The Best American Short Stories 1974 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 AuthorStorySource1974Agnes Boyer"The Deserter"PRISM international1974Jerry Bumpus"Beginnings"TriQuarterly1974Eleanor Clark"A Summer in Puerto Rico"The Southern Review1974Pat M. Esslinger-Carr"The Party"The Southern Review1974Lewis B. Horne"Mansion, Magic, and Miracle"The Colorado Quarterly1974Rose Graubart Ignatow"Down the American River"Shenandoah1974Maxine Kumin"Opening the Door on Sixty-Second Street"The Southern Review1974Mary Lavin"Tom"The New Yorker1974John L'Heureux"A Family Affair"Atlantic Monthly1974Phillip Lopate"The Chamber Music Evening"Paris Review1974Stephen Minot"The Tide and Isaac Bates"Quarterly Review of Literature1974Beverly Mitchell"Letter from Sakaye"The Fiddlehead1974Michael Rothschild"Dog in the Manger"Antaeus1974Peter L. Sandberg"Calloway's Climb"Playboy1974William Saroyan"Isn't Today the Day?"Harper's Magazine1974Phillip H. Schneider"The Gray"Kansas Quarterly1974Barry Targan"Old Vemish"Salmagundi1974John Updike"Son"The New Yorker1974Arturo Vivante"Honeymoon"The New Yorker1974Alice Walker"The Revenge of Hannah Kemhuff"Ms.
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