Wikipedia

The Best American Short Stories 1977

The Best American Short Stories 1977, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Martha Foley. The volume was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.[1][2]

The Best American Short Stories 1977
EditorMartha Foley
LanguageEnglish
SeriesThe Best American Short Stories
PublisherHoughton Mifflin Harcourt
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
ISBN978-0395257012
Preceded byThe Best American Short Stories 1976 
Followed byThe Best American Short Stories 1978 

Background

edit

The series is considered one of the "best-known annual anthologies of short fiction"[3] and has anthologized more than 2,000 short stories, including works by some of the most famous writers in contemporary American literature, curated by well-known guest editors since 1915.[4] Specifically, Amy Hempel considered it and the O. Henry Award's prize anthology to compile "the best short fiction published in American and Canadian magazines during the preceding year."[5]

In particular, the Willa Cather Review wrote that The Best American Short Stories series "became a repository of values" for creative writing programs and literary magazines, specifically with considerable "influence" in college libraries, short fiction courses, and fiction workshops.[6]

Critical reception

edit

Kirkus Reviews observed the humorous tilt of Martha Foley's curation: "A lively array, less grimly introspective than usual."[7]

Short stories included

edit
Author Story Source
Frederick Busch "The Trouble With Being Food" Esquire
Price Caldwell "Tarzan Meets the Department Head" The Carleton Miscellany
John Cheever "Falconer" Playboy
Ann Copeland "At Peace" The Canadian Fiction Magazine
John William Corrington "Pleadings" The Southern Review
Philip Damon "Growing Up In No Time" Hawaii Review
Leslie Epstein "The Steinway Quintet" Antaeus
Eugene K. Garber "The Lover" Shenandoah
Patricia Hampl "Look at a Teacup" The New Yorker
Baine Kerr "Rider" Denver Quarterly
Jack Matthews "A Questionnaire for Rudolph Gordon" The Malahat Review
Stephen Minot "A Passion For History" The Sewanee Review
Charles Newman "The Woman Who Thought Like a Man" Partisan Review
Joyce Carol Oates "Gay" Playboy
Tim O'Brien "Going After Cacciatio" Ploughshares
Tom Robbins "The Chink and the Clock People" American Review
William Saroyan "A Fresno Fable" The New Yorker
John Sayles "Breed" The Atlantic
Anne Tyler "Your Place is Empty" The New Yorker
William S. Wilson "Anthropology: What is Lost in Rotation" Antaeus

References

edit
  1. ^ Foley, Martha (1977). The Best American Short Stories 1977. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (published January 1, 1977). ISBN 978-0395257012.
  2. ^ Neugeboren, Jay (1979-01-21). "Martha Foley, Discoverer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-04-08.
  3. ^ "Short and Sweet" by Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly, 11/05/99, issue 511, page 73.
  4. ^ "The Best American Short Stories of the Century," Publishers Weekly, 3/8/1999, volume 246, issue 10, page 47.
  5. ^ 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.
  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. ^ "Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2025-04-09.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Best_American_Short_Stories_1977&oldid=1291619627"