The Best American Short Stories of the Century

862 Pages·2000·14.7 MB·English

by  John Updike

P R A I S E FOR
The Best American Short Stories of the Century
“Finding wonderful stories that you don't already know is one of this collec-
tion’s great pleasures . . . Updike has made some surprising, even striking,
selections.” New York Times Book Review
—
“Extraordinary ... a one-volume literary history of this country’s immeasur-
able pains and near-infinite hopes.” — Boston Globe
“A spectacular tapestry of fictional achievement... The result is a thrillingly
energized argument for the enduring vitality of big ideas in small packages.”
Entertainment Weekly
—
“Revelatory.” Chicago Tribune
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“Splendid ... [these stories] surely represent the short story — not to mention
America and the twentieth century — at its best.” Wall Street Journal
—
“Provocative ... a wonderful companion for your fin-de-si&cle bedside table.”
USA Today
-
“A literary march through time ” Seattle Post-Intelligencer
—
“Persuasive evidence that this century has been the golden age for American
short fiction. Indeed, if there is justice in this world, this welcome collection
might become a ubiquitous fixture on the shelves of the book-loving ”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
—
“A trove of masterful offerings from the best short-story writers this country
has ever produced ... Something vital and engaging on every page ... This
collection, weaving as it does the accepted masters with the almost-forgotten
voices, the expected and the surprising, is well worth owning.”
San Diego Union-Tribune
—
“The riches contained — including a foreword by Kenison and a deft introduc-
tion from Updike — prove the title accurate ... This extraordinary collection
offers up dazzling writing ... as well as stories full of the pleasures of life ”
Publishers Weekly
—
“A delightful, often offbeat, collection ” U.S. News & World Report
—
“Impressive... the chronological arrangement reveals much about the history
of the genre... The short story can be as rich, as dense and deep, as the long-
est novel.” Elle
—

The
BEST
AMERICAN
SHORT
STORIES
of the Century
John Updike
• EDITOR
Katrina Kenison
• COEDITOR
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY JOHN UPDIKE
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON • NEW YORK
Copyright © 1999,2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company
Introduction copyright © 1999 by John Updike
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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this volume, see below
issn 0067-6233
ISBN 0-395-84368-5
ISBN 0-395-84367-7 (pbk)
Book design by Robert Overholtzer
Printed in the United States of America
QUM 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
“Zelig” by Benjamin Rosenblatt Copyright © 1915 by the Bellman Co Copyright © 1916 by Benjamin Rosenblatt
“Little Selves” by Mary Lemer. Copyright © 1916 by The Atlantic Monthly Co Copyright © 1917 by Mary Lemer
“A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell Copyright © 1917 by the Crowell Publishing Co. Copyright © 1918 by
Susan Glaspell Cook. “The Other Woman” by Sherwood Anderson Copyright © 1920 by Margaret C. Anderson
Copyright © 1921 by Sherwood Anderson “Tlie Golden Honeymoon” by Ring Lardner. Copyright © 1922 by The
International Magazine Company (Cosmopolitan) Copyright © 1923 by Ring Lardner. Renewal copyright © 1950
“Blood-Burning Moon” by Jean Toomer Copyright © 1923 by Prairie Copyright © 1923 by Boni and Liveright,
Inc. “The Killers” by Ernest Hemingway Reprinted with permission of Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster,
from Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway Copyright © 1927 Charles Scribner’s Sons. Copyright renewed
1955 by Ernest Hemingway. “Double Birthday” by Willa Cather. Copyright © 1929 by Willa Cather. Reprinted with
permission of the estate of Willa Cather “Wild Plums” by Grace Stone Coates Copyright © 1928 by H G
Merriam “Theft” by Katherine Anne Porter. Copyright © 1930 by Katherine Anne Porter Reprinted with
permission of the trustees for the literary estate of Katherine Anne Porter “That Evening Sun Go Down” by
William Faulkner From Collected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner. Copyright © 1931 and renewed
1959 by William Faulkner. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc “Here We Are” by Dorothy Parker
Copyright © 1931, renewed copyright © 1959 by Dorothy Parker, from The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy
Parker. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc. “Crazy Sunday” by E Scott
Fitzgerald Reprinted with permission of Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, from The Short Stories of F
