Maureen Howard

Author Maureen Howard, professor of writing in the School of the Arts, has written a new work of fiction, "Big As Life: Three Tales For Spring," published by Viking, and has edited the Library of America's two-volume edition of "Edith Wharton: Collected Stories."

"Big As Life," a collection of three thematically linked tales and two shorter pieces, is the second of a cycle of fiction works that Howard has embarked upon based on the seasons, of which her 1998 novel, "A Lover's Almanac," was the first.

"These are tales and not short stories in the tradition of American realism," said Howard, "so that more play and magic can enter into them." The tales include: "Children With Matches," the story of a college teacher who revisits her past after inheriting a dilapidated family mansion; "The Magdalene," about two cousins who make very different choices in life, and finally "Big as Life: A Story in Three Panels." The central figure in the latter is James Audubon, whose genius and ambition in pursuing his work, "The Birds of America," have consequences for those around him, including his wife Lucy.

"I discovered Audubon's book in the library as a kid and have been interested in him ever since," said Howard. "I'm fascinated by how people find their material and to what extent they devote themselves to that material."

In a short and final section to the book, "Myself," Howard has written an autobiographical piece that reaches out to the reader and explains how she has selected her own subjects.

Critical reaction to the book, Howard's ninth, has been enthusiastic. Publisher's Weekly wrote: "With a sharpshooter's eye and brilliantly attuned sensibility, Howard considers the implications of the spring season ... In tensile, beautifully articulated prose, she reveals the souls of people who reflect on renewal and redemption three richly conveyed settings." The Atlantic Monthly wrote, "This is a quiet and contemplative book of subtlety and grace, passion and commitment."

Three of Howard's seven previously published novels have been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and her 1978 memoir, "The Facts of Life," was the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.

In addition to her own fiction writing, Howard has just edited the two-volume "Edith Wharton: Collected Stories," spanning the American writer's career from 1891 to 1937. The Library of America approached Howard for this project because of her previous scholarship on Wharton's novel, "House of Mirth."

"Wharton had a powerful mind and was very responsive to the world she lived in," said Howard. "And she was a very, very good storyteller."

Wharton, best known for her 22 novels, such as "The Age of Innocence" and "House of Mirth," which chronicled the manners of the gilded age, was also a prolific writer of short stories, publishing 12 collections during her lifetime. Howard has selected 67 of the author's finest short works of fiction for the new anthology, and has written notes on the texts.

"Wharton was a passionate woman and we forget that not only did she write about the upper class, but was also able to enter into other worlds, as in her novels "Summer" and "Ethan Frome," and many of her short stories," said Howard.

"Her early work was very strong, for example the story "The Valley of Childish Things" was experimental and unusual in form. She had the courage to break away from the strictly pleasing Harper's and Scribner's stories," said Howard. "And later she became interested in ghost stories of psychological depth and in writing about the endgame of old age."