One Basket

by Edna Ferber

Before she tried to be a good woman she had been a very bad woman-so bad that she could trail her wonderful apparel up and down Main Street, from the Elm Tree Bakery to the railroad tracks, without once having a man doff his hat to her or a woman bow. You passed her on the street with a surreptitious glance, though she was well worth looking at-in her furs and laces and plumes. She had the only full-length mink coat in our town, and Ganz's shoe store sent to Chicago for her shoes. Hers were the miraculously small feet you frequently see in stout women. Usually she walked alone; but on rare occasions, especially round Christmastime, she might have been seen accompanied by some silent, dull-eyed, stupid-looking girl, who would follow her dumbly in and out of stores, stopping now and then to admire a cheap comb or a chain set with flashy imitation stones-or, queerly enough, a doll with yellow hair and blue eyes and very pink cheeks. But, alone or in company, her appearance in the stores of our town was the signal for a sudden jump in the cost of living. The storekeepers mulcted her; and she knew it and paid in silence, for she was of the class that has no redress. She owned the House with the Closed Shutters, near the freight depot-did Blanche Devine.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics

136 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were popular in her lifetime and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), Cimarron (1929; made into the 1931 film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), and Giant (1952; made into the 1956 Hollywood movie).

Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Charles Ferber, and his Milwaukee, Wisconsin-born wife, Julia (Neumann) Ferber. At the age of 12, after living in Chicago, Illinois and Ottumwa, Iowa, Ferber and her family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where she graduated from high school and briefly attended Lawrence University. She took newspaper jobs at the Appleton Daily Crescent and the Milwaukee Journal before publishing her first novel. She covered the 1920 Republican National Convention and 1920 Democratic National Convention for the United Press Association.

Ferber's novels generally featured strong female protagonists, along with a rich and diverse collection of supporting characters. She usually highlighted at least one strong secondary character who faced discrimination ethnically or for other reasons; through this technique, Ferber demonstrated her belief that people are people and that the not-so-pretty people have the best character.

Ferber was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of wits who met for lunch every day at the Algonquin Hotel in New York.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book of short stories. It was my first experience with Edna Ferber, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Her writing style really appealed to me. These stories were interesting to me as social commentaries, being set in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Many of these stories were about the mundane lives of ordinary people but they weren't boring reading at all. I found them entertaining and engaging. I am looking forward to reading her novels.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ferber's stories have a certain charm to them, and were probably considered quite entertaining in the period that she wrote them. Unfortunately, a lot of the entertainment factor has worn off, at least for me. Ferber's America doesn't seem real to me--it seems like the mythological America of Norman Rockwell and Frank Capra. Don't get me wrong--I like Norman Rockwell and Frank Capra, but I think this is an idealization of America. But I could be wrong--it probably didn't help that I was reading a collection of Jean Stafford's stories around the same time I was reading this...Stafford's America was much more bleak and lonely, but that may have been due to the author's outlook as much as it was to her observations.

Like most single-author collections, some of the stories here are better than others. It wasn't a waste of time to read, but overall, I was glad to be done with it.

[E Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 1947 and the short stories in it were
written between 1913 and the 1940's. The author writes in a forward to the book that although some of the stories are older, they
do not seem dated. In 1947 they probably did not seem dated but today they do. That doesn't mean the stories are uninteresting. They remind
me of the stories I read in women's magazines in the 1950's .

Ms Ferber seems to be quite preoccupied with her character's weight. In almost every story someone is described as plump or
sometimes even fat. She mentions in the forward to the book that
after her first story, "The Homely Heroine", was published, none of
the "fat" girls in her home town would speak to her. That particular story was not in this anthology, but I guess she had this obsession
right from the start.

Ms Ferber is much more sympathetic to her male characters than
to the female ones. Middle class married women are almost always
portrayed as whiny, demanding, snobbish and non-productive. Husbands are shown as quiet, patient, and long suffering. Once in awhile a
husband will get fed up and stand up for himself. In one story, a
man gets fed up with his bossy fiancé and the night before the
wedding he announces that he is going to be the boss of the family and he slaps her. This is not portrayed as a horrible case of domestic
abuse, but something good. The fiancé goes all swoony and tells him
how much she loves him.

In the preface to one of her stories, the author says she was
denied entry to Mexico after it was published. In this story as
well as some others she describes Mexicans as dirty and lazy.

Some of the stories were quite good. If I hadn't read them all
in one fell swoop, I probably wouldn't have gotten so annoyed with
the repetitious themes.

[Karen]

I've always been a huge Edna Ferber fan, and I'm constantly surprised to see how out of favor she's become, despite her Pulitzer-prize winning status. Finding this book of her earlier short stories was a challenge, but it was worth the extra wait. Ferber's specialty is making all types of people come alive in just a few pages - whether it's the Finnish maid on her afternoon off in "Every Other Thursday", the widower living with his begrudging son and daughter-in-law in the famous "Old Man Minick", or the ex-prostitute just trying to live quietly, in the (very controversial for 1913) "The Woman Who Tried to be Good." She covers the lower, middle, and upper classes; the 1800's and WWII, but the stories, while obviously not written recently, don't feel dated. Ferber is an amazing storyteller.

