Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Important Short Stories of the 20th Century: First Fifty Years

Individual short stories often just disappear.  Those that remain usually do so for two reasons:
(1) They get anthologized in text books and thus taught in classrooms
(2 They get discussed in articles and books

I have chosen the following list of approximately 200 stories based on those two criteria.  I will post a list of stories from the last half of the 20th century next week.  The dates reflect when the stories first appeared in book form. If you find errors or omissions, please let me know. I would appreciate it.


1900-1910
Cather, Willa          "Paul's Case" 1905
"Sculptor's Funeral" 1905
Forster, E. M.         "Other Side of the Hedge" 1904
"Road from Colonus" 1904
"Celestial Omnibus" 1911
Galsworthy, John     "Japanese Quince" 1910
Mann, Thomas        "Gladius Dei" 1902
"Infant Prodigy" 1903
"Tonio Kroger" 1903
"Death in Venice" 1912
"Railway Accident"
"Little Herr Friedman" 1903
Unamuno, Miguel de "Madness of Dr. Montarco" 1904

1910-1920
Akutagawa, Ryunosuke "Rashomon" 1915
Anderson, Sherwood Winesburg, Ohio 1919
Bunin, Ivan            "Gentleman from San Francisco" 1915
Dreiser, Theodore    "Lost Phoebe" 1916
Hesse, Hermann     "The Poet" 1913
Joyce, James         Dubliners 1914
Kafka, Franz          "Metamorphosis" 1915
"Judgment" 1916
"Country Doctor" 1919
Lawrence, D. H.      "Odor of Chrysanthemums" 1911
"Prussian Officer" 1913
"White Stockings" 1914
"Tickets, Please" 1919
Mansfield, Katherine  "Bliss" 1918
Pirandello, Luigi       "War" 1919

1920-1930
Akutagawa, Ryunosuke "In a Grove" 1922
Anderson, Sherwood "The Egg" 1921
"I Want to Know Why" 1921
"I'm a Fool" 1922
"Man Who Became a Woman" 1923
"Death in the Woods" 1926
Babel, Isaac           "How it Was Done in Odessa" 1923
"Crossing into Poland" 1924
"My First Goose" 1924
"Story of My Dovecote"
Callaghan, Morley    "Faithful Wife" 1929
Capek, Karel         "Last Judgment" 1929
Connell, Richard      "Most Dangerous Game" 1924
Coppard, A.E.        "Adam and Eve and Pinch Me" 1921
"Arabesque--the Mouse" 1921
"The Higgler" 1924
"Field of Mustard" 1926
Fitzgerald, F. Scott   "Diamond Big as the Ritz" 1922
"Absolution 1925
"The Rich Boy" 1926
"Winter Dreams" 1926
Glaspel, Susan       "Jury of Her Peers" 1927
Hemingway, Ernest   "Indian Camp" 1924
"Big, Two-Hearted River" 1925
"Soldier's Home" 1925
"Hills Like White Elephants" 1927
"In Another Country" 1927
"The Killers" 1927
Hurston, Zora Neale  "Spunk" 1925
"Sweat" 1926
Huxley, Aldous        "Young Archimedes" 1924
Kafka, Franz          "Hunger Artist" 1922
Kawabata, Yasunari  "Grasshopper and Cricket" 1924
Lagerkvist, Par        "Father and I" 1923
Lardner,Ring          "Haircut" 1925
"Golden Honeymoon" 1922
Lawrence, D. H.      "Blind Man" 1922
"Horse-Dealer's Daughter" 1922
"Woman who Rode Away" 1925
"Rocking-Horse Winner" 1926
"The Man Who Loved Islands" 1927
"Two Blue Birds" 1927
Mann, Thomas       "Disorder and Early Sorrow" 1926
Mansfield, Katherine  "Miss Brill" 1920
"Daughters of the Late Colonel" 1921
"Her First Ball" 1921
"The Fly" 1922
"Garden Party" 1922
"Marriage a al Mode" 1922
Maughm, Somerset   "Rain" 1921
"Outstation" 1924
Parker, Dorothy       "Big Blonde" 1929
Porter, Katherine Anne "Maria Concepcion" 1922
"Theft" 1929
Quirgo, Horacio       "Dead Man" 1920
Steele, Wilbur Daniel "Footfalls" 1920
Svevo, Italo            "Generous Wine" 1927

Toomer, Jean         "Fern" 1922
"Blood-Burning Moon" 1923
"Theater" 1923
Woolf, Virginia        "Haunted House" 1921

