We're always looking for contributors and comment. Join the conversation! © MMXIII John O'Hara Society.

                                                               The Cold House

On April 2, 1938 publication of "The Cold House." The New Yorker. Files on Parade.

Mrs. Carnavon, a widowed socialite, was chauffeured to her summer house in the offseason.

She lighted a cigarette. "It steadied her a little. It steadied her body, her hands; there was no unsteadiness to the lump in her heart, the thing in her mind."

Her college age son Harry had just died. "Weary, wearily, Mrs. Carnavon climbed the stairs to her son's room."

"On the wall the same diamond-shaped plaque, with the clasped hands and the Greek letters; another wooden diamond, with the head of a wolf; a photograph of a baseball team, with names badly printed in white ink under the picture; a large bare spot where there had been a reproduction which he had liked well enough to take back to town."

"Everything in this room would have to go. Those things, those shields, those pictures, all that would have to go."

____

Correction: The publciation of "How I Am Now In Chi" was published on April 1, 1939, not April 1, 1938 as reported yesterday.

No comments: