"Old Man Minick" is a short story by American author

Edna Ferber Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), '' Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cima ...

first published in 1922. It was adapted into ''

Minick ''Minick'' is a three-act Broadway play written by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, based on Ferber's 1922 short story " Old Man Minick", that opened on September 24, 1924. Producer Winthrop Ames staged it at the Booth Theatre on Broadway, ...

'', a Broadway play staged in 1924, as well as the 1925 silent film '' Welcome Home'', the 1932 film '' The Expert'', and the 1939 film '' No Place to Go''.

Background

In the 1910s and 1920s, women's magazines published fiction by well-known writers, including

Edith Wharton Edith Newbold Wharton (; ; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gil ...

Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

, and

. During this era, the short story "Old Man Minick" was one of a variety of works first published serially in women's periodicals and then developed into plays and film. Ferber was inspired to write the story after listening to three old men on a park bench in Washington Park in Chicago as they talked about life.

Plot

The story is set in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

in the early 20th century, where a seventy year-old widower, Jo Minick, has to learn how to live, after the unexpected death of his wife, to whom he had been married for forty years. Following her death he goes to live with his son, George and daughter-in-law, Nettie. He joins a club in Washington Park, where he meets with other widowers. The group is divided in their opinions as to which are happier, those who live with their children and those who live in aged care facilities. One day Minick overhears Nettie telling her friends that she can't have a child because she is looking after her father-in-law. Soon after Minick tells Nettie that he is moving to a nursing home and Nettie realises that he has heard her conversation. The story ends with Minick discovering that he enjoys his life at the old people's home because he has his freedom to do what he wants.

Play

The story was adapted into the 1924 Broadway play, ''

'', by Ferber and George S. Kaufman, and published by Doubleday, Page & Company, in 1924. The play had an African American actress, Emma Wise, cast as the Minicks' maid. This was unusual for plays of the segregation era. O. P. Heggie portrayed Minick in the 1924 show.

Film adaptations

Famous Players–Lasky The Famous Players–Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Companyoriginally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Playsan ...

adapted the play into the 1925

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

'' Welcome Home'', directed by

James Cruze James Cruze (born Jens Cruz Bosen;Sadoul, Georges (1972). Dictionary of Films'. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 53. . See also: * Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (1974). Film Directors: A Guide to Their American Fi ...

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

produced the 1932 film '' The Expert''. In 1939, Terry O. Morse directed the adaptation '' No Place to Go'', starring

Dennis Morgan Dennis Morgan (born Earl Stanley Morner; December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame. According to one ob ...

Publication history

The story was republished in Ferber's 1947 short story collection ''One Basket'', and the 1955 anthology, '' The Golden Argosy: The Most Celebrated Short Stories in the English Language''.

References

{{authority control 20th-century American literature 1922 short stories Serials (publishing) Short stories adapted into plays Short stories adapted into films Works by Edna Ferber