Irreantum: I missed a story.

.

I missed it because, in the ToC, it was listed as "From the Archives" rather than "Fiction". (Nevermind that it isn't "From the Archives" of Irreantum but a 1928 issue of Relief Society Magazine.) And that's a shame because it deserves a shoutout as a provocative and startling story. I can't believe its 80 years old (although its age allows me to forgive a couple quirks I wouldn't accept in something more recent --- how could Josephine Spencer have known they would become cliché?). And the critical essay by Kylie Nielson Turley is what I wish AP students would churn out.

The story is "Little Mother" and it is a rewrite of a story Spencer first published in 1910. And while I can easily accept Turley's rundown on the story, I wish I could compare them myself. But either way, I was glad to have the one and the excellent commentary by Tirley --- it really is all such an essay should be.

And I like that Irreantum republished an old forgotten tale. That was one of the things I liked most about Zoetrope: All-Story (but still: bad editorial decisions meant I let my subscription finally lapse last year) --- the issuely reprint of a classic story.

Irreantum would do well to continue this, sez I.

And godspeed.