My Father’s Chair and Veronica are the earliest published Westlake stories in Don’s personal collection. In May of 1951, Don was still two months shy of his eighteenth birthday. He was the author of two short stories in his high school’s literary publication, The Vincentian, as well as one of two literary editors for the magazine. The two stories represent what is likely the very first Westlake stories ever published. Click on the gallery to read the story in full in its original form. You can also see the cover, title, contents and attribution pages, as well as messages from friends written in the margins. This wasn’t the yearbook for the school but Don appears to have treated it as such to some degree. And why not?