The Best American Short Stories 1961 is a volume in The Best American Short Stories series edited by Martha Foley. The volume was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Background The series is considered one of the "best-known annual anthologies of short fiction""Short and Sweet" by Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly, 11/05/99, issue 511, page 73. and has anthologized more than 2,000 short stories, including works by some of the most famous writers in contemporary American literature."The Best American Short Stories of the Century," Publishers Weekly, 3/8/1999, volume 246, issue 10, page 47.
In particular, the Willa Cather Review wrote that The Best American Short Stories series "became a repository of values" for creative writing programs, college libraries, and literary magazines."'Long-Cellared Wine': 'Double Birthday,' Edward J. H. O'Brien, and the Best American Short Stories Series" by Timothy W. Bintrim and Scott Riner, Willa Cather Review, spring 2023, volume 64, issue 1, page 18. The Los Angeles Times, reflecting on the hundred-year anniversary of the series, noted that it eventually became an "institution" itself, often being taught in classrooms.
Short stories included Author Story SourceJames Baldwin"This Morning, This Evening, So Soon"The Atlantic MonthlyJohn Barry"The Listener"New World Writing (New American Library)Alfred Chester"Berceuse"EsquireW. H. Gass"The Love and Sorrow of Henry Pimber"AccentIvan Gold"The Nickel Misery of George Washington Carver Brown"EsquireWilliam Goyen"A Tale of Inheritance"Southwest ReviewMark Harris"The Self-Made Brain Surgeon"The Noble SavageKaatje Hurlbut"The Vestibule"The Literary ReviewTheodore Jacobs"A Girl for Walter"MutinyMary Lavin"The Yellow Beret"The New YorkerJack Ludwig"Confusions"The Tamarack ReviewWillard Marsh"Mexican Hayride"EsquireSt. Clair McKelway"First Marriage"The New YorkerJeannie Olive"Society"The University of Kansas City ReviewTillie Olsen"Tell Me a Riddle"New World Writing (New American Library)William Peden"Night in Funland"New Mexico QuarterlyThomas Pynchon"Entropy"The Kenyon ReviewSamuel Sandmel"The Colleagues of Mr. Chips"Prairie SchoonerPeter Taylor"Miss Leonora When Last Seen"The New YorkerEllington White"The Perils of Flight"The Georgia Review
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