The Best American Short Stories 1945 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 SourceNelson Algren"How the Devil Came Down Division Street"Harper's BazaarWarren Beck"The First Fish"StoryLouis Bromfield"Crime Passionnel"The New YorkerCarlos Bulosan"My Brother Osong's Career in Politics"The New YorkerMary Deasy"Harvest"The American MercuryEdward Fenton"Burial in the Dessert"Harper's BazaarMorton Fineman"The Light of the Morning"MademoiselleBill Gerry"Understand What I Mean?"Yale ReviewBrendan Gill"The Test"Good HousekeepingRichard Hagopian"Be Heavy"Atlantic MonthlyEmily Hahn"It Never Happened"The New YorkerW. G. Hardy"The Czech Dog"TomorrowJosephine Johnson"Fever Flower"Harper's BazaarRobert McLaughlin"Poor Everybody"The New YorkerJohn McNulty"Don't Scrub Off These Names"The New YorkerWarren Miller"The Animal's Fair"Harper's BazaarGeorge Panetta"Papa, Mama and Economics"MademoiselleJoseph Stanley Pennell"On the Way to Somewhere Else"Harper's BazaarRuth Portugal"Call a Solemn Assembly"Harper's BazaarTheodore Pratt"The Owl That Kept Winking"EsquireIsaac Rosenfeld"The Hand That Fed Me"Partisan ReviewDonna Rowell"A War Marriage"StoryGladys Schmitt"The Mourners"Harper's BazaarIrwin Shaw"Gunner's Passage"The New YorkerJean Stafford"The Wedding: Beacon Hill"Harper's BazaarRuby Pickens Tartt"Alabama Sketches"Southwest ReviewPeter Taylor"Rain in the Heart"The Sewanee ReviewRobert Penn Warren"Cass Mastern's Wedding Ring"Partisan ReviewJessamyn West"First Day Finish"Atlantic MonthlyLeane Zugsmith"This is a Love Story"The New YorkerWilliam Zukerman"A Ship to Tarshish"Prairie Schooner
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