1930-1940
Aiken, Conrad        "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" 1932
Babel, Isaac          "In the Basement" 1930
"Guy de Maupassant" 1932
"Di Grasso" 1937
Beckett, Samuel      "Dante and the Lobster" 1932
Bontemps, Arna      "Summer Tragedy" 1933
Borges, Jorge Luis   "Pierre Menard, Author of Quixote" 1939
Bowen, Elizabeth     "Her Table Spread" 1930
"Tears, Idle Tears" 1937
Boyle, Kay            "Astronomer's Wife" 1936
"White Horses of Vienna"
Caldwell, Erskin       "Kneel to the Rising Sun" 1935
Callaghan, Morley    "Sick Call" 1932
Dinesen, Isak         "The Monkey" 1934
Faulkner, William     "Rose for Emily" 1930
"Dry September" 1930
"Spotted Horses" 1931
"That Evening Sun" 1931
"Barn Burning" 1939
Gordon, Carol ine     "Old Red" 1933
Greene, Graham     "The Basement Room" 1935
Hemingway, Ernest   "Clean, Well-Lighted Place" 1933
"Short Happy Life of Frances Macomber" 1936
Hughes, Langston    "On the Road" 1935
Lagerkvist, Par        "Children's Campaign" 1935
Landolfi, Tommaso   "Wedding Night" 1939
McCarthy, Mary       "Cruel and Barbarous Treatment" 1939
O'Connor, Frank      "Guests of the Nation" 1930
"First Confession" 1939
Porter, Katherine Anne" The Grave" 1935
"Noon Wine" 1936
"Jilting of Granny Weatherall" 1930
"Flowering Judas" 1930
Pritchett, V.S.         "Sense of Humor" 1937
Saroyan, William      "Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" 1934
Sartre, Jean Paul     "The Wall" 1937
Schorer, Mark         "Boy in the Summer Sun" 1937
Schultz, Bruno        "Street of Crocodiles" 1934
Schwartz, Delmore   "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" 1937
Shaw,         Irwin           "Girls in their Summer Dresses" 1939
Steele, Wilburn Daniel" How Beautiful with Shoes" 1932
Steinbeck, John       "The Snake" 1936
"Chrysanthemums" 1938
"Flight" 1938
Unamuno Miguel      "St. Emmanuel the Good, Martyr" 1933
Welty, Eudora                "Death of a Traveling Salesman" 1936
"A Piece of News" 1937
"Petrified Man" 1939
Williams, William Carlos" Use of Force" 1938
Wolfe, Thomas       "Only the Dead Know Brooklyn" 1939
Fitzgerald, F. Scott   "Babylon Revisited" 1930
Wright, Richard       "Big Boy Leaves Home" 1936
"Bright and Morning Star" 1937

1940-1950
Borges, Jorge Luis   "Circular Ruins" 1940
"Tlon, Ugbar, Orbis, Tertius" 1940
"Garden of Forking Paths" 1941
"Lottery in Babylon" 1941
"Library of Babel" 1941
"Funes the Memorious" 1944
Bowen, Elizabeth     "Demon Lover" 1940
"Happy Autumn Fields" 1944
"Queer Heart" 1941
Bowles, Paul          "The Scorpion" 1945
"Distant Episode" 1947
Capote, Truman      "Tree of Night" 1943
"Miriam" 1945
Cheever, John        "Enormous Radio" 1947
Clarke, Walter van Tilburg "Portable Phonograph" 1941
"The Wind and the Snow of Winter" 1944
Dinesen, Isak         "Sailor-Boy's Tale" 1942
"Sorrow Acre" 1942
"Blue Jar" 1922
Ellison, Ralph         "King of the Bingo Game" 1944
"Flying Home" 1944
Gordimer, Nadine     "Train from Rhodesia" 1947
Greene, Graham     "Across the Bridge" 1949
"Hint of an Explanation" 1949
Jackson, Shirley      "The Lottery" 1948
Lavin,  Mary           "A Wet Day" 1944
"The Will" 1944
McCullers, Carson    "Tree, Rock, Cloud" 1942
Nabokov, Vladimir    "That in Aleppo Once" 1943
                     "Signs and Symbols" 1948
O'Connor, Frank      "Judas" 1947
"Drunkard" 1948
O'Faolain, Sean      "Man Who Invented Sin" 1944
"Innocence" 1946
O'Flaherty, Liam      "Two Lovely Beasts" 1946
Powers, J. F.         "Lions, Harts, and Leaping Does" 1943
"Prince of Darkness" 1946
"The Forks" 1947
"Valiant Woman" 1947
Pritchett, V.S.        "Saint" 1940
Salinger, J. D.        "Perfect Day for Bananafish" 1948
"Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" 1948
Saroyan,William       "Summer of Beautiful White Horse" 1940
Shaw, Irwin           "Act of Faith" 1946
Singer, I.B.           "Spinoza of Market Street" 1944
"Gimpel the Fool" 1957
Stafford, Jean         "Interior Castle" 1947
Stegner, Wallace     "Butcher Bird" 1940
Taylor, Peter          "Fancy Woman" 1940
Trilling, Lionel         "Of This Time, Of That Place" 1943
Warren, Robert Penn"Blackberry Winter" 1946
Welty, Eudora                "Keela, the Outcast Indian Maiden" 1940
"A Visit of Charity" 1941
"Why I Live at the PO" 1941
"Worn Path" 1941
"Powerhouse" 1941
White, E. B.           "Second Tree from the Corner" 1947
Wright, Richard       "Man Who Was Almost a Man" 1940


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great reference list, pretty exhaustive. Not much to add, except maybe O Henry (W.S. Porter) and James Thurber, who aren't considered "important writers" today, I guess. However, both were popular in some college texts of the time. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren included " The Furnished Room" (1906) and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1940) in their popular "Understanding Fiction " (l943), for example.

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for this amazing resource. Just so you know, you have two entire collections listed, Joyce's The Dubliners and Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. Again, I really appreciate the work you do on behalf of the short story. Cheers.