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Boots!

Where would we be without books?

Where would we be without good?

No, Timberd.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we be without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and welcome to Bookworm.

Well, this is a red-letter day, I have to say.

First of all, do you know the Library of America? They are a magnificent

publisher of a series of American classics, all in uniform editions, all beautiful. And this week,

I have the joy of talking about Peter Taylor, about Peter Taylor's short stories.

Anne Beattie edited a two-volume set for Library of America because she knew Peter Taylor.

Also here is the also magnificent writer Richard Bouch, who wrote an introduction

to the previous collected stories. Peter Taylor, he's been passed over. He's been forgotten

for, what would you say, a generation, a generation and a half? When did he die?

I believe he died in 1994.

And he stopped publishing in the New Yorker at a certain point.

He decided that he would refuse to send stories there.

And so he faded out of consciousness. I've been reading these 56 stories,

and I'll tell you, he's a stunner. I mean, you let him disappear. You're going to miss

one of the best American writers. He was a Southerner. He was taught by Alan Tate. He grew up in the company of

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