Best American Short Stories
Encyclopedia
The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology
is a part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories
by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature.
edited his selection of the previous year's stories. This first edition was serialized in a magazine; however, it caught the attention of the publishing company Small, Maynard and Company, which published subsequent editions until 1926, when the title was transferred to Dodd, Mead and Company
.
The time appeared to be a propitious one for such a collection. The most popular magazines of the day featured short fiction prominently and frequently; the best authors were well-known and well-paid. More importantly, there was a nascent movement toward higher standards and greater experimentation among certain American writers. O'Brien capitalized on this moment. He was deeply and vocally skeptical of the value of commercial short fiction, which tended to the
formulaic and sentimental; he insisted, in introduction after introduction, on the need for a consciously literary development of the short story. He used his selections to reinforce this call. Over the years of his editorship, he drew attention to two generations of American authors, from Sherwood Anderson
and Edna Ferber
to Richard Wright
and Irwin Shaw
. Perhaps the most significant instance of O'Brien's instincts involves Ernest Hemingway
; O'Brien published that author's "My Old Man" when it had not even been published yet, and was, moreover, instrumental in finding an American publisher for In Our Time. O'Brien was known to work indefatigably: he claimed to read around 8,000 stories a year, and his editions contained lengthy tabulations of stories and magazines, ranked on a scale of three stars (representing O'Brien's notion of their "literary permanence.")
Though the series attained a degree of fame and popularity, it was never universally accepted. Fans of the period's popular fiction often found his selections precious or willfully obscure. On the other hand, many critics who accepted "literary" fiction objected to O'Brien's occasionally strident and pedantic tone. After his death, for instance, The New Yorker
compared him to the recently-deceased editor of the Social Register, suggesting that they shared a form of snobbery.
in 1941. He was replaced as editor of the series by Martha Foley
, founder and former editor of Story Magazine. O'Brien, who had once called Story one of the most important events in literary history since the publication of Lyrical Ballads
, presumably would have approved the choice. Foley edited the publication, at first alone and then with the assistance of her son, David Burnett, until 1977. These years witnessed both the ascendancy and eclipse of the type of short story favored by O'Brien: writers as diverse as John Cheever
, Bernard Malamud
, and Joyce Carol Oates
offered sharply observed, generally realistic stories that eschewed trite conventions. At the same time, Foley evinced some degree of awareness of the new currents in fiction. Donald Barthelme
, for instance, was chosen for The School in 1976. Foley also attended to the rise of so-called minority literature, dedicating the 1975 volume to Leslie Marmon Silko
, although it has been argued that the series was less perceptive in this area than it might have been.
--elected to take the series in a new direction. Under the guidance of a series editor (Shannon Ravenel 1978-1990, Katrina Kenison 1991-2006, Heidi Pitlor 2007- ), a different writer of reputation would select the contents and introduce the volume each year. The editor would choose the best twenty stories from 120 stories recommended by the series editor. This format has been followed since, although the guest editor has occasionally gone beyond what the series editor recommended (e.g., John Gardner in 1982).
In 2002, Houghton-Mifflin made the series part of its broader Best American series
.
Guest editors of the BASS anthology from 1978 to 1989:
Guest editors of the BASS anthology from 1990 to 1999:
Guest editors of the BASS anthology from 2000 to 2009:
Guest editors of the BASS anthology from 2010 to 2019:
selected twenty-two unabridged stories from the first eighty-four annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories, and the result is The Best American Short Stories of the Century. The expanded CD audio edition includes a new story from The Best American Short Stories 1999 to round out the century.
Sources
Other
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
is a part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature.
Edward O'Brien
The series began in 1915, when Edward O'BrienEdward Joseph Harrington O'Brien
Edward Joseph Harrington O'Brien was a U.S. author, poet, editor and anthologist.He was noted for compiling an annual collection of short stories by U.S. authors, The Best American Short Stories.-External links:...
edited his selection of the previous year's stories. This first edition was serialized in a magazine; however, it caught the attention of the publishing company Small, Maynard and Company, which published subsequent editions until 1926, when the title was transferred to Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. Its history properly began in 1870, with the retirement of its founder, Moses Woodruff Dodd. Control passed to his son Frank...
.
