My group will be unlike any existing group, will exist in contradistinction to all existing groups, over against all existing groups, will be in fine an anti-group, given the ethos of our city, the hysterical culture of our city. My new group will contain my wife, that sugarplum, and her friend Morton and a Gypsy girl and a blind man and will take its ethos from the car wash. My new group will march along the boulevards shouting “Let’s go! Let’s go!” with the enthusiasm of the young men at the car wash who are forever shouting “Let’s go! Let’s go!” to inspirit their fellows, if there is a moment of quiet at the car wash someone will take up the cry “Let’s go! Let’s go!” and then others will take up the cry “Let’s go! Let’s go!,” shouting “Let’s go! Let’s go!” over and over, as long as the car wash washes.
Notes
Flying to America
This story appeared in The New Yorker, December 4, 1971, and is a particularly intriguing example of Barthelme’s tendency to use and reuse material in various ways. “Flying to America” incorporates material first published in “Notes and Comment” in The New Yorker (unsigned, June 13, 1970) and reprinted in The Teachings of Don B. (1992) as “Many have remarked . . .”. Sections had also been part of “A Film” (The New Yorker, September 26, 1970). “A Film” was included in Sadness (1972), and then reprinted again in Forty Stories (1987) as “The Film.” Some sections not used in “A Film” were resurrected as “Two Hours to Curtain” in Guilty Pleasures (1974) and reprinted in The Teachings of Don B. (1992), and still others were incorporated into The Dead Father (1975). Roughly half of the story has never appeared except in its original form.
Perpetua
First published in The New Yorker, June 12, 1971. Reprinted in Sadness.
Edward and Pia
First appeared in The New Yorker, September 25, 1965. Reprinted in Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts (1968).
The Piano Player
First appeared in The New Yorker, August 31, 1963. Reprinted in Come Back, Dr. Caligari (1964).
Henrietta and Alexandra
First appeared as “Alexandria and Henrietta” in New American Review 12 (1971). Reprinted with significant changes and its new title in Overnight to Many Distant Cities (1983).
Presents
First published in Penthouse, December 1977. It was subsequently published in 1980 in a limited edition of 376 copies by Pressworks, and included Barthelme’s own collages. Sections of “Presents” subsequently appeared as an interchapter in Overnight to Many Distant Cities, which itself was reprinted as “A woman seated on a plain wooden chair . . .” in The Teachings of Don B. Readers of Not-Knowing will recognize that most of one of the later paragraphs was reprinted in that collection as “Bliss . . .” “Presents” in its entirety is previously uncollected.
Among the Beanwoods
This story is previously unpublished, and was probably written sometime in the early 1970s. There are two typescript versions of the story, one titled “Among the Beanwoods,” and the other, “The Beanwoods.” The version published here is slightly longer and appears to be the later of the two.
You Are As Brave as Vincent Van Gogh
First appeared in The New Yorker, March 18, 1974. Reprinted in Amateurs (1976).
The Agreement
First published in The New Yorker, October 14, 1974. Reprinted in Amateurs.
Basil From Her Garden
The story appeared in The New Yorker, October 21, 1985. It includes some material later incorporated into Paradise, which was published late in 1986. Previously uncollected.
Paradise Before the Egg
The story was published in Esquire in August 1986, and was adapted from Barthelme’s novel Paradise, then completed and published about a month later. The story is uncollected in this form.
Three
Published in Fiction 1 (1973). Previously uncollected.
Up, Aloft in the Air
First appeared in Come Back, Dr. Caligari.
Bone Bubbles
First appeared as “Mouth” in Paris Review 48 (1969), then under its current title in City Life (1970).
The Big Broadcast of 1938
First appeared in New World Writing 20 (1962). Reprinted in Come Back, Dr. Caligari.
This Newspaper Here
First published in The New Yorker, February 12, 1966. Reprinted in Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts.
Tales of the Swedish Army
First published in Great Days (1979).
And Then
First appeared in Harper’s, December 1973. Reprinted in Amateurs.
Can We Talk
First appeared in Art and Literature 5 (Summer, 1965). Reprinted in Come Back, Dr. Caligari.
Hiding Man
First appeared in First Person 1 (Spring/Summer, 1961) as “The Hiding Man.” Reprinted with its current title in Come Back, Dr. Caligari.
