For the Record: A Robert Drake Reader

More than just a collection of stories and essays by beloved writer Robert Drake, For the A Robert Drake Reader is an introduction to the craft and art of short-story writing, as the stories are accompanied by analyses of Drake as a short story writer and essayist. In addition to being a text on short story writing, the stories in For the Record provide a social history of Woodville, a small town in West Tennessee. Though the life, both tragic and comic, presented in these stories is vanished, it was for the most part responsible for tempering the shape and character of the New South. Understanding Woodville helps the reader understand the tensions and struggles of the contemporary South. The volume includes an excellent introduction to the short stories as well as an excellent discussion of Drake’s use of language. His use of language is perhaps Drake’s greatest legacy—no writer alive today has an ear so attuned to capturing the color and rhythm of human speech. Finally, included in this volume is an exclusive interview with Robert Drake on life, writing, and reading.