200 Years of Great American Short Stories

by Martha Foley

Collects fifty-four representative and outstanding stories by American writers of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, with a general introduction and individual commentaries

Genres: Short Stories, Adult Fiction, Literature, Anthologies

968 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1975

Reviews

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit it... I'm bias. Martha Foley is my (great) aunt and I'm pre-disposed to sing her praises. That said, the memoir attached to one of the editions is insightful, interesting, and so eloquent. The short stories are (mostly) very well written. Martha is credited as the stepping stone to success for a large number of short story writers and novelists (e.g. Zora Neale Hurston, J.D. Salinger, etc) through "Story Magazine." Needless to say, I recommend this anthology to everyone I know.

[Marty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book when you just want a short story - variety here. It's a bit large and difficult for me to hold these days, but remains in my library.

[Ronald Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology of 55 short stories written between 1774 and 1974 by 54 different authors is a comprehensive and varied collection which I would now consider the best single-volume celebration of great American short fiction to have on one’s bookshelf. I personally found nearly half of them truly great.

As expected, many of the excellent pieces are frequently anthologized and I’ve encountered them before: Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”; Mary Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother”; Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”; Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”; Ring Lardner’s “Haircut”; William Saroyan’s “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze”; John Steinbeck’s “The Leader of the People”; Peter Taylor’s “Rain in the Heart”; Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”; John Cheever’s “The Country Husband”; Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hart to Find”; and Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”.

This read was well rewarded by a dozen wonderful surprises I had not encountered in any of the many anthologies I’ve read: “Tennessee’s Partner” by Bret Harte; “Over on T’Other Mounting” by Charles Egbert Craddock; “The Return of a Private” by Hamlin Garland; “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” by Samuel Longhorne Clemens (Mark Twain); “Double Birthday” by Willa Cather; “Noon Wine” by Katherine Anne Porter; “Fire and Cloud” by Richard Wright; “The Ballad of the Sade Café” by Carson McCullers; “February 1999: Ylla” by Ray Bradbury; “The Mexican Girl” by Jack Kerouac; “The Pedersen Kid” by William H. Gass; and “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone” by Jamesa Baldwin.

[Kevin Gallan]

37/968