W. J. Keith (William John Keith) was born in 1934 in England. After school he was called up for two years National Service (1953-5), where he taught as a Sergeant-Instructor in the Royal Army Education Corps both in Sussex and with the British Army of the Rhine. From 1955-1961 he obtained degrees in English from Cambridge and the University of Toronto, where he then taught for nearly a quarter-century. Now a Professor Emeritus, Keith was editor of the University of Toronto Quarterly from 1976 to 1985, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1979. He is the author of A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada, Epic Fiction: The Art of Rudy Wiebe (1981), Canadian Literature in English (1985), and Introducing Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman (1989).

• Contents Preface 11 Abbreviations 16 1 Biographical 17 2 Critical Considerations 23 3 Starting from the States: 37 A Short Walk in the Rain, The Isolation Booth 4 Displaying His Wares: 51 Flying a Red Kite 5 Anatomy of a City: 77 Around the Mountain 6 Short Stories or Short-Story Collection: 107 The Fruit Man, the Meat Man & the Manager 7 The Morality of Vision: 120 Dark Glasses 8 Signs and Portents: 139 None Genuine Without This Signature 9 Every Piece Different: 160 August Nights 10 Art in Crisis: 178 Five New Facts About Giorgione 11 Miscellany of Tones: 192 You'll Catch Your Death 12 Late Harvest: 209 After All! Check-List of Short Fiction 231 Other Works Cited 239 Index 245

W. J. Keith (William John Keith) was born in 1934 in England. After school he was called up for two years National Service (1953-5), where he taught as a Sergeant-Instructor in the Royal Army Education Corps both in Sussex and with the British Army of the Rhine. From 1955-1961 he obtained degrees in English from Cambridge and the University of Toronto, where he then taught for nearly a quarter-century. Now a Professor Emeritus, Keith was editor of the University of Toronto Quarterly from 1976 to 1985, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1979. He is the author of A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada, Epic Fiction: The Art of Rudy Wiebe (1981), Canadian Literature in English (1985), and Introducing Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman (1989).

• Contents Preface 11 Abbreviations 16 1 Biographical 17 2 Critical Considerations 23 3 Starting from the States: 37 A Short Walk in the Rain, The Isolation Booth 4 Displaying His Wares: 51 Flying a Red Kite 5 Anatomy of a City: 77 Around the Mountain 6 Short Stories or Short-Story Collection: 107 The Fruit Man, the Meat Man & the Manager 7 The Morality of Vision: 120 Dark Glasses 8 Signs and Portents: 139 None Genuine Without This Signature 9 Every Piece Different: 160 August Nights 10 Art in Crisis: 178 Five New Facts About Giorgione 11 Miscellany of Tones: 192 You'll Catch Your Death 12 Late Harvest: 209 After All! Check-List of Short Fiction 231 Other Works Cited 239 Index 245

W. J. Keith (William John Keith) was born in 1934 in England. After school he was called up for two years National Service (1953-5), where he taught as a Sergeant-Instructor in the Royal Army Education Corps both in Sussex and with the British Army of the Rhine. From 1955-1961 he obtained degrees in English from Cambridge and the University of Toronto, where he then taught for nearly a quarter-century. Now a Professor Emeritus, Keith was editor of the University of Toronto Quarterly from 1976 to 1985, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1979. He is the author of A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada, Epic Fiction: The Art of Rudy Wiebe (1981), Canadian Literature in English (1985), and Introducing Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman (1989).

• Contents Preface 11 Abbreviations 16 1 Biographical 17 2 Critical Considerations 23 3 Starting from the States: 37 A Short Walk in the Rain, The Isolation Booth 4 Displaying His Wares: 51 Flying a Red Kite 5 Anatomy of a City: 77 Around the Mountain 6 Short Stories or Short-Story Collection: 107 The Fruit Man, the Meat Man & the Manager 7 The Morality of Vision: 120 Dark Glasses 8 Signs and Portents: 139 None Genuine Without This Signature 9 Every Piece Different: 160 August Nights 10 Art in Crisis: 178 Five New Facts About Giorgione 11 Miscellany of Tones: 192 You'll Catch Your Death 12 Late Harvest: 209 After All! Check-List of Short Fiction 231 Other Works Cited 239 Index 245