Several years ago, Yannick Murphy (The Sea of Trees, 1997; Signed, Mata Hari, 2007) recommended Lawrence Sargent Hall’s (1915-1993) short story, “The Ledge,” when I was her student in the Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Southern California. She did me an important favor for which I remain grateful.
This story continues to resonate over time and after successive readings. Published in 1959, “The Ledge” won first place in the O. Henry Prize Collection of 1960 and has appeared in dozens of anthologies since that time. Hall’s lean, vivid prose establishes a reliable sense of place and time. His fallible characters are compelling. And “The Ledge” has a narrowness of time and event that focuses the mind and holds that focus. It also has a strong point of view, clarity of theme and premise, and the poetry of natural detail. I mention it here in case you haven’t already read it and are looking for inspiration.
LAWRENCE SARGENT HALL was educated at Yale and worked as an English professor at Bowdoin College for more than forty years. Based on actual events and initially rejected by Esquire and The New Yorker, “The Ledge” was selected by John Updike as one of the best short stories of the century. Hall also published the novel The Stowaway in 1960. He died in 1993.
AUDIO: Lawrence Sargent Hall reads “The Ledge” in this 1959 recording at Bowdoin College.
Updated: 10 Jan 2021