The Short Story

[Tommy]

I've steered into the 20th Century American Short Story genre by way of vintage pulp detective fiction. So much of pulp was magazine oriented, and many authors stories are now assembled and available. I think one reason I value the short story is the ability to micro-view the past. I find this especially so - so far -with authors like O'Henry, O'Hara, and Chester Himes. With the stories read so far, it certainly provides concise snapshots into the views, manners, concerns and hopes of America in times past.

I've read long fiction all my life, reading short stories has the added benefit of fitting more easily into my schedule. And you can read multiple stories/authors with the satisfaction from finishing a story quickly (as opposed to a novel).

In the middle of reading several short story collections right now, including O'Hara, O'Henry, Chandler, Hammet, Himes, and Hemingway, My goal is to read 10 to 20 collections over the next year or two or three that catch me up to what I've neglected in the short story, with an emphasis on 20th Century American Authors, but open to any ideas/authors any of you might suggest based on having read them. The Library of America seems to have a number of Collected Stories by authors of interest.

My interest in reading is both for enlightment and entertainment.

I'm liking O'Hara because of his topics, but also because his references cities and towns and areas in his fiction familiar with my experiences. His writing style is also easy on the brain.

 

[Harp]

The Library of America seems to have a number of Collected Stories by authors of interest.
I'm liking O'Hara because of his topics, but also because his references cities and towns and areas in his fiction familiar with my experiences. His writing style is also easy on the brain.

The Library of America Hunter S Thompson collection would interest you. A highly original author/journalist, Gonzo's Hell's Angels; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas;
Rum Diary and other works carved his rough hewn niche in American Letters. Gonzo's gasoline thrown on more sedate writing. Classic.

 

[Benzadmiral]

You may want to try Dorothy Parker. She wrote as crisply and well as Hemingway and Ring Lardner, with a sense of (often cynical) humor and wit. Look for The Portable Dorothy Parker -- a new edition just came out last year, with some material that earlier editions didn't have. Amazing that she was not only popular in her own time (the Twenties and Thirties), but is still in print today.

ETA: Looking at the "11/22/63" thread reminded me that Stephen King has written quite a bit of short fiction. Yes, most are "horror" or fantasy of some kind (though I don't know if you dislike those genres), but not all. His collection of 4 novellas, Different Seasons, has nary a creepy-crawly in the bunch, except the last story -- but the other 3 are really grand stuff. They formed the basis for the films Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and Apt Pupil.

 

[MikeKardec]

Looking at the "11/22/63" thread reminded me that Stephen King has written quite a bit of short fiction. Yes, most are "horror" or fantasy of some kind (though I don't know if you dislike those genres), but not all. His collection of 4 novellas, Different Seasons, has nary a creepy-crawly in the bunch, except the last story -- but the other 3 are really grand stuff. They formed the basis for the films Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and Apt Pupil.

In my opinion King is a much better short story writer than he is a novelist. That was a common issue in the days when it was easier for a beginning writer to develop his short story creation engine than it was to have the time and money to write novels ... but King is a late addition to that club, most of those guys started pre war.

Bradbury is another writer who never really got the novel thing down but was terrific at writing short stories. Quite a few of those who transitioned from short stories to Paperback Originals were really more comfortable with short stories. The majority of Chandler's novels are just his earlier short stories stitched together ... how he made that work is kind of amazing.

If you're just experimenting to see what can be done with a short story check out Fredrick Brown or F.I. Brown. He wrote a few novels, like Bradbury, but his area of expertise was the short short. Not Hemingway or Parker by a long shot but few could do what he did in so few words.

 

[LizzieMaine]

King wrote quite a few short stories for "Yankee" magazine in the days when that was a decent magazine and not a stylebook for yuppie transplants. I never knew any of his novels, but I knew him very well from these stories, which were punchy, concise, and stuck in your head for days afterward.

As for short stories in general, I recommend picking up as many random back issues of the Saturday Evening Post as you can find from the teens thru the early forties -- this was The Mainstream American Short Story in its natural habitat. You'll find a lot of famous names, and a lot of names that were far more famous than than those names in the Era itself, especially "local color" authors like Clarence Budington Kelland, Octavus Roy Cohen, William Hazlett Upson, and on and on. (You didn't have to have three names to write for the Post, but it helped.) Some -- maybe most -- of these stories are formula crap, but there are plenty of gems to be found among the dross if you look for them.

 

[MikeKardec]

Yeah. The Post and Colliers both. Top notch stuff. Colliers started to trend a bit too literary for me as the 1950s came on but they were the primo market and with everyone from the dying pulp mags crying for space they had a slush pile thirty feet deep to choose from. Sometimes they would "buy" a story and then sit on it (without paying the writer!) for a year or two until they found the perfect edition to publish it in. Extreme competition tends to lead to extreme quality ... or at least better choices.

