From Publishers Weekly
War, greed, love, women's rights, marital discord and race relations are prominent themes in the unaffectedly realist stories of Fisher (1879-1958), once a bestselling novelist (The Brimming Cup, etc.). The 11 stories and two essays reprinted here (all but one from a long out-of-print 1956 anthology) resonate with contemporary relevance. In the title story, an elderly New England spinster, invisible in her brother's home, finally receives recognition for her housework by exhibiting at a county fair the magnificent quilt she spent five years making. In "Through Pity and Terror...," Fisher, who founded a hospital for refugee children in France during WWI, draws on firsthand experience to describe a young mother's struggle to survive as German soldiers ransack her home and her husband's pharmacy. Abhorrence of war also permeates "The Knot-hole," a powerful WWII tale evoking the ordeal of Allied POWs confined for months in a German boxcar. Stories of rural residents of Vermont (the Kansas-born writer's adopted state) probe the depths of feeling beneath their sardonic, laconic exteriors; the same fierce independence animates the Basque folk of the stories based on Fisher's years spent living in southwestern France. In "An American Citizen" (1920), an African American elevator operator finds dignity and equal treatment only by moving to France. Though at times sentimental and didactic, Fisher's stories are nevertheless engaging and still timely. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
A forgotten author who is well worth remembering, Fisher (1879^-1958) was a highly regarded and prolific novelist and short story writer in her heyday, the 1920s through the early 1940s. This selection of 11 of her best stories seeks to restore her name. The placid surfaces of Fisher's stories, achieved by a consummately limpid style, do not blunt their effectiveness as honest explorations of emotional provinces. Racial and social questions are treated with compassion and with a clear-sighted view of the less-than-noble traits in humanity. Fisher's settings are not restricted; she writes as comfortably about war-torn France (World War I, that is) as she does about small-town America. Two autobiographical essays contribute to our understanding of the muse of this excellent story writer of whom lovers of the form should no longer be ignorant. Brad Hooper


From Book News, Inc.
This book-length collection of 11 stories and two essays is the first to appear in nearly 40 years, representing a slice of the prolific writer's work. Influential in the first half of the 20th century, her work has been neglected in the second and is enjoying a revival of interest. Fisher's subject matter ranges from New England life, to the French Basques, and to the struggles of African Americans to gain equal rights, and reflects her lifelong involvement in social causes. An introduction and afterword by Mark Madigan (English, U. of Vermont) surveys the writer's life and work, highlighting its graceful and enduring values. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.