The Reference
First appeared in Playboy, April 1974. Reprinted in Amateurs.
Edwards, Amelia
Published in The New Yorker, September 9, 1972. Previously uncollected.
Marie, Marie, Hold On Tight
First appeared in The New Yorker, October 12, 1963. Reprinted in Come Back, Dr. Caligari.
Pages from the Annual Report
Published under the pseudonym “David Reiner” in The University of Houston Forum 3 (March, 1959). It is, arguably, the first of Barthelme’s published stories. Previously uncollected.
The Bed
Published in Viva 1 (March, 1973). Previously uncollected. A fragment of “The Bed” appears in “The Sea of Hesitation.”
The Discovery
First published in The New Yorker, August 20, 1971. Reprinted in Amateurs.
You Are Cordially Invited
First appeared in The New Yorker, July 23, 1973. Previously uncollected.
The Viennese Opera Ball
First appeared in Contact 10 (June, 1962). Reprinted in Come Back, Dr. Caligari.
Belief
First appeared in the University of Houston Forum 13 (Winter, 1976). Reprinted in Great Days.
Wrack
First appeared in The New Yorker, October 21, 1972. Reprinted in Overnight to Many Distant Cities (1983).
The Question Party
First appeared in Great Days.
Manfred (with Karen Shaw)
In February 1976, The New York Times Magazine ran the beginning of a yet unnamed story written by Barthelme. Readers were invited, in Barthelme’s own words, “to complete it in not more than 750 words . . . as an experiment in literary collaboration.” Barthelme hoped that the entries would be “serious, rather than parodies or burlesques.” He added, “I have done the easiest part, the beginning; you are asked to provide the terrifying middle and the subtle, incomparably beautiful ending. God be with you.” The “terrifying middle” and “incomparably beautiful ending” was provided by Karen Shaw, for which she won $250. Barthelme’s beginning encompasses the story’s first three paragraphs, Shaw provides the last eight, and the final version was published in The New York Times Magazine on April 18, 1976. It is previously uncollected.
A Man
Published in The New Yorker, December 30, 1972. Previously uncollected.
Heather
This story is previously unpublished. The date of its writing has been impossible to determine with any precision, though it appears to have been written sometime during the middle to late 1970s.
Pandemonium
“Pandemonium” was among the stories that Barthelme was working on at the time of his death in 1989. It is probably unfinished, and appears here for the first time.
A Picture History of the War
First appeared in The New Yorker, June 20, 1964. Reprinted in Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts.
The Police Band
First appeared in The New Yorker, August 22, 1964. Reprinted in Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts.
The Sea of Hesitation
First appeared in
The New Yorker, November 11, 1972. Reprinted in Overnight to Many Distant Cities.
The Mothball Fleet
First appeared in The New Yorker, September 11, 1971. Reprinted in Overnight to Many Distant Cities.
Subpoena
First published in The New Yorker, May 29, 1971. Reprinted in Sadness.
The New Member
First appeared in The New Yorker, July 15, 1974. Reprinted in Amateurs.
To London and Rome
First appeared in Genesis West 2 (Fall, 1963). Reprinted in Come Back, Dr. Caligari.
The Apology
First appeared in The New Yorker, February 20, 1978. Reprinted in Great Days.
Florence Green Is 81
First appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, April 1963. It was the lead story in Come Back, Dr. Caligari.
Tickets
Published in The New Yorker, March 6, 1989, his last story for the magazine. Previously uncollected.
About the Author
DONALD BARTHELME published seventeen books, including City Life, one of Time Magazine’s Best Books of the Year, and Sixty Stories, which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He was a longtime contributor to The New Yorker and a winner of the National Book Award. He was a founder of the University of Houston Creative Writing Program where he taught for many years. He died in July 1989.
About the Editor
KIM HERZINGER is a critic and fiction writer (winner of a Pushcart Prize), and writes on minimalism and other contemporary literary phenomena. He’s edited two previous collections of Barthleme’s writing, Not-Knowing: The Essays and Interviews and The Teachings of Don B. He taught at the University of Southern Mississippi and now owns and operates Left Bank Books, specializing in modern first editions and quality used books, in New York City.
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