Witness the ever-changing history and identity of America in this
collection of 40 stories collected from the first 100 years of this
bestselling series.
For the centennial celebration of this beloved annual series, master of
the form Lorrie Moore selects forty stories from the more than two
thousand that were published in previous editions. Series editor Heidi
Pitlor recounts behind-the-scenes anecdotes and examines, decade by
decade, the trends captured over a hundred years. Together, the stories
and commentary offer an extraordinary guided tour through a century of
literature with what Moore calls "all its wildnesses of character and
voice."
These forty stories represent their eras but also stand the test of
time. Here is Ernest Hemingway's first published story and a classic by
William Faulkner, who admitted in his biographical note that he began to
write "as an aid to love-making." Nancy Hale's story describes
far-reaching echoes of the Holocaust; Tillie Olsen's story expresses the
desperation of a single mother; James Baldwin depicts the bonds of
brotherhood and music. Here is Raymond Carver's "minimalism," a term he
disliked, and Grace Paley's "secular Yiddishkeit." Here are the varied
styles of Donald Barthelme, Charles Baxter, and Jamaica Kincaid. From
Junot Díaz to Mary Gaitskill, from ZZ Packer to Sherman Alexie, these
writers and stories explore the different things it means to be
American.