[Nancy Cook-senn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of her excellent, insightful short stories.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edna Ferber brings characters to life in just a few pages. These stories are treasures of a time few now remember. Ms. Ferber's introductions to each story added an extra layer of enjoyment.

[David]

There's lots of good stuff here, some flashes of real wit and insight, and lots of good observation of people across a broad range of society. At the same time, I couldn't help feeling as I was reading that although almost all the stories are 85 to 100 or more years old they illustrate for me a lot of what I currently don't like about the United States. Consequently, I sometimes found the book difficult reading.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the strongest Ferbers, but she's always interesting (not least in that she is, quietly, in the stories herself - not in an active role but the conceit is that these are people she knew in Chicago or Chippewa or wherever). There are a few WW1 stories - the girls left behind - which seem very true.

[Mike Orta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Great writing! 31 short stories. New York city comes alive in "Nobody's in town". You can practically smell the city. In the "Barn cuts off the view" Edna Ferber's dialogue is very witty between two lovers. All the stories are smartly written. They may seem dated but Ferber's intelligence shines through.

[Marianne Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Woman Who Tried To Be Good and The Gay Old Dog were heart tugging, bitter tales. Edna Ferber knows how to draw the reader into the neighborhood and turns us into idle, voyeuristic and judgmental actors. After reading these stories, my heart was saddened and tired.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

First short stories I ever enjoyed.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of short stories from my favorite short story writer ever.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, this edition of ONE BASKET contains only 7 of the stories rather than the original 31:
"The Woman Who Tried to Be Good," "The Gay Old Dog," "That's Marriage," "Farmer in the Dell," "Un Morso Doo Pang," "Long Distance," and"The Maternal Feminine." The stories, while in some ways are dated, are small town vignettes with a certain innocence and genuine humanity which were Ferber's strengths as a great story teller. All were written between 1913-1919, and almost all reflect how the first World War impacts the characters. Each one has a twist at the end rather like O. Henry's work. The situations, emotions and dialogue are ordinary enough to be relatable and charming, even today.

However, one irksome thread runs through all the stories, that containing a character who is described as "fat," (in some cases, over and over in reference to the same person), as if that one word should say everything there is to know about the person described. Some people are "charitably" called "plump," and even babies are "chubby." I recognize that this may be a reflection of early 20th century prejudice and standards of attractiveness, but the over use of the word shows laziness on the part of Ferber. Surely, there are ways to describe a character more creatively than to let us make presumptions based on one physical trait.

I was anxious to read some of Ferber's work, as most of my knowledge of it derives from seeing films of her novels. However, after reading these 7 stories, which I did enjoy, I don't feel I'll be reading the remaining 24 from ONE BASKET.

[Lee Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen: I didn't even realize that I had just read some of these stories back in September, when I read another collection of Ferber short stories. That's no criticism of her writing, but it may be a criticism of my shit reading retention. Once I realized there were duplicates, I'll admit to skipping over a few, in the interest of time.

As always with Edna Ferber, I found myself reading aloud certain phrases to anyone who would listen, because she's that good. Most of these stories deal with the transition from country to city life, or European to American life, poor to rich, etc. The only one I didn't really like was a heavy-handed fable putting the birth of Jesus in a Holocaust evacuation, and I'm sure if I looked at it again, I would still be able to find some sharp wordplay.

I've seen a review of this that criticizes it for having too many harpy women, but it isn't as if the men here come off better. I think the genders are equally represented as terrible people here.

I was very partial to the longest story, "Nobody's in Town," which has several character studies of the people who are in New York City in the summer, when all the rich wives go to the country.

[DeAnn Kohlbeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptional writing!

[Mark Rabideau · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good (typical) Edna Ferber collection of short stories. Because her writing is so good, her short stories often leave me wanting more.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

from Cheerful--by Request (1918):
The woman who tried to be good --4
The gay old dog --3
That's marriage --3

from Half-Portions (1919):
Farmer in the dell --3
Un morso doo pang --3
Long distance --3
The maternal feminine --4
Old lady Mandle --4
***
April 25, as usual --3
One hundred percent -3

from Gigolo (1922):
Old man Minick --3
The afternoon of a faun --3
Gigolo --
Home girl --3
The sudden sixties --

from Mother Knows Best (1927):
Classified --
Holiday --
Our very best people --3
Mother knows best --2
*Every other Thursday --
Blue blood --
***
Perfectly independent --3

from They Brought Their Women (1933):
Hey! taxi! --
*They brought their women --
Glamour --
Keep it holy --
***
Meadow lark --2

Two short novels (1938):
Trees die at the top --
Nobody's in town --

*No room at the inn (1941)--

Not previously collected:
The light touch --
Blue glasses --
You're not the type --
Grandma isn't playing --
The barn cuts off the view --

***
Roast beef, medium --3
A bush league hero --2
The man who came back --3

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edition: Simon & Schuster, © 1947

[Susan O]

Book of short stories.