James Baquet When someone asks me if I have read William Faulkner’s short story, “The Bear,” I sometimes ask, “Which one?” In fact I have read all three. The story has a convoluted publishing history. The first version (and my favorite) appeared in the American magazine The Saturday Evening Post in 1942. It’s by far the shortest, with only about 6,400 words. The second version, published the same year, is embedded in a collection of stories, “Go Down, Moses.” Faulkner insisted this was in fact a novel. The version of “The Bear” in this book has nearly 44,000 words! A slimmed-down edition of the second version was included in a 1955 book, “Big Woods.” The magazine version differs from the others in several ways. First, it is a standalone story. In the longer versions the protagonist is Isaac McCaslin, who is tangled up in a family saga in Mississippi. In the magazine version he is not even named. Second, the conversation at the end of the story takes place between “the boy” and his father; in the others the speaker is an older cousin — the father is completely absent. Third, and most significant for me, is that in the longer versions the titular bear dies (at the hands of another man, not the boy); in the magazine version the encounter is much more nuanced. When the boy finally encounters “Old Ben,” a nearly-mythical bear that has been terrorizing the woods for years, a small dog — less than three kilos — charges at it. The boy throws himself at the dog to stop it, placing himself within reach of the bear. But, although the boy doesn’t see it go, the bear simply turns and leaves. Later, the boy’s father questions why he didn’t shoot, even though he had a gun before dropping it to go after the little dog. When he doesn’t answer, his father pulls out a book and reads to him “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” which discusses truth. “Truth doesn’t change,” his father says. “Truth is one thing. It covers all things which touch the heart — honor and pride and pity and justice and courage and love.” But the boy thinks it’s simpler than that: “He had heard about a bear... and at last met it with a gun in his hands and he didn’t shoot.” That was his truth. Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. not connected to any other work 2. twisted, complicated 3. delicately told 4. story involving several generations 5. main character 6. shortened, reduced 7. in the title 8. snarled, mixed up 9. placed in context 10. with an addition to the title | 