The Best American Short Stories 1950 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 Author Story SourceCharles Angoff"Where Did Yesterday Go?"The University of Kansas City ReviewJames Aswell"Shadow of Evil"Today's WomanSanora Babb"The Wild Flower"The Kansas MagazineWarren Beck"Edge of Doom"The Virginia Quarterly ReviewSaul Bellow"A Sermon By Doctor Pep"Partisan ReviewPeggy Bennett"Death Under Hawthornes"Harper's BazaarPaul Bowles"Pastor Dowe At Tacate"MademoiselleRobert Christopher"Jishin"The Yale ReviewGeorge P. Elliot"The NRACP"The Hudson ReviewLeslie A. Fiedler"The Fear of Innocence"Partisan ReviewRalph Gustafon"The Pigeon"The Northern ReviewMarianne Hauser"The Mouse"The Tiger's EyeJosephine W. Johnson"The Author"The Virginia Quarterly ReviewRalph Kaplan"The Artist"Harper's MagazineSylvan Karchmer"Hail, Brother And Farewell"EpochSpeed Lamkin"Comes A Day"MademoiselleVictoria Lincoln"The Glass Wall"Good HousekeepingHoward Maier"The World Outside"Harper's MagazineEsther McCoy"The Cape"Harper's BazaarEdward Newhouse"My Brother's Second Funeral"The New YorkerHoke Norris"Take Her Up Tenderly"Prairie SchoonerGlidden Parker"Bright And Morning"The Kenyon ReviewClay Putman"The Old Acrobat and the Ruined City"TomorrowAbraham Rothberg"Not With Our Fathers"The University of Kansas City ReviewRamona Stewart"The Promise"The American MercuryJames Still"A Master Time"The Atlantic MonthlyJoan Strong"The Hired Man"American LettersPeter Taylor"A Wife of Nashville"The New Yorker
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