Best of
Short-Stories

1969

Nightfall and Other Stories


Isaac Asimov - 1969
    The title comes from Asimov's breakthrough short story.CONTENTS:Nightfall - Astounding, Sept 1941Green Patches - Galaxy, Nov 1950Hostess - Galaxy, May 1951Breeds There a Man . . . ? - Astounding, June 1951C-Chute - Galaxy, Oct 1951In a Good Cause - "New Tales of Space & Time", 1951What If--- - Fantastic, Summer 1952Sally - Fantastic, June 1953Flies - F&SF, June 1953Nobody Here But--- - Star SF #1, 1953It's Such a Beautiful Day - Star SF #3, 1954Strikebreaker - Original SF Stories, Jan 1957Insert Knob A in Hole B - F&SF, Dec 1957The Up-to-Date Sorcerer - F&SF, July 1958Unto the Fourth Generation - F&SF, April 1959What is this Thing Called Love? - Amazing, March 1961The Machine That Won the War - F&SF, Oct 1961My Son, the Physicist - Scientific American, Feb 1962Eyes Do More Than See - F&SF, April 1965Segregationist - Abbottempo, Book 4, 1967

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Vol 1


August Derleth - 1969
    P. Lovecraft"The Return of the Sorcerer" by Clark Ashton Smith"Ubbo-Sathla" by Clark Ashton Smith"The Black Stone" by Robert E. Howard"The Hounds of Tindalos" by Frank Belknap Long"The Space-Eaters" by Frank Belknap Long"The Dweller in Darkness" by August Derleth"Beyond the Threshold" by August Derleth"The Salem Horror" by Henry Kuttner"The Haunter In The Graveyard" by J. Vernon Shea

I Sing the Body Electric! & Other Stories


Ray Bradbury - 1969
    Yet all his work is united by one common thread: a vivid and profound understanding of the vast set of emotions that bring strength and mythic resonance to our frail species. Ray Bradbury characters may find themselves anywhere and anywhen. A horrified mother may give birth to a strange blue pyramid. A man may take Abraham Lincoln out of the grave—and meet another who puts him back. An amazing Electrical Grandmother may come to live with a grieving family. An old parrot may have learned over long evenings to imitate the voice of Ernest Hemingway, and became the last link to the great man. A priest on Mars may confront his fondest dream: to meet the Messiah. Each of these magnificent creations has something to tell us about our humanity—and all of their fates await you in this new trade edition of twenty-eight classic Bradbury stories and one luscious poem. Travel on an unpredictable and unforgettable literary journey—safe in the hands of one of the century's great men of imagination.

The Practical Princess and Other Liberating Fairy Tales


Jay Williams - 1969
    In fact, she couldn't be more different: no swooning, getting saved from dragons, or being whisked off by handsome princes. She knows what she wants and just how to get it.

Bran Mak Morn: The Last King


Robert E. Howard - 1969
    Howard’s fertile imagination sprang some of fiction’s greatest heroes, including Conan the Cimmerian, King Kull, and Solomon Kane. But of all Howard’s characters, none embodied his creator’s brooding temperament more than Bran Mak Morn, the last king of a doomed race.In ages past, the Picts ruled all of Europe. But the descendants of those proud conquerors have sunk into barbarism . . . all save one, Bran Mak Morn, whose bloodline remains unbroken. Threatened by the Celts and the Romans, the Pictish tribes rally under his banner to fight for their very survival, while Bran fights to restore the glory of his race. Lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Gary Gianni, this collection gathers together all of Howard’s published stories and poems featuring Bran Mak Morn–including the eerie masterpiece “Worms of the Earth” and “Kings of the Night,” in which sorcery summons Kull the conqueror from out of the depths of time to stand with Bran against the Roman invaders. Also included are previously unpublished stories and fragments, reproductions of manuscripts bearing Howard’s handwritten revisions, and much, much more. Special Bonus: a newly discovered adventure by Howard, presented here for the very first time.

