What's life worth?: Classic Book Guide and Free Edition
What's life worth?: author and translator credits, catalogue synopsis, subjects and links to the Gutenberg reading formats.
What's life worth? is catalogued by Project Gutenberg with author credits for Perry, Clay (1887–1961).
Catalogue synopsis
Project Gutenberg supplies this automated synopsis of the opening text:
What's life worth? by Clay Perry is a short story written in the early 20th century. Set in a Northwoods logging town, it blends courtroom drama with a modest mystery, centering on a young woman lawyer defending a man accused of murdering a powerful lumberman. The likely topic is the search for truth and redemption amid corruption, despair, and small-town pressure. The story opens with the grim arraignment of “Watts Lifeworth,” a defiant camp hand who startlingly pleads guilty to killing Big Steve Laramie. Judge Thurman forces a not-guilty plea and, at the man’s request, assigns the town’s novice woman attorney, Mary Lee. Trusting her instincts, Mary pries past his fatalism and learns he is Billy Knowles, burdened by a life of calamities and by loyalty to his brother Jim. As Mary investigates, a visit from Ellie Knowles (Jim’s widow) and clues about a fired rifle abandoned in the rail yard reveal that Jim had confronted Laramie and later killed himself, while Billy had gone to the house carrying an unfireable gun, prepared to take the blame. Mary rekindles his will to live, and the tale closes with the clear implication that her defense prevails and Billy’s life, once deemed worthless, becomes long and meaningful.
Book and edition facts
- Title: What's life worth?
- Author credits: Perry, Clay (1887–1961)
- Catalogue language: English
Catalogue subjects
- Legal stories
- Short stories
- Trials (Murder) -- Fiction
- Women lawyers -- Fiction
Read this edition
View the complete Gutenberg catalogue record. Project Gutenberg identifies this edition as public domain in the United States; that designation does not establish its copyright status in every country.
Source notes
Catalogue metadata is public domain and is supplied through Gutendex, which imports Gutenberg's machine-readable catalogue. The automated synopsis is source-supplied, not an independently verified review. Author dates above describe the credited people; no ebook release date is presented as the book's original publication date.
Sources
More in Books & Authors
Keep reading
