100 Years of The Best American Short Stories

by Lorrie Moore, Heidi Pitlor

For the 100th anniversary of The Best American Short Stories series, a retrospective of stories selected by master of the form Lorrie Moore. The stories, along with one hundred years of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and decade-by-decade analysis, tell the history of American short fiction, showcasing representative moments in the series as well as literary moments in time.

  • Format: eBook
  • ISBN-13/ EAN: 9780544056060
  • ISBN-10: 054405606X
  • Pages: 480
  • Publication Date: 10/06/2015
  • Carton Quantity: 1
About the Book
About the Authors
Excerpts
  • About the Book
    Witness the ever-changing history and identity of America in this collection of 40 stories collected from the first 100 years of this bestselling series. 

     

    For the centennial celebration of this beloved annual series, master of the form Lorrie Moore selects forty stories from the more than two thousand that were published in previous editions. Series editor Heidi Pitlor recounts behind-the-scenes anecdotes and examines, decade by decade, the trends captured over a hundred years. Together, the stories and commentary offer an extraordinary guided tour through a century of literature with what Moore calls “all its wildnesses of character and voice.” 

     

    These forty stories represent their eras but also stand the test of time. Here is Ernest Hemingway’s first published story and a classic by William Faulkner, who admitted in his biographical note that he began to write “as an aid to love-making.” Nancy Hale’s story describes far-reaching echoes of the Holocaust; Tillie Olsen’s story expresses the desperation of a single mother; James Baldwin depicts the bonds of brotherhood and music. Here is Raymond Carver’s “minimalism,” a term he disliked, and Grace Paley’s “secular Yiddishkeit.” Here are the varied styles of Donald Barthelme, Charles Baxter, and Jamaica Kincaid. From Junot Díaz to Mary Gaitskill, from ZZ Packer to Sherman Alexie, these writers and stories explore the different things it means to be American. 

     

     

     

     

  • About the Author

    Lorrie Moore

    LORRIE MOORE is the author of the story collections Bark, Birds of America, Like Life, and Self-Help and the novels Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Anagrams. Her work has won honors from the Lannan Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the Irish Times International Prize for Fiction, the Rea Award for the Short Story, and the PEN/Malamud Award.

    Heidi Pitlor

    HEIDI PITLOR is a former senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and has been the series editor for The Best American Short Stories since 2007. She is the author of the novels The Birthdays and The Daylight Marriage.

  • Excerpts
    TABLE OF CONTENTS 

      

    1915-1920 

    1917 EDNA FERBER-The Gay Old Dog 

    1920-1930 

    1921 SHERWOOD ANDERSON-Brothers 

    1923 ERNEST HEMINGWAY-My Old Man 

    1925 RING LARDNER-Haircut 

    1930-1940 

    1931 F. SCOTT FITZGERALD-Babylon Revisited 

    1933 KATHERINE ANN PORTER-The Cracked Looking-Glass 

    1936 WILLIAM FAULKNER-That Will Be Fine 

    1940-1950 

    1942 NANCY HALE-These Are As Brothers 

    1948 EUDORA WELTY-The Whole World Knows 

    1948 JOHN CHEEVER-The Enormous Radio 

    1950-1960 

    1957 TILLIE OLSEN-I Stand Here Ironing 

    1958 JAMES BALDWIN-Sonny's Blues 

    1959 PHILIP ROTH-The Conversion of the Jews 

    1960-1970 

    1962 FLANNERY O'CONNOR-Everything That Rises Must Converge 

    1962 JOHN UPDIKE-Pigeon Feathers 

    1967 RAYMOND CARVER-Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? 

    1969 JOYCE CAROL OATES-By the River 

    1970-1980 

    1975 DONALD BARTHELME-The School 

    1978 STANLEY ELKIN-The Conventional Wisdom 

    1980-1990 

    1980 GRACE PALEY-Friends 

    1982 CHARLES BAXTER-Harmony of the World 

    1986 MONA SIMPSON-Lawns 

    1986 RICHARD FORD-Communist 

    1988 ROBERT STONE-Helping 

    1989 DAVID WONG LOUIE-Displacement 

    1990-2000 

    1991 ALICE MUNRO-Friend of My Youth   

    1993 MARY GAITSKILL-The Girl on the Plane 

    1995 JAMAICA KINCAID-Xuela 

    1996 AKHIL SHARMA-If You Sing Like That For Me 

    1997 JUNOT DIAZ-Fiesta, 1980 

    2000-2010 

    2000 JHUMPA LAHIRI-The Third and Final Continent 

    2000 ZZ PACKER-Brownies 

    2004 EDWARD P. JONES-Old Boys, Old Girls 

    2005 SHERMAN ALEXIE-What You Pawn I Will Redeem 

    2006 BENJAMIN PERCY-Refresh, Refresh 

    2006 TOBIAS WOLFF-Awaiting Orders 

    2010-2015 

    2012 NATHAN ENGLANDER-What  We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank 

    2012 JULIE OTSUKA- Diem Perdidi 

    2013 GEORGE SAUNDERS-The Semplica-Girl Diaries 

    2014 LAUREN GROFF-At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners

  • Reviews
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