Product Description

America's most exciting and important writers are represented in this wonderfully rich collection of contemporary classics that date from the 1950s through the 1980s. Includes selections of James Baldwin, Bernard Malamud, Flannery O'Connor, Philip Roth and more. HC: Delacorte.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96355 in Books
• Published on: 1989-04-02
• Released on: 1989-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 528 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In the introduction to this collection, Carver mentions an earlier volume, Short Story Masterpieces published in 1954. The 36 tales here, he says, are distinguished by a similar narrative durability and stand up to the classic stories of that earlier generation. No argument. These unexperimental stories are substantial, solid and, to a paragraph, satisfying. By American writers exclusively (the earlier collection was one-third English and Irish), the offerings are arranged alphabetically by author, from James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" to "The Liar" by Tobias Wolff. Between is an assortment of modern classics: Doctorow's powerful and lyric story of betrayal, "Willi," Flannery O'Connor's chilling "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Roth's "The Conversion of the Jews" and Arthur Miller's near-perfect "The Misfits." Other pleasures lie in the wisdom and dignity that mark "Talk of Heroes" by Carol Bly, in the characteristic energy of Elkins's "A Poetics for Bullies," in the spare surprise of David Quammen's "Walking Out" and in the views of modern mall life from Bobbie Ann Mason, Joyce Carol Oates and Jayne Anne Phillips. There are also tales from Helprin, Brautigan, Bourjaily, Carver, Salter, Paley and others. Missing are authors, such as Cheever and Welty, whose works were included in the 1954 Masterpieces, as well as those writing outside the narrative tradition. While this is not a comprehensive collection, its selections are indeed masterpiecestestament to the hearty good health of the traditional modern short story and proof of the genre's continuing rewards.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA There's something for everyone in this collection of 36 of the best of American short stories written from the 1950s through 1986. Students of the short story, as well as more casual readers, will find a rich mixture of realistic tales in this well-balanced anthology. This book deserves a place next to Short Story Masterpieces (Dell, 1954; o.p.), edited by Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The editors preface this collection with Aristotle's observation: "The excellent becomes the permanent." Then, choosing stories published between 1953 and 1966, presumptuously proclaiming it as "the most climatic, and traumatic, period in American literary history," they select 36 stories, not all of which are excellent and few that might be considered "masterpieces." Interlarded with fine tales by Baldwin, Le Guin, Malamud, Arthur Miller, and Flannery O'Connor are stories by such contemporary favorites as E. L. Doctorow and Bobbie Ann Mason that are above averagebut can they truly be considered enduring masterpieces? Unfortunately, the editing is minimal, omitting even mini-biographies of the authors. Overall, an uneven work. Glenn O. Carey, English Dept., Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Best Bang for the Buck
Perhaps I am biased by nostalgia since this was the text used way back in my high school creative writing class, but this sublime anthology is pound for pound the best collection of short fiction around. There are other excellent collections -- Scribner's Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction comes to mind -- but ASS masterpieces (as we called it back then) has a splendid mix of short story classics in addition to an absurd number of gems. On the all-time classic side, there is "Sonny's Blues," "Rock Springs," "Where are you Going, Where Have you Been?", "A Good Man is Hard to Find," "The Conversion of the Jews," and "The Liar" just to name a few. It's already a terrific list; how many other collections have all these under one roof? But then there are a whole host of lesser-known stories that push this sucker over the top. "1/3, 1/3, 1/3," "A Poetics for Bullies," "The Ledge," "The Heavenly Animal" ... all first-rate stories. And it's only $8.00! Forget Best American Short Stories of the Century. Forget the Norton Anthology. If you can only have one fiction anthology on your shelf, this should be the one.

Contains some of the best short stories I have ever read.
I read "Midair" standing up in the bookstore. This book contains some true classics in short story writing.

Great book
This book will boggle your mind. The words used to describe the situations in the short stories. There are more that many excellent stories in this book. I find it more enjoyable that a single novel. Advanced school programs use this as a learning experience. It is a 4 star book.