Scott Fitzgerald> edited by Matthew J Bruccoli Copyright © 1932 by American Mercury Inc Copyright renewed ©
1960 by Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan “My Dead Brother Comes to America” by Alexander Godin. Copyright
© 1933 by Frederick B Maxham “Resurrection of a Life” by William Saroyan Copyright © 1934,1936,1959 by
William Saroyan. Reprinted by permission of Leland Stanford Junior University. “Christmas Gift” by Robert Penn
Warren Copyright © 1938, renewed 1966 by Robert Penn Warren. Reprinted by permission of William Morris
Agency, Inc on behalf of the author “Bright and Morning Star” by Richard Wright Copyright © 1938 by Richard
Wright. Copyright © renewed 1966 by Ellen Wright. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc
“The Hitch-Hikers” by Eudora Welty. From A Curtain of Green and Other Stories by Eudora Welty. Copyright ©
1939 and renewed 1967 by Eudora Welty, reprmted by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company. “The Peach
Stone” by Paul Horgan From The Peach Stone by Paul Horgan Copyright © 1967 by Paul Horgan Copyright
renewed © 1995 by Thomas B. Catron, III. “That in Aleppo Once ” by Vladimir Nabokov. From The Stories of
Vladimir Nabokov by Vladimir Nabokov. Copyright © 1995 by Dimitn Nabokov. Reprinted by permission of
Alfred A Knopf Inc “The Interior Castle” by Jean Stafford From The Collected Stories by Jean Stafford Copyright
© 1969 by Jean Stafford. “Miami-New York” by Martha Gellhom Copyright 1948 by Martha Gellhom Reprinted
with permission of the Estate of Martha Gellhom “The Second Tree from the Corner” (continues on page 836)
Contents
Foreword vii
Introduction by John Updike xv
1915 • BENJAMIN ROSENBLATT. Zelig 1
1916 ־ mary lerner. Little Selves 7
1917 • susan glaspell. A Jury of Her Peers 18
1920 ־ sherwood anderson. The Other Woman 38
1922 • ring lardner. The Golden Honeymoon 45
1923 ״ jean toomer. Blood-Burning Moon 60
1927 • ernest hemingway. The Killers 68
1929 • willa cather. Double Birthday 77
1929 • grace stone coates. Wild Plums 100
1930 ״ KATHERINE ANNE PORTER. Theft 105
1931 ״ william faulkner. That Evening Sun Go Down 111
1931 ״ dorothy parker. Here We Are 127
1933 ״ f. scott Fitzgerald. Crazy Sunday 136
1934 ־ alexander godin. My Dead Brother Comes to America 153
1935 ״ william saroyan. Resurrection of a Life 159
1938 • robert penn warren. Christmas Gift 169
1939 • richard wright. Bright and Morning Star 179
1940 ״ eudora welty. The Hitch-Hikers 211
1943 ״ paul horgan. The Peach Stone 224
1944 • Vladimir nabokov. “That in Aleppo Once ...” 241
1947 ״ jean Stafford. The Interior Castle 250
1948 * martha gellhorn. Miami-New York 264
1948 ״ e. b. white. The Second Tree from the Comer 281
1949 ״ elizabeth bishop. The Farmer’s Children 286
vi CONTENTS
1951 • j. f. pow ers. Death of a Favorite 295
1951 • Tennessee w illiam s. The Resemblance Between a
Violin Case and a Coffin 312
1955 ' John cheever. The Country Husband 325
1957 • flannery o’connor. Greenleaf 348
i960 • LAWRENCE SARGENT HALL. The Ledge 369
i960 • philip roth. Defender of the Faith 384
1962 ־ Stanley elkin. Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers 411
1964 • Bernard malamud. The German Refugee 438
1967 • joyce carol oates. Where Are You Going, Where Have
You Been? 450
1968 • mary ladd gavell. The Rotifer 466
1969 • JAMES ALAN McPHERSON. Gold Coast 477
1970 • isaac bashevis singer. The Key 493
1973 • donald barthelm e. A City of Churches 503
1975 • ROSELLEN BROWN. Howto Win 507
1976 • alice adams. Roses, Rhododendron 520
1978 • harold brodkey. Verona: A Young Woman Speaks 533
1979 • saul bellow . A Silver Dish 539
1980 • john updike. Gesturing 565
1981 • cynthia ozick. The Shawl 576
1983 • Raymond carver. Where I’m Calling From 581
1986 • ann beattie. Janus 595
1987 • susan sontag. The Way We Live Now 600
1987 • tim o’brien. The Things They Carried 616
1989 • alice munro. Meneseteung 633
1990 • lorrie moore. You’re Ugly, Too 652
1993 • thom jones. I Want to Live! 671
1994 • alice e llio tt dark. In the Gloaming 688
1994 • Carolyn ferrell. Proper Library 705
1995 • gish jen. Birthmates 720
1997 • PAM DURBAN. S00n 735
1998 • annie prou lx. The Half-Skinned Steer 754
1999 • pam H ouston. The Best Girlfriend You Never Had 769
Biographical Notes 789
Index of the Best American Short Stories, 1915-1999 797
Foreword
edward j. o’brien was twenty-three years old, already a published poet
and playwright, when he began work on the first volume of The Best
American Short Stories. He sold the idea to the Boston house of Small,
Maynard & Company, which launched the series in 1915. “Because an
American publisher has been found who shares my faith in the democratic
future of the American short story as something by no means ephemeral,”
he wrote in his first introduction, “this yearbook of American fiction is
assured of annual publication for several years .”
