The Best American Short Stories 1953 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 AuthorStorySourceJames Agee"A Mother's Tale"Harper's BazaarJames Ballard"A Mountain Summer"The Hopkins ReviewStephen Becker"The Town Mouse"Harper's MagazineJoseph Carroll"At Mrs. Farrelly's"The Atlantic MonthlyR.V. Cassill"The Life of the Sleeping Beauty"AccentRobert M. Coates"The Need"The New YorkerMary Deasy"Morning Sun"The Virginia Quarterly ReviewHarris Downey"Crispin's Way"EpochOsborn Duke"Struttin' With Some Barbecue"New World WritingGeorge P. Elliot"FAQ'"The Hudson ReviewWingate Froscher"A Death in the Family"EpochVahan Krikorian Gregory"Athens, Greece, 1942"The Armenian ReviewJames B. Hall"A Spot in History"EpochCharles Tenney Jackson"The Buffalo Wallow"The Atlantic MonthlyRoberts Jackson"Fly Away Home"AccentMadison P. Jones, Jr."Dog Days"PerspectiveWillard Marsh"Beachhead in Bohemia"Southwest ReviewElizabeth Marshall"The Hill People"MademoiselleFelix Noland"The Whipping"McCall'sConstance Pendergast"The Picnic"PerspectiveKen Purdy"Change of Plan"The Atlantic MonthlyClay Putman"Our Vegetable Love"FuriosoRoger Shattuck"Workout On The River"Harper's MagazineHenry Schultz"Oreste"New Mexico QuarterlyStanley Sultan"The Fugue Of The Fig Tree"The Kenyon ReviewMark Van Doren"Still, Still So"Park East, the Magazine of New YorkDonald Wesley"A Week of Roses"The Hopkins ReviewChristine Weston"The Forest of the Night"The New YorkerTennessee Williams"Three Players of A Summer Game"The New YorkerSimon Wincelberg"The Conqueror"Harper's Bazaar
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