Since its first printing in 1954, this outstanding anthology has been the book of choice by teachers,students, and lovers of short fiction. Surveying stories by British and American writers in the first half of the twentieth century, editors Robert Pcnn Warren and Albert Erskine selected stories that broke new ground and challenged the imagination with their style, subject matter, or tone: the unforgettable, enduring works that shaped the literature of our time.

Short stories can be funny, pathetic, frightening, uplifting, nostalgic, beautiful---and it is just this variety that makes them the popular and satisfying reading they are. Here, in one volume, have been brought together 35 of the best stories of our time, in an outstanding anthology that ranges in kind from the humor of James Thurber and Ring Lardner to the irony of Hemingway and Joyce. All the modern masters are here--Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Katherine Anne Porter, Maugham, and many more. Each story is different from every other--but each bears the stamp of unmistakable greatness.

EDITORS" NOTE

IMPULSE

CONRAD AIKEN

A BOTTLE OF MILK FOR MOTHER

NELSON ALGREN

THE EGG

SHERWOOD ANDERSON

TORCH SONG

JOHN CHEEVER

WITCH"S MONEY

  JOHN COLLIER

AN OUTPOST OF PROGRESS

  JOSEPH CONRAD

THE THIRD PRIZE

  A. E. COPPARD

THE BRIDE COMES TO YELLOW SKY

  STEPHEN CRANE

OPEN WINTER

  H. L. DAVIS

BARN BURNING

  WILLIAM FAULKNER

WINTER DREAMS

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

SOLDIER"S HOME

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

HENRY JAMES

THE BOARDING HOUSE

JAMES JOYCE

LIBERTY HALL

RING LARDNER

THE HORSE DEALER"S DAUGHTER

D. H. LAWRENCE

VIRGA VAY & ALLAN CEDAR

SINCLAIR LEWIS

MARRIAGE A LA MODE

KATHERINE MANSFIELD

THE OUTSTATION

W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

"CRUEL AND BARBAROUS TREATMENT"

MARY MCCARTHY

THE SOJOURNER

CARSON MCCULLERS

THE OPEN WINDOW

"SAKI" (H. H. MUNRO)

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