Major American Short Stories

It's a great collection of American Literature, I just found it somewhat depressing because 75% of the stories had tragic endings. Perhaps this is the fault of the authors of the short stories, more than the editor of this book, it's just something I noticed. Other than that, the extra information about the authors and the notes on the stories are very informative.

I've been looking for quite a while for an anthology of the American short story for my high-school students. I tried "American Short Story Masterpieces" edited by R. Carver and T. Jenks, "The Norton Book of American Short Stories" edited by P.S.Prescott, and even "The Art of the Short Story" edited by D. Gioia and R.S.Gwynn which goes beyond American literature. In my opinion, "Major American Short Stories" edited by Professor A.W. Litz is the best anthology a teacher can get. Each chapter ("The Search for Form", "Regionalism and Realism", "A National Art Form" and "The Short Story Today") opens with an excellent critical setting by Prof. Litz. Moreover, the short stories are accompanied by explanatory notes, wherever necessary. At the end of the book you will find a succint biography of the writers included in the anthology, followed by Criticism and further Biography. The choice of stories is hereagain excellent, and it also keeps the young reader in mind. Now I can finally start teaching!

This is a truly outstanding collection with clearly written, informative critical introductions to each of its major sections. Litz has to my mind excellent taste and chooses some of the greatest American stories, Melville's 'Bartleby' ,James 'The Real Thing', Sherwood Anderson's 'I want to know why', Malamud's 'The Magic Barrel'. There are a number of cases where I feel he could have made a better choice. Bellow's 'The Old System' is to my mind one of the great American stories 'Mr. Green' the story chosen here is a lesser effort. Litz makes the point that the short story given the vast American world and its great disconnections was particularly appropriate to provide intense fragmented powerful literary work.