Happy Families Are All Alike: A Collection of Stories is a collection of short stories by Peter Taylor published in 1959 by McDowell and Obolensky.Robison, 1988 p. 172: Selected Bibliography
Taylor never wrote a story with the title "Happy Families Are All Alike". Rather, it derives thematically from the opening sentence of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (1878).Robison, 1988 p. 32
"Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time" won the O. Henry Award and appeared in The Best American Short Stories 1959.Robison, 1988 p. 170: Chronology
Stories The original dates of publication and periodicals are indicated.Robison 1988 p. 173-174: Bibliography, Primary Works, Stories.
"1939" (The New Yorker, March 12, 1955, as "A Sentimental Journey") "The Other Times" (The New Yorker, February 23, 1957) "Promise of Rain' (The New Yorker, January 25, 1958, as "The Unforgivable") "Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time" (The Kenyon Review, Spring 1958) "Je Suis Perdu" (The New Yorker, June 7, 1958, as "A Pair of Bright Blue Eyes") "The Little Cousins" (The New Yorker, April 25, 1959, as "Cousins, Family Love, Family Life, All That") "A Friend and Protector" (The Kenyon Review, Summer 1959, as "Who Was Jesse's Friend and Protector") "Heads of Houses" (The New Yorker, September 12, 1959) "Guests" (The New Yorker, October 3, 1959)
Footnotes
Sources Robison, James Curry. 1988. Peter Taylor: A Study of the Short Fiction. Twayne Publishers, Boston. G. K. Hall & Co., Gordon Weaver, General Editor. Tolstoy, Leo. 1878. Anna Karenina. THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1399. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1399/1399-h/1399-h.htm Accessed 30 April, 2026. Taylor, Peter. 1959. Happy Families Are All Alike: A Collection of Stories. McDowell, Obolensky, New York. Taylor, Peter. 2009. The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. (paperback edition).