The Best American Short Stories

The Best American Short Stories (BASS) is a yearly anthology that is part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, Best American Short Stories has anthologized more than 2,000 short stories,"The Best American Short Stories of the Century," Publishers Weekly, 3/8/1999, volume 246, issue 10, page 47. including works by some of the most famous writers in contemporary American literature. Along with the O. Henry Awards, Best American Short Stories is one of the two "best-known annual anthologies of short fiction.""Short and Sweet" by Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly, 11/05/99, issue 511, page 73.

1915-1941: Origin and early history under Edward O'Brien

The series began in 1915, when Edward O'Brien edited his selection of the previous year's stories. This first edition was serialized in a magazine; however, it caught the attention of the publishing company Small, Maynard & Company, which published subsequent editions until 1926, when the title was transferred to Dodd, Mead and Company.

The time appeared to be a propitious one for such a collection. The most popular magazines of the day featured short fiction prominently and frequently; the best authors were well-known and well-paid. More importantly, there was a nascent movement toward higher standards and greater experimentation among certain American writers. O'Brien capitalized on this moment. He was deeply and vocally skeptical of the value of commercial short fiction, which tended to the formulaic and sentimental; he insisted, in introduction after introduction, on the need for a consciously literary development of the short story. He used his selections to reinforce this call. Over the years of his editorship, he drew attention to two generations of American authors, from Sherwood Anderson and Edna Ferber to Richard Wright and Irwin Shaw. Perhaps the most significant instance of O'Brien's instincts involves Ernest Hemingway; O'Brien anthologized that author's "My Old Man" when it had not even been published yet, and was, moreover, instrumental in finding an American publisher for In Our Time. (He also dedicated the 1923 edition to the young author, while misspelling his name “Hemenway.”) O'Brien was known to work indefatigably: he claimed to read around 8,000 stories a year, and his editions contained lengthy tabulations of stories and magazines, ranked on a scale of three stars (representing O'Brien's notion of their "literary permanence").

Though the series attained a degree of fame and popularity, it was never universally accepted. Fans of the period's popular fiction often found his selections precious or willfully obscure. On the other hand, many critics who accepted "literary" fiction objected to O'Brien's occasionally strident and pedantic tone. After his death, for instance, The New Yorker compared him to the recently deceased editor of the Social Register, suggesting that they shared a form of snobbery.

1941-1978: Editorship of Martha Foley

O'Brien died of a heart attack in London in 1941. He was replaced as editor of the series by Martha Foley, founder and former editor of Story magazine. O'Brien, who had once called Story one of the most important events in literary history since the publication of Lyrical Ballads, presumably would have approved the choice. Foley edited the publication, at first alone and then with the assistance of her son, David Burnett, until 1977. These years witnessed both the ascendancy and eclipse of the type of short story favored by O'Brien: writers as diverse as John Cheever, Bernard Malamud, Joyce Carol Oates, and Tillie Olsen offered sharply observed, generally realistic stories that eschewed trite conventions. At the same time, Foley evinced some degree of awareness of the new currents in fiction. Donald Barthelme, for instance, was chosen for The School in 1976. Foley also attended to the rise of so-called minority literature, dedicating the 1975 volume to Leslie Marmon Silko, although it has been argued that the series was less perceptive in this area than it might have been.

Since 1978

After Foley's death, the publisher—by that time, Houghton Mifflin—elected to take the series in a new direction. Under the guidance of a series editor (Shannon Ravenel 1978–1990, Katrina Kenison 1991–2006, Heidi Pitlor 2007– ), a different writer of reputation would select the contents and introduce the volume each year. The editor would choose the best twenty stories from 120 stories recommended by the series editor. This format has been followed since, although the guest editor has occasionally gone beyond what the series editor recommended (e.g., John Gardner in 1982).

In 2002, Houghton-Mifflin made the series part of its broader Best American series.

The Best American Short Stories of the Century; 100 Years of The Best American Short Stories In 2000, John Updike selected 22 unabridged stories from the first 84 annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories, and the result is The Best American Short Stories of the Century. The expanded CD audio edition includes a new story from The Best American Short Stories 1999 to round out the century. In 2015, Lorrie Moore served as the guest editor for a centennial anthology from the series, 100 Years of The Best American Short Stories.

Critical reception

The Best American Short Stories series "became a repository of values" with relation to university creative writing programs and literary magazines, and has "exerted influence" in college libraries, short fiction courses, and fiction workshops."'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.

Many of the individual volumes of the series have been highly praised"The Best American Short Stories, 2021" by Emily Park, Booklist, 9/15/2021, Vol. 118, Issue 2, page 17."The Best American Short Stories, 2020" by Emily Park, Booklist, 10/15/2020, Vol. 117, Issue 4, page 23."THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2018," Kirkus Reviews, Oct. 2, 2018. while The Best American Short Stories of the Century, which reprinted stories from volumes published during the 20th century, was called a "spectacular tapestry of fictional achievement.""Rabbit's Test" by Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly, 04/16/99, issue 481, page 12.

