Major American Short Stories

This third edition of a highly successful anthology traces the development of the American short story from such early practitioners as Washington Irving (Rip Van Winkle ), Edgar Allan Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher ), and Melville (Bartleby the Scrivener) up to the present day, and has a better representation of women writers and writers of colour than the previous editions. Among the strands of development which the editor
identifies are `Regionalism and Realism' (Mark Twain: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County), and the establishment of the short story as `A National Art Form' (Edith Wharton: Roman Fever, Scott Fitzgerald Babylon Revisted, Hemingway Big Two-Hearted River, William Faulkner That Evening Sun).

Among the contemporary writers represented are: Philip Roth, John Updike, Robert Coover, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker and Raymond Carver.