One of the finest collections of short stories in recent years is A. B. Guthrie, Jr.'s "The Big It." This excellent book is not an assortment of "Western" stories, as the publishers have implied, for Guthrie is no more a "Western" writer than Melville was an Eastern writer or Hemingway a Spanish writer. True, the West provides the locale, but what a difference between these tales and those of Zane Grey and the host of TV scriptwriters! Guthrie's stories illustrate that good writing is universal, transcending the limitations of a particular place.

The stories can be divided into two groups: those of courage, physical and moral, and those of fierce humor. "Old Mother Hubbard," "First Principal," "Bargain," "Mountain Medicine," and "Last Snake" all display aspects of human courage. In them Guthrie presents the sensitive man, kind, understanding, tolerant, confronted by the raw shock of brutality. But Guthrie's...