure of Wescott's collection Good-bye, Wisconsin, his novella The Babe's Bed, and several uncollected stories.

Good-Bye, Wisconsin, which appeared in 1928, one year after The Grandmothers, contains the title essay and ten short stories, written for the most part between 1924 and 1927.¹ If, as Kahn states, the stories were "lyrical and impressionistic dramatizations of the explicit reactions and grievances which appear in the lead essay," and "illustrate the reasons he (Wescott) cannot stay in Wisconsin," they would be simply regional works. Rueckert is more accurate in pointing out that though "all the stories are set in Wisconsin and are bound to the region by virtue of the details of the physical scene, only a few are regional...