The Best American Short Stories 1942

The Best American Short Stories 1942 is a volume in The Best American Short Stories series edited by Martha Foley. The volume was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.[1]

The Best American Short Stories 1942
EditorMartha Foley
LanguageEnglish
SeriesThe Best American Short Stories
PublisherHoughton Mifflin Harcourt
Media typePrint
ISBN978-9997371195
Preceded byThe Best American Short Stories 1941 
Followed byThe Best American Short Stories 1943 

Background

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The series is considered one of the "best-known annual anthologies of short fiction"[2] and has anthologized more than 2,000 short stories, including works by some of the most famous writers in contemporary American literature.[3][4][5]

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.[6] 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.[7]

Short stories included

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Author Story Source
Nelson Algren "Biceps" The Southern Review
Ludwig Bemelmans "The Valet of the Splendide" The New Yorker
Sally Benson "5135 Kensington: August, 1903" The New Yorker
Kay Boyle "Nothing Ever Breaks Except the Heart" The New Yorker
Jack Y. Bryan "For Each of Us" American Prefaces
Walter Van Tilburg Clark "The Portable Phonograph" Yale Review
David Cornel DeJong "That Frozen Hour" Harper's Bazaar
Boyce Eakin "Prairies" The New Mexico Quarterly Review
Morton Fineman "Tell Him I Waited" Story
Robert Gibbons "A Loaf of Bread" The New Republic
Nancy Hale "Those Are As Brothers" Mademoiselle
MacKinlay Kantor "That Greek Dog" Saturday Evening Post
Eric Knight "Sam Small's Better Half" Story
Mary Medearis "Death of a Country Doctor" Story
Edita Morris "Caput Mortuum" Harper's Bazaar
Mary O' Hara "My Friend Flicka" Story
Margaret Rhodes Peattie "The Green Village" Saturday Evening Post
William Saroyan "The Hummingbird That Lived Through Winter" Harper's Bazaar
Michael Seide "Sacrifice of Isaac" American Prefaces
Budd Wilson Schulberg "The Real Viennese Schmalz" Esquire
Irwin Shaw "Search Through the Streets of the City" The New Yorker
Wallace Stegner "In the Twilight" Mademoiselle
John Steinbeck "How Edith McGillcuddy Met R. L. Stevenson" Harper's Magazine
Jesse Stuart "The Storm" The Household Magazine
Peter Taylor "The Fancy Woman" The Southern Review
Dorothy Thomas "My Pigeon Pair" Harper's Magazine
James Thurber "You Could Look It Up" Saturday Evening Post
Joan Vatsek "The Bees" Story
Mary Lavin "At Sallygap" Atlantic Monthly
Marjorie Worthington "Hunger" Harper's Bazaar

References

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  1. ^ Foley, Martha, ed. (January 1, 1942). The Best American Short Stories 1942. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
  2. ^ "Short and Sweet" by Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly, 11/05/99, issue 511, page 73.
  3. ^ "The Best American Short Stories of the Century," Publishers Weekly, 3/8/1999, volume 246, issue 10, page 47.
  4. ^ Hempel, Amy (1986-02-09). "The Best American Short Stories 1985 : edited by Gail Godwin with Shannon Ravenel (Houghton Mifflin; $14.95, hardcover; $8.95, paperback; 300 pp.)". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-04-08.
  5. ^ "Best Stories of the Century? Not Quite, but Close Enough". Observer. 1999-05-10. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
  6. ^ "'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.
  7. ^ "Review: '100 Years of Best American Short Stories' is vital yet flawed for loading the canon". Los Angeles Times. 2015-10-09. Retrieved 2025-04-10.