 

[Bigger Don]

I've steered into the 20th Century American Short Story genre by way of vintage pulp detective fiction. So much of pulp was magazine oriented, and many authors stories are now assembled and available. I think one reason I value the short story is the ability to micro-view the past. I find this especially so - so far -with authors like O'Henry, O'Hara, and Chester Himes. With the stories read so far, it certainly provides concise snapshots into the views, manners, concerns and hopes of America in times past.

I've read long fiction all my life, reading short stories has the added benefit of fitting more easily into my schedule. And you can read multiple stories/authors with the satisfaction from finishing a story quickly (as opposed to a novel).

In the middle of reading several short story collections right now, including O'Hara, O'Henry, Chandler, Hammet, Himes, and Hemingway, My goal is to read 10 to 20 collections over the next year or two or three that catch me up to what I've neglected in the short story, with an emphasis on 20th Century American Authors, but open to any ideas/authors any of you might suggest based on having read them. The Library of America seems to have a number of Collected Stories by authors of interest.

My interest in reading is both for enlightment and entertainment.

I'm liking O'Hara because of his topics, but also because his references cities and towns and areas in his fiction familiar with my experiences. His writing style is also easy on the brain.

In nine words, Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

 

[daisy2er]

Reading mystery novels can sharpens your mind. I am reading the Malicious, an earlier representative of Higashino Keigo Mysteries.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

I would recommend the Stories of John Cheever. It's filled with fifties and sixties tales of suburban New England ennui and disillusionment, which would later partially inspire Mad Men.

 

[Angus Forbes]

Especially Cheever's "The Swimmer," which was made into a movie starring Burt Lancaster.

 

[Angus Forbes]

Also, try some of the Jeeves and Bertie stories by P G Wodehouse. I'm not easily amused by fiction, but darn if some of these stories aren't funny.

 

[Tommy]

I continue working my way through several collections, focused on Hemingway, O'Henry and O'Hara. O'Henry comes away the most enjoyable thus far, I think because I connect with him as he most authentically expresses the vernacular mind and Americaness of his times. He is truly a common man's friend and link to our heritage.

a couple of O'Henryisms
- he's a real fly guy that's wise to the all night push
- as lonesome as a A-sharp way down at the left end of the piano
- tis a weary thing to count your pleasures by summers instead of by hours
- going to get my whiskers harvested
- the wine of the first grapes she had gathered from Cupid's vintage

 

[daisy2er]

We should read books of real worth. And the book is more easily read than described.

 

[GHT]

Reading mystery novels can sharpens your mind. I am reading the Malicious, an earlier representative of Higashino Keigo Mysteries.

You may have heard, or seen the TV series: "Morse," but if you haven't read Colin Dexter 's books that the programs are based on, you are missing a treat.

 

[Angus Forbes]

. . .

I'm liking O'Hara because of his topics, but also because his references cities and towns and areas in his fiction familiar with my experiences. His writing style is also easy on the brain.

I'm about half-way through the Library of America's collection of O'Hara stories. Excellent work! Highly recommended! Not only that, but the LoA books in general are nice articles in themselves -- binding, paper, size, font. I have collected (and read) 20 or 30 of their offerings . . .

 

[Tommy]

I have finished the Hemingway "Finca Vigia" edition of short stories. Ticked off about 19 of the 70 that I really liked and could see re-reading at some point. A lot of the ones I like are based on his exposure to war. Also a couple of his Nick Adams stories too.

 

[Tommy]

Also finished a couple of collected stories editions of Cornell Woolrich. Quite prolific and inventive. Many of his stories turned into radio dramas and motion pictures. Known for the surprise ending and the hard to believe coincidences in his storylines. Regardless, his stories droop you smack dab into the golden era where your side by side with average people experiencing extraordinary events.

 

[Tommy]

I would recommend the Stories of John Cheever. It's filled with fifties and sixties tales of suburban New England ennui and disillusionment, which would later partially inspire Mad Men.

Read the stories of John Cheever about 5 years ago. At the time I liked them. Can't say they've stuck in my mind though.

 

[Tommy]

A bit of time has passed since my last post on this thread, but I've been busy. I treated myself to Shakespeare's complete set of plays, all of which I consider short stories - though they are epic. Highly recommend the Complete Shakespeare Garden City Publishing edition from the mid 1930's with Rockwell Kent's Drawings.

 

[Benzadmiral]

King wrote quite a few short stories for "Yankee" magazine in the days when that was a decent magazine and not a stylebook for yuppie transplants. I never knew any of his novels, but I knew him very well from these stories, which were punchy, concise, and stuck in your head for days afterward.

There is a little story, a coda to Salem's Lot, which appears in his first short story collection Night Shift and which first popped up in Yankee, I think. Dynamite stuff.