Advance Praise
“Larry Brown once said, ‘The best literature is always about matters of the human heart,’ and that’s precisely where Ellen Prentiss Campbell dares go in her new collection Known by Heart. These are mature tales that have earned their knowledge and resonance. Precise as open-heart surgery, laying bare the more rarely seen inner chambers of love’s entropy and endurance, its old flames and addictions, even the ridiculous vanity of self-love. Ms. Prentiss Campbell’s work pulses with pain and pleasure. Intricate, vulnerable, and above all, compassionate.”
— Marc Nieson, author of Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love & Landscape
“What stories we tell, whose stories are told, are crucial matters, and Ellen Prentiss Campbell takes great care in her choices and in their telling. Known by Heart, a beautifully detailed study of human intimacy—with all its loves and sorrows—unfolds in the voice of a gifted writer, who remembers to include the small unknown betrayals, the too-often-neglected human kindnesses, revealing the space between us, which she reminds us aches like a ‘phantom limb.’ These stories will hurt in their loss and offer solace in helping us remember we aren’t ‘quite done yet.’”
—Todd Davis, author of Native Species and Winterkill
“Keen psychological insight and a poetic flair for language bring these stories to vivid life. Campbell’s characters struggle to escape their dilemmas, whether the confines of stifling families or their own minds. To the reader’s delight, some characters pop up in multiple stories, weaving a world of recognizable human longings that are credible, poignant, and beautifully described.”
— Donna Baier Stein, author of Sympathetic People and Scenes from the Heartland
“The stories in Ellen Prentiss Campbell’s Known by Heart burst with lyricism and a depth of human understanding. This is a moving and beautifully written collection that tells us so much about the complex nature of love.”
— Elizabeth Poliner, author of As Close to Us As Breathing and Mutual Life & Casualty
“Ellen Prentiss Campbell prefaces her intense collection of short stories Known by Heart with a line from The Riddle Song: ‘What is the story that has no end?’ The answer is love, a complicated and ever-shifting answer… Campbell knows that old longings and lost loves continue long after the physical lovers disappear…and lovers most keep what they most lose—with paradoxical intensity.”
— Lois Marie Harrod, author of Fragments from the Biography of Nemesis
Known By Heart
Known By Heart
Collected Stories
Ellen Prentiss Campbell
Copyright © 2020 by Ellen Prentiss Campbell
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher (except by reviewers who may quote brief passages).
First Edition
Casebound ISBN: 978-1-62720-262-6
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-62720-263-3
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62720-264-0
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design by Chelsea McGuckin, featuring “Girl Writing” by Milton Avery, courtesy of The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Promotion plan developed by Jacqueline Kohaut
Published by Apprentice House Press
Apprentice House Press
Loyola University Maryland
4501 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210
410.617.5265
www.ApprenticeHouse.com
For Harry, Rebecca, Tim and Martha,
As the riddle song says, the story of I love you has no end.
Also by Ellen Prentiss Campbell
Contents Under Pressure
The Bowl with Gold Seams
Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
About the Author 185
Some stories in this collection first appeared in print as follows:
“Problem Set” in The American Literary Review, Volume XXIV, Number 1
“Your Guardian, Angela” in The MacGuffin, Volume XXVIII, Number 3
“A Long Time to Be Gone” in Trachodon, Issue 4
“Duets and Solos” in Talking River, Issue 28
“Faith and Practice” in Backbone Mountain Review, 2010
“Out of this World” in Glossolalia, Volume 1:4
“Known by Heart” in Kaleidoscope, Number 59
“Antiques and Collectables” in REAL, Volume 32.1
“Estates and Trust” in Fourth River, Issue 2, Spring
“Fugitive Day” in Bryant Literary Review, Volume 8
“Surprise Boxes” in Spindrift, 2006
“The Spring” in Blueline, Volume XXVIII
Problem