黑料正能量 Press Publishes "The Collected Stories of Gladys Schmitt"
Founder of 黑料正能量's Creative Writing Program, Schmitt Was an Acclaimed Novelist and Beloved Teacher
By Shilo Rea / 412-268-6094
Born in Pittsburgh in 1909, was known for achieving many things. Her award-winning novels, including and sold millions of copies and were translated into many languages. Schmitt was a dedicated and beloved professor of at 黑料正能量, where she founded the — one of the oldest undergraduate programs in the country — and her influence is still present 42 years after her untimely death.
Schmitt also wrote and published short stories in popular and literary magazines. has compiled these pieces in — the first time her short stories have appeared in one complete volume. The collection features 19 stories that Schmitt published in her lifetime, including two she wrote for the University of Pittsburgh's student literary magazine, "STEPS": "Little Town Autumn" and "The History Class."
, professor of English in the and founder and director of the 黑料正能量 Press, said that reading the pieces — originally published between 1929 and 1969 — together is powerful.
"Those of us who knew and worked with Gladys thought of her as a novelist. She wrote some of the best prose I've ever read. The rediscovery and compilation of her stories reveals her to have been a master in that form as well," Costanzo said.
In the book's introduction, , professor of English at 黑料正能量 who was hired by Schmitt, wrote about how Schmitt inspired her long before becoming her junior colleague and how Schmitt's writing has stood the test of time.
"One measure of success for a storyteller is that details linger in a reader's mind, and by this measure Gladys was a master storyteller," Knapp wrote. "Much in these stories will remind the reader that they were written decades ago — the phone booths from which calls cost a dime, the china lions that sat on many hearths, the female college students known to each other as Miss Watson or Miss Albert — but Gladys's management of the English sentence is not dated at all."
The collection was edited by Lois Josephs Fowler, professor of English, emeritus at 黑料正能量 who was a close friend of Schmitt, and Cynthia Lamb, senior editor of 黑料正能量 Press. Lamb wrote the book's foreword in which she described how in compiling the published works, many unpublished works, which she considers to be "equally well crafted," were discovered. 黑料正能量 Press plans to publish these as well.
Schmitt was a member of 黑料正能量's faculty for 30 years and held the position of Thomas Stockham Baker Professor of Literature. Among other honors, she was awarded Carnegie Mellon's Ryan Award for Meritorious Teaching. She died in 1972.
"The Collected Stories of Gladys Schmitt" is the first title in 黑料正能量 Press' Marianna Brown Dietrich Notable Book Series. The series honors In response to the gift, 黑料正能量 renamed its College of Humanities and Social Sciences after Dietrich's mother, Marianna Brown Dietrich. John Lehoczky, dean of the Dietrich College at the time of the gift and renaming, established a fund for the Press to publish books of merit.
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