The time appeared to be a propitious one for such a collection. The most popular magazines of the day featured short fiction prominently and frequently; the best authors were well-known and well-paid. More importantly, there was a nascent movement toward higher standards and greater experimentation among certain American writers. O'Brien capitalized on this moment. He was deeply and vocally skeptical of the value of commercial short fiction, which tended to the
formulaic and sentimental; he insisted, in introduction after introduction, on the need for a consciously literary development of the short story. He used his selections to reinforce this call. Over the years of his editorship, he drew attention to two generations of American authors, from Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
and Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big , Show Boat , and Giant .-Early years:Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,...
to Richard Wright
Richard Wright (author)
Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially those involving the plight of African-Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries...
and Irwin Shaw
Irwin Shaw
Irwin Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best-known for his novel, The Young Lions about the fate of three soldiers during World War II that was made into a film starring Marlon...
. Perhaps the most significant instance of O'Brien's instincts involves Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
; O'Brien published that author's "My Old Man" when it had not even been published yet, and was, moreover, instrumental in finding an American publisher for In Our Time. O'Brien was known to work indefatigably: he claimed to read around 8,000 stories a year, and his editions contained lengthy tabulations of stories and magazines, ranked on a scale of three stars (representing O'Brien's notion of their "literary permanence.")
Though the series attained a degree of fame and popularity, it was never universally accepted. Fans of the period's popular fiction often found his selections precious or willfully obscure. On the other hand, many critics who accepted "literary" fiction objected to O'Brien's occasionally strident and pedantic tone. After his death, for instance, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
compared him to the recently-deceased editor of the Social Register, suggesting that they shared a form of snobbery.
Martha Foley
O'Brien died of a heart attack in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1941. He was replaced as editor of the series by Martha Foley
Martha Foley
Martha Foley cofounded Story magazine in 1931 with her husband Whit Burnett. She achieved some notoriety by introducing notable authors through the magazine such as J. D. Salinger, Tennessee Williams and Richard Wright...
, founder and former editor of Story Magazine. O'Brien, who had once called Story one of the most important events in literary history since the publication of Lyrical Ballads
Lyrical Ballads
Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature...
, presumably would have approved the choice. Foley edited the publication, at first alone and then with the assistance of her son, David Burnett, until 1977. These years witnessed both the ascendancy and eclipse of the type of short story favored by O'Brien: writers as diverse as John Cheever
John Cheever
John William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy,...
, Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud was an author of novels and short stories. Along with Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, he was one of the great American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, The Natural, was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford...
, and Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
offered sharply observed, generally realistic stories that eschewed trite conventions. At the same time, Foley evinced some degree of awareness of the new currents in fiction. Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston , co-founder of Fiction Donald...
, for instance, was chosen for The School in 1976. Foley also attended to the rise of so-called minority literature, dedicating the 1975 volume to Leslie Marmon Silko
Leslie Marmon Silko
Leslie Marmon Silko is a Native American writer of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, and one of the key figures in the second wave of what Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
, although it has been argued that the series was less perceptive in this area than it might have been.
Since 1978
After Foley's death, the publisher—by that time, Houghton MifflinHoughton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
--elected to take the series in a new direction. Under the guidance of a series editor (Shannon Ravenel 1978-1990, Katrina Kenison 1991-2006, Heidi Pitlor 2007- ), a different writer of reputation would select the contents and introduce the volume each year. The editor would choose the best twenty stories from 120 stories recommended by the series editor. This format has been followed since, although the guest editor has occasionally gone beyond what the series editor recommended (e.g., John Gardner in 1982).
In 2002, Houghton-Mifflin made the series part of its broader Best American series
Best American series
The Best American Series is an annually-published collection of books, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, each of which features a different genre or theme. Each book selects from works published in North America during the previous year, selected by a guest editor who is an established writer...
.
Guest editors of the BASS anthology from 1978 to 1989:
- 1978: Ted SolotaroffTed SolotaroffTheodore "Ted" Solotaroff was an American writer, editor and literary critic.-Biography:Born into a working-class Jewish family in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Ted Solotaroff attended the University of Michigan, graduating in 1952, and did graduate work at the University of Chicago, where he became...
