the story of a story

I occasionally teach out of 1001 Afternoons in Chicago, Hecht’s collection of 1921 Chicago Daily News columns, and every time I open that book I find something new to admire. Eight of my favorite sentences/passages:  

“His heart was tired of tall buildings and the endless grimace of windows.” 
~ “Vagabondia”

“When in the name of 750,000 gods of reason will I ever learn enough to stay at home and go to bed instead of searching kittenishly for diversion in neighborhood movie and vaudeville houses?” 
 ~ “Meditation in E Minor”

“Being a newspaper reporter there was nothing unusual in his mind about walking up to one of the figures and talking to it.” 
 ~ “Grass Figures” 

“This is a deplorable street, a luxurious couch of a street in which the afternoon lolls like a gaudy sybarite.”
~ “Michigan Avenue”

“Peewee wagged a wise old head and her vermilion mouth registered scorn at 105 degrees Farenheit.” 
~ “Thumbnail Lotharios”

“A mawkish tale, perhaps, and if I write it with too maudlin a slant I know who will wince the worst—Queen Bess, of course, who will sit up in her grave and, fastening a blazing eye on me, curse me out for every variety of fat-head and imbecile known to her exhaustive calendar of epithets.”
~ “Queen Bess’ Feast” 

“The town is like a fireless, dimly lighted room. Yesterday the windows sparkled with sunlight. Today they stare like little coffin tops.”
~ “On a Day Like This”

“Here in his corner, surrounded by the molding symbols and slogans of a dead world, Dutch is rounding out his career—a Silenus in exile, his eyes still bright with the memory of hurdy-gurdy midnights.” 
~ “The Tattooer”

favorite Hecht story: “The Pig”

fun fact: Hecht became a screenwriter, won the first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and wrote The Front Page

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