So a story I wrote a bunch of years ago was just published on the amazing website, Untitled Books.

According to their website: “Untitled Books is a discerning new literary service and online bookshop that combines an authoritative selection of book recommendations with continually updated, exclusive editorial content.

The online magazine, features articles, author recommendations and interviews with big names such as Julian Barnes, Philip Gourevitch and James Frey, and champions the writers producing the most exciting work at the moment. You will also find articles, Q&As and new short fiction published on the site each month. Authors recommend their favourite books, what inspires them and who to watch out for. Untitled Books also aims to find, support and promote the work of up and coming and new authors. Every featured author’s work can be bought via the site, making Untitled Books an essential destination for readers and book lovers.”

My story is about the Milgram Experiment, has been sitting on my hard drive for many years. I’m so glad that it’s finally found a home, especially on a cool English site. Much thanks to Viola Fort and Untitled Books!

Here’s an excerpt:

Milgram
by Tommy Wallach

In the summer of 1961, Henrietta Ramsey took part in her first ever scientific experiment. It was advertised in The New Haven Register, and offered four dollars for an hour of the respondent’s time, plus fifty cents for bus fare.

Henrietta had never before considered volunteering for such a thing, though not because she had anything against the pursuit of knowledge or the process of scientific inquiry. On the contrary, all forms of progress appealed to her; she was a member of the ACLU, the NAACP, and would be instrumental in the eventual foundation of a Greater New Haven chapter of NOW. The very term ‘progress’ made her feel a shiver of pride, like when her husband, Victor, touched her back possessively in front of some business associate’s younger, prettier wife. No, the only reason Henrietta had not responded to the advertisement when it had first appeared a year earlier was because she was typically a very busy woman. A year earlier, she would not have had the time to involve herself in the pursuit of knowledge, or the process of scientific inquiry.

The summer of 1961 was different. For Henrietta, a personal solstice had set in; the days stretched out to unheard of lengths. Torpid lifetimes passed in the hours between breakfast and lunch, civilizations rose and melted into hazy histories during the afternoons and by the time dinner rolled around, the morning seemed as distant a past as childhood itself. For other women, perhaps this would have been tolerable. But Henrietta had reached forty-five without ever having experienced what was commonly known as ‘free time.’ (What was free about it? she wondered. Time always cost something; it took its bite out of the purse or the flesh, whichever was more vulnerable.) During her childhood in Madison, Wisconsin, she’d worked every summer, first for her family and then for a local restaurant that sponsored the most popular fish fry in the state. She’d studied hard in high school, and worked in a bookstore throughout her four years at the University. After graduation, she taught seventh grade English for a few years, until Victor came along and the two of them moved to Connecticut. Even after Catharine was born, Henrietta insisted on finding herself a part-time job. “Raising a child simply isn’t enough,” she would confide to other working women she knew, “God put me on Earth to help people.”

Read on…