Name that short story...

July 30, 2013 4:52 PM

Looking for a pre-1985 story about a man turning into a tree.

This (turning into a tree) may have been his sentence for committing some crime. As I recall, his wife was able to visit and talk with him during the process. I'm almost positive it was published in a magazine I had a subscription to at the time, so it's likely from The Atlantic, Mother Jones, Harper's, Omni, Granta, Rolling Stone, or New West.

posted by she's not there to Grab Bag (6 answers total)

Doesn't quite sound like your remembered story, but this happens at the end of the 1976 science fiction novel Maske Thaery by Jack Vance. A great book.
posted by seasparrow at 6:07 PM on July 30, 2013

Long shot, but any chance it's The Wish Giver?
posted by capricorn at 8:14 PM on July 30, 2013

I think I know this one. Altho it was about a man who was mean to children when they came into his garden but later he turned into this amazing tree and all the children played on him...does that ring a bell...it may have been called the selfish giant...I can dig further if this resonates.
posted by gypseefire at 10:42 PM on July 30, 2013 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: seasparrow: no, not my story, but I'll add the book to my "read" list.

capricorn and gypseefire: I'm 99% sure that it wasn't children/YA lit and that it did not have a happy/redeeming ending.

I appreciate the suggestions and I'm sorry I can't be more specific.
posted by she's not there at 12:17 AM on July 31, 2013

Something like this happens in "Olders" by Ursula Le Guin. I see it was published in Omni in 1995 and in a collection entitled "Unlocking the Air" in 1996, though, so the dates are wrong.
posted by Grunyon at 4:10 AM on July 31, 2013

I saw a movie about a man turning into a tree - but it was based on a play from 1942, and I recall that it had a quasi-happy ending.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Sycamore
posted by neutralmojo at 9:35 AM on July 31, 2013