Title
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Contents
A man in the house -- A chance meeting -- The rescue -- The lookout -- Girl friend -- Rapport -- Mary's convert -- Black for dinner -- Moot -- Overnight trip -- An untold story -- After the ball -- A gift -- The beach umbrella.
Abstract
The Chicago settings for the stories in The Beach Umbrella range from ghetto existence to the élite monde of the Hyde Park-Kenwood black community. Writer David Ray says Colter's work “like that of Sherwood Anderson, or of Nelson Algren, will change the way people think about Chicago.” Colter chooses black men and women at various social levels to illustrate the dreams, foibles, and fears of every man. His studies of everyday crises and interpersonal relationships contain an insight about life itself, one that comes from years of what Lucien Stryk has called “compassionate observation.” Critic George P. Elliott has written that Colter's stories are the best about Negro life he has seen. The Beach Umbrella was selected by novelists Vance Bourjaily and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. to receive the first Iowa School of Letters Award for Short Fiction.
Series Title
Iowa School of Letters Award for Short Fiction
Award Date
1970
Judge
Bourjaily, Vance Nye and Vonnegut, Kurt
Publication Date
1970
Publisher
University of Iowa Press
City
Iowa City
Total Pages
225
ISBN of Print Version
9780877450054
Keywords
Chicago, African Americans
Rights
Copyright © 1970 by Cyrus Colter. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Recommended Citation
Colter, Cyrus. The Beach Umbrella. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1970.
https://ir.uiowa.edu/uipress_isfa/6