It has also been noted that the individual volumes provide a running judgement of tastes regarding short stories across the decades. As critic Richard Eder wrote in The New York Times in 1999, "Instead of a strictly contemporary judgment we have a running one: These were the stories that judges in the 1930's, 40's and 50's chose. We get a sense of how we and our writers have changed. And we avoid the deadly ahistorical numbness of ourselves talking to ourselves."CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Of Millions Born in Print, 55 Stories of the Century" by Richard Eder, The New York Times, April 6, 1999.

Guest editors

1978–1989 1978: Ted Solotaroff 1979: Joyce Carol Oates 1980: Stanley Elkin 1981: Hortense Calisher 1982: John Gardner 1983: Anne Tyler 1984: John Updike 1985: Gail Godwin 1986: Raymond Carver 1987: Ann Beattie 1988: Mark Helprin 1989: Margaret Atwood

1990–1999 1990: Richard Ford 1991: Alice Adams 1992: Robert Stone 1993: Louise Erdrich 1994: Tobias Wolff 1995: Jane Smiley 1996: John Edgar Wideman 1997: Annie Proulx 1998: Garrison Keillor 1999: Amy Tan

2000–2009 2000: E. L. Doctorow 2001: Barbara Kingsolver 2002: Sue Miller 2003: Walter Mosley 2004: Lorrie Moore 2005: Michael Chabon 2006: Ann Patchett 2007: Stephen King 2008: Salman Rushdie 2009: Alice Sebold

2010–2019 2010: Richard Russo 2011: Geraldine Brooks 2012: Tom Perrotta 2013: Elizabeth Strout 2014: Jennifer Egan 2015: T. C. Boyle 2016: Junot Díaz 2017: Meg Wolitzer 2018: Roxane Gay 2019: Anthony Doerr

2020–present 2020: Curtis Sittenfeld 2021: Jesmyn Ward 2022: Andrew Sean Greer 2023: Min Jin Lee 2024: Lauren Groff 2025: Celeste Ng 2026: Viet Thanh Nguyen

Anthologies

1940s

The Best American Short Stories 1942 The Best American Short Stories 1943 The Best American Short Stories 1944 The Best American Short Stories 1945 The Best American Short Stories 1946 The Best American Short Stories 1947 The Best American Short Stories 1948 The Best American Short Stories 1949

1950s

The Best American Short Stories 1950 The Best American Short Stories 1951 The Best American Short Stories 1952 The Best American Short Stories 1953 The Best American Short Stories 1954 The Best American Short Stories 1955 The Best American Short Stories 1956 The Best American Short Stories 1957 The Best American Short Stories 1958 The Best American Short Stories 1959

1960s

The Best American Short Stories 1960 The Best American Short Stories 1961 The Best American Short Stories 1962 The Best American Short Stories 1963 The Best American Short Stories 1964 The Best American Short Stories 1965 The Best American Short Stories 1966 The Best American Short Stories 1967 The Best American Short Stories 1968 The Best American Short Stories 1969

1970s

The Best American Short Stories 1970 The Best American Short Stories 1971 The Best American Short Stories 1972 The Best American Short Stories 1973 The Best American Short Stories 1974 The Best American Short Stories 1975 The Best American Short Stories 1976 The Best American Short Stories 1977 The Best American Short Stories 1978 The Best American Short Stories 1979

1980s

The Best American Short Stories 1980 The Best American Short Stories 1981 The Best American Short Stories 1982 The Best American Short Stories 1983 The Best American Short Stories 1984 The Best American Short Stories 1985 The Best American Short Stories 1986 The Best American Short Stories 1987 The Best American Short Stories 1988 The Best American Short Stories 1989

1990s

The Best American Short Stories 1990 The Best American Short Stories 1991 The Best American Short Stories 1992 The Best American Short Stories 1993 The Best American Short Stories 1994 The Best American Short Stories 1995 The Best American Short Stories 1996 The Best American Short Stories 1997 The Best American Short Stories 1998 The Best American Short Stories 1999

2000s

The Best American Short Stories 2000 The Best American Short Stories 2001 The Best American Short Stories 2002 The Best American Short Stories 2003 The Best American Short Stories 2004 The Best American Short Stories 2005 The Best American Short Stories 2006 The Best American Short Stories 2007 The Best American Short Stories 2008 The Best American Short Stories 2009

2010s

The Best American Short Stories 2010 The Best American Short Stories 2011 The Best American Short Stories 2012 The Best American Short Stories 2013 The Best American Short Stories 2014 The Best American Short Stories 2015 The Best American Short Stories 2016 The Best American Short Stories 2017 The Best American Short Stories 2018 The Best American Short Stories 2019

2020s

The Best American Short Stories 2020 The Best American Short Stories 2021 The Best American Short Stories 2022 The Best American Short Stories 2023 The Best American Short Stories 2024

See also O. Henry Award

References

External links Official

Sources The Best American Short Stories (1915–1921) at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions color illustrated) (plain text and HTML)

Other Years of BASS, a year spent reading back issues of BASS 1978–2009. Includes spreadsheet of all stories and authors. Additional information including original publications where the stories first appeared.