The Best American Short Stories 1969 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 AuthorStorySourceMaeve Brennan"The Eldest Child"The New YorkerJack Cady"Play Like I'm Sheriff"TwigsMark Costello"Murphy's Xmas"The Transatlantic ReviewJohn Bart Gerald"Walking Wounded"Harper's MagazineMary Gray Hughes"The Foreigner in the Blood"EsquireNorma Klein"The Boy in the Green Hat"Prairie SchoonerMary Lavin"Happiness"The New YorkerAlistair MacLeod"The Boat"The Massachusetts ReviewDavid Madden "The Day the Flowers Came"PlayboyBernard Malamud"Pictures of Fidelman"The AtlanticMatthew W. McGreggor"Porkchops with Whiskey and Ice Cream"The Virginia Quarterly ReviewJames Alan McPherson"Gold Coast"The AtlanticJohn R. Milton"The Inheritance of Emmy One Horse"The South Dakota ReviewJoyce Carol Oates"By The River"DecemberNancy Pelletier Pansing"The Visitation"Intro #1Sylvia Plath"Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams"The AtlanticMiriam Rugel"Paper Poppy"Kenyon ReviewMargaret Shipley"The Tea Bowl of Ninsei Nomura "The Denver QuarterlyIsaac Bashevis Singer"The Colony"CommentaryJoyce Madelon Winslow"Benjamen Burning"Intro #1
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