- 1979: Joyce Carol OatesJoyce Carol OatesJoyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
- 1980: Stanley ElkinStanley ElkinStanley Lawrence Elkin was a Jewish American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. His extravagant, satirical fiction revolves around American consumerism, popular culture, and male-female relationships.-Biography:...
- 1981: Hortense CalisherHortense CalisherHortense Calisher was an American writer of fiction.-Personal life:Born in New York City, New York, and a graduate of Hunter College High School and Barnard College , Calisher was the daughter of a young German Jewish immigrant mother and a somewhat older Jewish father from Virginia whose family...
- 1982: John Gardner
- 1983: Anne TylerAnne TylerAnne Tyler is an American novelist.Tyler, the eldest of four children, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her father was a chemist and her mother a social worker. Her early childhood was spent in a succession of Quaker communities in the mountains of North Carolina and in Raleigh...
- 1984: John UpdikeJohn UpdikeJohn Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
- 1985: Gail GodwinGail GodwinGail Kathleen Godwin is an American novelist and short story writer. She has published one non-fiction work, two collections of short stories, and eleven novels, three of which have been nominated for the National Book Award and five of which have made the New York Times Bestseller List.Godwin was...
- 1986: Raymond CarverRaymond CarverRaymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
- 1987: Ann BeattieAnn BeattieAnn Beattie is an American short story writer and novelist. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a PEN/Bernard Malamud Award for excellence in the short story form. Her work has been compared to that of Alice Adams, J.D. Salinger,...
- 1988: Mark HelprinMark HelprinMark Helprin is an American novelist, journalist, and conservative commentator.-Background:Helprin was raised on the Hudson River and in the British West Indies, and holds degrees from Harvard College and Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His postgraduate work was done at Princeton...
- 1989: Margaret AtwoodMargaret AtwoodMargaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
Guest editors of the BASS anthology from 1990 to 1999:
- 1990: Richard FordRichard FordRichard Ford is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day and The Lay of the Land, and the short story collection Rock Springs, which contains several widely anthologized stories.-Early...
- 1991: Alice AdamsAlice Adams (writer)Alice Adams was an American novelist, short story writer, and university professor....
- 1992: Robert Stone
- 1993: Louise ErdrichLouise ErdrichKaren Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
- 1994: Tobias WolffTobias WolffTobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is an American author. He is known for his memoirs, particularly This Boy's Life , and his short stories. He has also written two novels.-Biography:Wolff was born in 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama...
- 1995: Jane SmileyJane SmileyJane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the...
- 1996: John Edgar WidemanJohn Edgar WidemanJohn Edgar Wideman is an American writer, professor at Brown University, and sits on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions.-Early life:...
- 1997: E. Annie ProulxE. Annie ProulxEdna Annie Proulx is an American journalist and author. Her second novel, The Shipping News , won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for fiction in 1994, and was made into a film in 2001...
- 1998: Garrison KeillorGarrison KeillorGary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
- 1999: Amy TanAmy TanAmy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships. Her most well-known work is The Joy Luck Club, which has been translated into 35 languages...
Guest editors of the BASS anthology from 2000 to 2009:
- 2000: E. L. DoctorowE. L. DoctorowEdgar Lawrence Doctorow is an American author.- Biography :Edgar Lawrence Doctorow was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of second-generation Americans of Russian Jewish descent...
- 2001: Barbara KingsolverBarbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the former Republic of Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before...
- 2002: Sue Miller
- 2003: Walter MosleyWalter MosleyWalter Ellis Mosley is an American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los...
- 2004: Lorrie MooreLorrie MooreLorrie Moore is an American fiction writer known mainly for her humorous and poignant short stories.-Biography:...
- 2005: Michael ChabonMichael ChabonMichael Chabon born May 24, 1963) is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation", according to The Virginia Quarterly Review....
- 2006: Ann PatchettAnn PatchettAnn Patchett is an American author. She received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002 for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett's other novels include Run, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, and The Magician's Assistant, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize...
- 2007: Stephen KingStephen KingStephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
- 2008: Salman Rushdie
- 2009: Alice SeboldAlice SeboldAlice Sebold is an American novelist. She has published three books: Lucky , The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon .-Early life:...
