ABSTRACT
“The Hanging of Kruscome Shanks” offers material to the student of literary beginnings. It appeared in the Harvard Advocate when Edmonds was a student at Cambridge. That an undergraduate might write so well may not surprise those who recall that Scott Fitzgerald wrote “Tarquin of Cheapside” while at Princeton, John Dos Passos did “The Garbage Man” for the Harvard Dramatic Society, and Thornton Wilder, “The Angel That Troubled the Waters” for that of Tale, while grand old Doc Blanchard knew Sidney Howard had it from the day the long boy turned in “The Hollyhock Lad” as an English theme at California. But it is significant to note how Edmonds’ preoccupation with the canal country dates back. In 1929, right after Rome Haul, he wrote from old Boonville, New York: “I do not intend to confine myself entirely to the Canal, and in my next am keeping strictly to this Black River country in which I was born. But after that, if things continue to be encouraging, I shall go back to the canal. There is a good deal more to be said about it” And, no question, he is the man to say it.
