Promptings of Necessity is a book of three stories by Robert Allen Richardson. These stories of loss and remembrance, acceptance and affirmation, are set in the rural American Midwest in the middle and later years of the twentieth century. They chronicle the lives of three different families. In each story a moment comes when it seems that something cherished – a place, a way of life, or a prized possession – may have to be given up. Either holding on to it or letting it go will have enduring consequences. In this exacting circumstance a way must be found to yield to necessity, yet not be overcome by it.