This site features works by Sam Gridley, an American writer of fiction and satire. Here you can read two of Sam’s books, with others to follow in due course. The works are copyrighted, but you may download them for personal reading under the terms set forth in Terms and Conditions.

Sam Gridley’s stories have appeared in a couple of dozen publications and have won some notable awards. If you enjoy bibliographies, you can read the detailed list of Sam’s Publications, which includes volume and page numbers and other fascinating data. You may also be interested in a Very Brief Biography, which includes an original portrait of Sam.

Mainly, though, this site exists as a gateway to the works themselves. Listed below are the books available for download, with deliberately short descriptions.

It should be obvious by now that this website has nothing to do with the hamlet of Gridleyville, situated near Candor, New York. Sam Gridley greatly admires the name of that town but, in all candor, has never been there.

DOWNLOADS

The following works are available in PDF format, designed both for reading on screen and for printing on standard letter-sized or A4 paper. (If you cannot open PDFs, you’ll need the free Acrobat Reader.)

The Big Happiness

One of the strangest love stories of history or fiction, featuring Allison Roarty (a.k.a. Allison Wonderland), a 45-year-old, divorced, wacky, sexually adventurous, somewhat overweight alcoholic with brain damage, and Leigh Berry, a gangling, half-blind, 62-year-old devotee of ancient music.

281 pages; 91,000 words; file size 718 KB    

How to Save America (and Make It Safe for Decent Folk)

A chapbook of short essays recommending surefire solutions for social problems such as poverty, violence and unsightly street people. Warning: May contain irony of a politically liberal nature.

19 pages; 3,700 words; file size 90 KB