55 Short Stories from the New Yorker
Encyclopedia
55 Short Stories from the New Yorker is a literary anthology
of short fiction first published in The New Yorker
magazine from the years 1940 through 1949.
The cover subtitles also include "1940 to 1950," but the copyright
date of 1949 suggests that material from 1950, and possibly the latter part of 1949, was not included; individual years listed after "copyright" also recite each of the years in the 1940s, but not 1950.
, the editors state that "[s]ome notable stories are missing" for purposes of balance, and also that "parody
, nonsense
, and casual essays" have been excluded as "outside the scope of this book." There is a conventional table of contents and an index lists each story alphabetically by its author's last name. There is no other content, except the stories themselves.
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
of short fiction first published in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine from the years 1940 through 1949.
Story content
Although the magazine debuted in February 1925 (so that its 25'th anniversary was in 1950), this 1949 book's subtitle reads, "A twenty-fifth anniversary volume of stories that have appeared in the magazine during the last decade." As with the annual anniversary issue of the eponymous magazine, the cover depicts Eustace Tilley with his monocle, in the classic iconograph.The cover subtitles also include "1940 to 1950," but the copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
date of 1949 suggests that material from 1950, and possibly the latter part of 1949, was not included; individual years listed after "copyright" also recite each of the years in the 1940s, but not 1950.
Authors
One story from each of 55 different authors is included. The authors (and some selected story titles) are- Roger AngellRoger AngellRoger Angell is an American essayist. He has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker and was its chief fiction editor for many years...
- S. N. BehrmanS. N. BehrmanSamuel Nathaniel Behrman was an American playwright and screenwriter, who also worked for the New York Times.-Early Years:...
- Ludwig BemelmansLudwig BemelmansLudwig Bemelmans was an Austrian author, an internationally known gourmet, and a writer and illustrator of children's books. He is most noted today for his Madeline books, six of which were published from 1939-1961...
- Sally BensonSally BensonSally Benson was an American screenwriter, who was also a prolific short story author, best known for her semi-autobiographical stories collected in Junior Miss and Meet Me in St...
- Isabel Bolton
- Kay BoyleKay BoyleKay Boyle was an American writer, educator, and political activist.- Early years :The granddaughter of a publisher, Kay Boyle was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in several cities but principally in Cincinnati, Ohio...
- Bessie BreuerBessie BreuerBessie Breuer was an American journalist, novelist, writer, and playwright.-Biography:Breuer was born with the name Bessie Freedman in Cleveland, Ohio to Samuel and Julia Freedman. She studied journalism at Missouri State University and then worked as a reporter for the St. Louis Times in her late...
- Hortense CalisherHortense CalisherHortense Calisher was an American writer of fiction.-Personal life:Born in New York City, New York, and a graduate of Hunter College High School and Barnard College , Calisher was the daughter of a young German Jewish immigrant mother and a somewhat older Jewish father from Virginia whose family...
- John CheeverJohn CheeverJohn William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy,...
- Robert M. Coates
- John CollierJohn Collier (writer)John Henry Noyes Collier was a British-born author and screenplay writer best known for his short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker from the 1930s to the 1950s. They were collected in a 1951 volume, Fancies and Goodnights, which won the International Fantasy Award and remains in...
- Rhys DaviesRhys DaviesRhys Davies was a Welsh novelist and short story writer, who wrote in the English language....
- Robert Gorham Davis
- Daniel FuchsDaniel FuchsDaniel Fuchs was an American screenwriter, fiction writer, and essayist.-Biography:Daniel Fuchs was born in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, but his family migrated to Williamsburg, Brooklyn while Fuchs was an infant...
- Wolcott GibbsWolcott GibbsWolcott Gibbs was an American editor, humorist, theatre critic, playwright and author of short stories, who worked for The New Yorker magazine from 1927 until his death. He is best remembered for his 1936 parody of Time magazine, which skewered the magazine's inverted narrative structure...
- Brendan GillBrendan GillBrendan Gill wrote for The New Yorker for more than 60 years. He also contributed film criticism for Film Comment and wrote a popular book about his time at the New Yorker magazine.-Biography:...
- Emily HahnEmily HahnEmily Hahn was an American journalist and author. Called "a forgotten American literary treasure" by The New Yorker magazine, she was the author of 52 books and more than 180 articles and stories...
- Nancy Hale
- Shirley JacksonShirley JacksonShirley Jackson was an American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years...
(The LotteryThe Lottery"The Lottery" is a short story by Shirley Jackson, first published in the June 26, 1948, issue of The New Yorker. Written the same month it was published, it is ranked today as "one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature"....
) - Christopher LaFarge
- Oliver La FargeOliver La FargeOliver Hazard Perry La Farge was an American writer and anthropologist, best known for his 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Laughing Boy....
- A. J. LieblingA. J. LieblingAbbott Joseph Liebling was an American journalist who was closely associated with The New Yorker from 1935 until his death.-Biography:...
