The Best American Short Stories 1959 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 SourceJohn Barry"Jawaharlal and the Three Cadavers"The Western ReviewSallie Bingham"Winter Term"MademoiselleFrank Butler"Amid A Place of Stone"The Hudson ReviewJohn Cheever"The Bella Lingua"The New YorkerRobert M. Coates"Getaway"The New YorkerCharles G. Finney"The Iowan’s Curse"Harper's MagazineWilliam H. Gass"Mrs. Mean"Accent"Hugh Geeslin, Jr. ""A Day In The Life of the Boss"The Georgia ReviewHerbert Gold"Love and Like"The Hudson ReviewFrank Holwerda"In A Tropical Minor Key"AccentBernard Malamud"The Last Mohican"Partisan ReviewHoward Nemerov"A Secret Society"The Virginia Quarterly ReviewLeo Rosten"The Guy in Ward 4"Harper's MagazinePhilip Roth"The Conversion of the Jews"The Paris ReviewAnne Sayre"A Birthday Present"The Colorado QuarterlyHarvey Swados"The Man in the Toolhouse"The Western ReviewPeter Taylor"Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time"The Kenyon ReviewJohn Updike"A Gift From the City"The New YorkerThomas Williams "The Buck in Trotevale’s"EsquireEthel Wilson"The Window"The Tamarack Review
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