Peaceable Kingdom was published by Leisure Books in 2003, collecting the best of Ketchum’s short fiction from the 1980s and 1990s. The title is ironic — Edward Hicks’s famous painting of the Peaceable Kingdom depicts predators and prey living in harmony, a vision of paradise that Ketchum’s fiction systematically dismantles.
The collection includes some of Ketchum’s most anthologized stories: “The Box,” in which a family’s encounter with a stranger carrying a mysterious box destroys their ability to function; “Gone,” about a man searching for his missing daughter; “The Rifle,” a story about hunting that reverses the expected power dynamic; and “Mail Order,” in which a lonely man’s purchase leads to consequences he could not have anticipated.
Ketchum’s short fiction is, if anything, more effective than his novels — the compression suits his style, which is already stripped to its essentials. Each story operates like a trap: the opening establishes a situation that seems manageable, the middle introduces a complication that shifts the ground, and the ending delivers a conclusion that is both surprising and, in retrospect, inevitable. The prose is clean, declarative, and devoid of ornament — every word is load-bearing.
Collecting Peaceable Kingdom
First edition (Leisure Books, New York, 2003): Mass market paperback.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $15–$40
- Very good: $5–$15