Nearly eight-five years and eighty-five volumes later, the annual anthol-
ogy that a young Harvard graduate envisioned on the eve of World War I
has become not only an institution but an invaluable record of our century.
Although the series was briefly published by Dodd, Mead & Company
before it became an integral part of the Houghton Mifflin list in 1933, it has
been published without interruption every year since its inception.
In almost all respects, the world we now inhabit is vastly different from
the world that is reflected in the earliest volumes. In the first years of the
century, America was receiving tides of immigrants; indeed, immigration
was perhaps the greatest human story of the time, and its themes reverber-
ated in the stories O’Brien found. The orderly evolution of a national
literature, as could be traced in a more homogeneous European culture,
was nearly impossible to discern in the United States. But O’Brien saw
virtue in our diversity, and while other critics of the time dismissed Ameri-
can fiction for its lack of sophistication and technique, he detected stirrings
of something altogether new — a distinctly American literature worth rec-
ognizing and encouraging on its own terms.
O’Brien sensed that the short story was about to come into its own as a
particularly American genre, and he presciently set out, as he explained, “to
viii Foreword
trace its development and changing standards from year to year as the field
of its interest widens and its technique becomes more and more assured”
If anything, O’Brien’s ability to spot and crusade for quality fiction seems all
the more remarkable from our vantage point. Upon Sherwood Anderson’s
first appearance in print, in 1916, O’Brien recognized both a new talent of
the first rank and the real emergence of the modern short story. “Out of
Chicago have come a band of writers, including Anderson, Ben Hecht,
Lindsay, Masters, and Sandburg,” he announced, “with an altogether new
substance, saturated with the truth of the life they are experiencing.”
Suddenly, it seemed, fiction was being written that was worthy of the
devotion O’Brien was ready to bring to it. “This fight for sincerity in the
short story is a fight that is worth making,” he wrote in 1920. “It is at the
heart of all that for which I am striving. The quiet sincere man who has
something to tell you should not be talked down by the noisemakers. He
should have his hearing. He is real. And we need him. That is why I have set
myself the annual task of reading so many short stories.”
The results of O’Brien’s labors over the next twenty years are revealed in
the roster of authors who found early recognition and support in his
anthology, including Ring Lardner, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, J. R
Marquand, Dorothy Parker, Erskine Caldwell, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas
Wolfe, William Saroyan, John Steinbeck, Irwin Shaw, Kay Boyle, and Rich-
ard Wright.
In 1923, O’Brien broke his own cardinal rule — that only previously
published short stories are eligible for consideration — in order to publish
a short story by a struggling young writer he had just met in Switzerland.
All of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories to date had been rejected by
editors; when he met O’Brien, he poured out a tragic tale of a lost suitcase
full of manuscripts and admitted that he was so discouraged he was ready
to give up writing. O’Brien asked to see the two stories he had left, and
decided to publish one of them, “My Old Man.” He not only gave Heming-
way his first publication, he dedicated that year’s volume to Hemingway,
then a twenty־four־year־old reporter for the Toronto Star, thereby launch-
ing one of the most celebrated literary careers of our century.
Typically, O’Brien would spend the entire weekend ensconced in his
upstairs study, emerging only for meals. By Monday morning, he would
have read through the week’s worth of periodicals from both America and
Great Britain (he also edited an annual anthology of the best British short
stories), and he would have filed and graded every short story published
during the previous week. Some years, he estimated that he read as many as
8,000 short stories.