- Victoria Lincoln
- Russell Maloney
- James A. Maxwell
- William MaxwellWilliam MaxwellWilliam Maxwell may refer to:*William Maxwell , Irish-born American soldier from New Jersey in the American Revolutionary War*General Sir William Maxwell, 7th Baronet of Calderwood...
- Mary McCarthyMary McCarthy (author)Mary Therese McCarthy was an American author, critic and political activist.- Early life :Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918...
- Carson McCullersCarson McCullersCarson McCullers was an American writer. She wrote novels, short stories, and two plays, as well as essays and some poetry. Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South...
- Robert McLaughlinRobert McLaughlinRobert McLaughlin was a Canadian industrialist and businessman. He founded the McLaughlin Carriage and McLaughlin Motor Car companies which later became part of General Motors....
- John McNultyJohn McNultyJohn McNulty was an American newspaperman and short story writer. Many of his stories deal with New York saloon life and its characters....
- Vladimir NabokovVladimir NabokovVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
(ColetteColetteColette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
) - Edward Newhouse
- Frank O'ConnorFrank O'ConnorFrank O’Connor was an Irish author of over 150 works, best known for his short stories and memoirs.-Early life:...
- John O'HaraJohn O'HaraJohn Henry O'Hara was an American writer. He initially became known for his short stories and later became a best-selling novelist whose works include Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. He was particularly known for an uncannily accurate ear for dialogue...
- Mollie Panter-DownesMollie Panter-DownesMary Patricia "Mollie" Panter-Downes was a novelist and newspaper columnist for The New Yorker. Aged sixteen, she wrote The Shoreless Sea which became a bestseller; eight editions were published in 1923 and 1924, and the book was serialised in The Daily Mirror...
- James Reid Parker
- Elizabeth Parsons
- Frances Gray PattonFrances Gray PattonFrances Gray Patton was an American short story writer and novelist. She is best known for her 1954 novel Good Morning Miss Dove....
- Astrid Peters
- John PowellJohn PowellJohn Powell is a British composer, best known for his scores to motion pictures. He has been based in the United States since 1997 and has composed the scores to over fifty feature films. He rose to fame in the late 1990s and 2000s, scoring numerous animated films, and collaborating with...
- Marjorie Kinnan RawlingsMarjorie Kinnan RawlingsMarjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an American author who lived in rural Florida and wrote novels with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie, also known as The...
- John Andrews Rice
- J. D. SalingerJ. D. SalingerJerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980....
(A Perfect Day for BananafishA Perfect Day for Bananafish"A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is a short story by J. D. Salinger, originally published in the January 31, 1948 issue of The New Yorker. It was anthologized in 1949's 55 Short Stories from the New Yorker as well as in Salinger's 1953 collection, Nine Stories...
) - Mark SchorerMark SchorerMark Schorer was an American writer, critic, and scholar born in Sauk City, Wisconsin.-Biography:Schorer earned an MA at Harvard and his Ph.D. in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1936...
- Irwin ShawIrwin ShawIrwin Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best-known for his novel, The Young Lions about the fate of three soldiers during World War II that was made into a film starring Marlon...
- Jean StaffordJean StaffordJean Stafford was an American short story writer and novelist, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford in 1970....
- Peter TaylorPeter Matthew Hillsman TaylorFor other people named Peter Taylor, see Peter Taylor.Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor was a U.S. author and writer.-Biography:...
- James ThurberJames ThurberJames Grover Thurber was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine.-Life:...
- Niccolò TucciNiccolò TucciNiccolò Tucci was a short story writer and novelist who wrote in English and Italian.Born in Lugano, Switzerland of a Russian mother and an Italian father who became a Swiss citizen, Niccolò Tucci grew up in privileged circumstances that were eliminated by the Bolshevik Revolution. His family...
- Sylvia Townsend WarnerSylvia Townsend WarnerSylvia Nora Townsend Warner was an English novelist and poet.-Life:Sylvia Townsend Warner was born at Harrow on the Hill, the only child of George Townsend Warner and his wife Eleanora Hudleston...
- Jermore Weidman
- Jessamyn WestJessamyn WestJessamyn West may refer to:* Jessamyn West , American writer* Jessamyn West , librarian and blogger...
- Christine Weston
- E. B. WhiteE. B. WhiteElwyn Brooks White , usually known as E. B. White, was an American writer. A long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine, he also wrote many famous books for both adults and children, such as the popular Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, and co-authored a widely used writing guide, The...
- Wendell Wilcox
Editorial comment
In the short ForewordForeword
A foreword is a piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book's primary author or the story the book tells...
, the editors state that "[s]ome notable stories are missing" for purposes of balance, and also that "parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
, nonsense
Nonsense
Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous...
, and casual essays" have been excluded as "outside the scope of this book." There is a conventional table of contents and an index lists each story alphabetically by its author's last name. There is no other content, except the stories themselves.