Bücher der Reihe Pen / O. Henry Prize Stories

So many great novels in the Western canon began as mere magazine stories. In this amazing collection, editor William Abrahams brings the best literature that periodicals had to give during 1995. These prize winning stories will not only entertain but give a glimpse into the mindset of the mid-nineties.

“Widely regarded as the nation’s most prestigious awards for short fiction”—The Atlantic Monthly   The O. Henry Prize Stories 1990 gathers 20 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. Stories include: Leo E. Litwak “The Eleventh Edition” (first prize) Peter Matthiessen “Lumumba Lives” (second prize) Lore Segal “The Reverse Bug” (third prize) Joyce Carol Oates “Heat” Carolyn Osborn “The Grands” James P. Blaylock “Unidentified Objects” Jane Brown Gillette “Sins Against Animals” Julie Schumacher “The Private Life of Robert Schumann” Joanne Greenberg “Elizabeth Baird” Alice Adams “1940: Fall” T. Coraghessan Boyle “The Ape Lady in Retirement” Marilyn Sides “The Island of the Mapmaker’s Wife” David Michael Kaplan “Stand” Meredith Steinbach “In Recent History” Claudia Smith Brinson “Einstein’s Daughter” Felicia  Ackerman “The Forecasting Game” Reginald McKnight “The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas” Bruce Fleming “The Autobiography of Gertrude Stein” Devon Jersild “In Which John Imagines His Mind as a Pond” Janice Eidus “Vito Loves Geraldine”   “One of the most welcome signs of the literary spring is the appearance of the annual O. Henry Awards collection.”—Los Angeles Times

The O. Henry Prize Stories 1991 collects 20 of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. “The Sandstone Farmhouse” by John Updike, which tells of a difficult relationship of a son and his mother over 50 years, takes the coveted top prize. The other stories in this collection are: Joyce Carol Oates “The Swimmers” Sharon Sheehe Stark “Overland” Martha Lacy Hall “The Apple-Green Triumph” Wayne Johnson “Hippies, Indians, Buffalo” Perri Klass “For Women Everywhere” Helen Norris “Raisin Faces” Patricia Lear “Powwow” Charles Baxter “Saul and Patsy Are Pregnant” Sylvia A. Watanabe “Talking to the Dead” T. Alan Broughton “Ashes” Diane Levenberg “The Ilui” Ursula K. Le Guin “Hand, Cup, Shell” Alice Adams “Earthquake Damage” Charlotte Zoë Walker “The Very Pineapple” Ronald Sukenick “Ecco” Dennis McFarland “Nothing to Ask For” Millicent Dillon “Oil and Water” Marly Swick “Moscow Nights” Thomas Fox Averill “During the Twelfth Summer of Elmer D. Peterson” “This collection is both meritorious and diverse. The work ranges from plainly written stories brimming with resonant significance to full-blown extravaganzas. . . . Recommended.”—Library Journal