Guest editors of the BASS anthology from 2010 to 2019:
- 2010: Richard RussoRichard RussoRichard Russo is an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and teacher.-Early life and education:Russo was born in Johnstown, New York, and raised in nearby Gloversville...
- 2011: Geraldine Brooks
The Best American Short Stories of the Century
In 2000, John UpdikeJohn Updike
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
selected twenty-two unabridged stories from the first eighty-four annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories, and the result is The Best American Short Stories of the Century. The expanded CD audio edition includes a new story from The Best American Short Stories 1999 to round out the century.
See also
- O. Henry AwardO. Henry AwardThe O. Henry Award is the only yearly award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American master of the form, O. Henry....
- The Best American Short Stories 1993The Best American Short Stories 1993The Best American Short Stories 1993, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Louise Erdrich.-Short stories included:...
- The Best American Short Stories 1994The Best American Short Stories 1994The Best American Short Stories 1994, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Tobias Wolff.-Short stories included:...
- The Best American Short Stories 1995The Best American Short Stories 1995The Best American Short Stories 1995, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Jane Smiley.-Short stories included:...
- The Best American Short Stories 1996The Best American Short Stories 1996The Best American Short Stories 1996, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor John Edgar Wideman.-Short stories included:...
- The Best American Short Stories 1997The Best American Short Stories 1997The Best American Short Stories 1997, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor E. Annie Proulx...
- The Best American Short Stories 1998The Best American Short Stories 1998The Best American Short Stories 1998, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Garrison Keillor.-Short stories included:-Other notable stories:...
- The Best American Short Stories 1999The Best American Short Stories 1999The Best American Short Stories 1999, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Amy Tan.-Short stories included:...
- The Best American Short Stories 2000The Best American Short Stories 2000The Best American Short Stories 2000, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor E. L. Doctorow.-Short stories included:...
- The Best American Short Stories 2001The Best American Short Stories 2001The Best American Short Stories 2001, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Barbara Kingsolver.-Short stories included:...
- The Best American Short Stories 2002The Best American Short Stories 2002The Best American Short Stories 2002, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Sue Miller.-Short stories included:-Other notable stories:...
- The Best American Short Stories 2003The Best American Short Stories 2003The Best American Short Stories 2003, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Walter Mosley.-Short stories included:-Other notable stories:...
- The Best American Short Stories 2004The Best American Short Stories 2004The Best American Short Stories 2004, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Lorrie Moore.-Short Stories included:-Other notable stories:...
- The Best American Short Stories 2005The Best American Short Stories 2005The Best American Short Stories 2005, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Michael Chabon.-Short Stories included:-Other notable stories:...
- The Best American Short Stories 2006The Best American Short Stories 2006The Best American Short Stories 2006, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kenison and by guest editor Ann Patchett. This edition is notable in that it was the last edition edited by Katrina Kenison, who was succeeded by Heidi Pitlor the following year...
- The Best American Short Stories 2007The Best American Short Stories 2007The Best American Short Stories 2007, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Heidi Pitlor and by guest editor Stephen King.-Short Stories included:-Other notable stories:...
- The Best American Short Stories 2008The Best American Short Stories 2008The Best American Short Stories 2008, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Heidi Pitlor and by guest editor Salman Rushdie.-Short Stories included:-Other notable stories:...
- The Best American Short Stories 2009The Best American Short Stories 2009The Best American Short Stories 2009, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Heidi Pitlor and by guest editor Alice Sebold.-Short Stories included:...
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2009The Best American Mystery Stories 2009The Best American Mystery Stories 2009, a volume in The Best American Mystery Stories series, was edited by Otto Penzler and by guest editor Jeffery Deaver.-Short Stories included:-Other distinguished mystery stories of 2008:...
- The Best American Short Stories 2010The Best American Short Stories 2010The Best American Short Stories 2010, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Heidi Pitlor and by guest editor Richard Russo.-Short Stories included:-External links:*...
External links
Official- The Best American Short Stories, the official Houghton Mifflin Website
- The Best American Series, on the Houghton Mifflin Website
Sources
- The Best American Short Stories (1915-1921) at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books original editions color illustrated) (plain text and HTML)
Other
- Years of BASS, a year spent reading back issues of BASS 1978-2009. Includes spreadsheet of all stories and authors. Additional information including original publications where the stories first appeared.