Nightfall One


Isaac Asimov - 1969
    Each story has been selected by the author himself, and each has an introduction specifically written for this collection by Dr. Asimov. Together the two volumes showcase Isaac Asimov's story-telling talent.Nightfall --Green patches --Hostess --Breeds there a man --C-chase

The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor


Peter Taylor - 1969
    Living in a well-ordered world that's beginning to lose its equilibrium, Taylor's fascinating characters struggle to come to terms with the constricting circumstances into which they were born. Delicately interweaving the joys and pains of these families, Peter Taylor goes beyond regionalism to the simple truths recognizable to people everywhere.

Tales of O. Henry


O. Henry - 1969
    The gift of the Magi --A cosmopolite in a café --The skylight room --Man about town --The cop and the anthem --The love-philtre of Ikey Schoenstein --Mammon and the archer --Springtime à la carte --From the cabby's seat --An unfinished story --The romance of a busy broker --After twenty years --The furnished room --Hearts and crosses --The ransom of Mack --Telemachus, friend --The handbook of Hymen --Hygeia at the Solito --The hand that riles the world --The exact science of matrimony --Conscience in art --Roads of destiny --The enchanted profile --The passing of Black Eagle --A retrieved reformation --Friends in San Rosario --The renaissance at Charleroi --Whistling Dick's Christmas stocking --The lotus and the bottle --Shoes --Ships --Masters of arts --"The Rose of Dixie" --A poor rule --The last of the troubadours --Makes the whole world kin --Jimmy Hayes and Muriel --The adventures of Shamrock Jolnes --The friendly call --Sound and fury --The theory and the hound --The ransom of Red Chief --The whirligig of life --A blackjack bargainer --One dollar's worth --A lickpenny lover --Doughterty's eye-opener --The defeat of the city --The shocks of doom --Squaring the circle --The memento --The trimmed lamp --Two Thanksgiving day gentlemen --The making of a New Yorker --A Harlem tragedy --The last leaf --The count and the wedding guest --The robe of peace --A ramble in Aphasia --A night in New Arabia --Proof of the pudding --Hearts and hands

Notes of a Dirty Old Man


Charles Bukowski - 1969
    A bum off the road brings in a gypsy and his wife and we talk . . . . drink half the night. A long distance operator from Newburgh, N.Y. sends me money. She wants me to give up drinking beer and to eat well. I hear from a madman who calls himself 'King Arthur' and lives on Vine Street in Hollywood and wants to help me write my column. A doctor comes to my door: 'I read your column and think I can help you. I used to be a psychiatrist.' I send him away . . ."

Great Short Works of Herman Melville


Herman Melville - 1969
    Here, they are collected along with 19 other stories in a beautifully redesigned collection that represents the best short work of an American master.As Warner Berthoff writes in his introduction to this volume, "It is hard to think of a major novelist or storyteller who is not also a first-rate entertainer . . . a master, according to choice, of high comedy, of one or another robust species of expressive humour, or of some special variety of the preposterous, the grotesque, the absurd. And Melville, certainly, is no exception. A kind of vigorous supervisory humour is his natural idiom as a writer, and one particular attraction of his shorter work is the fresh further display it offers of this prime element in his literary character."The town-ho's story --Bartleby, the scrivener : a story of Wall-Street --Cock-a-doodle-doo! or, The crowing of the noble cock Beneventano --The encantadas or Enchanted Isles --The two temples --Poor man's pudding and rich man's crumbs --The happy failure : a story of the river Hudson --The lightning-rod man --The fiddler --The paradise of bachelors and the tartarus of maids --The bell-tower --Benito Cereno --Jimmy Rose --I and my chimney --The 'Gees --The apple-tree table, or Original spiritual manifestations --The piazza --The Marquis de Grandvin --Three "Jack Gentian sketches" --John Marr --Daniel Orme --Billy Budd, sailor.

The Dark Side: Tales of Terror and the Supernatural


Guy de Maupassant - 1969
    These 31 stories of the supernatural explore the furthest reaches of the macabre and at the same time parallel de Maupassant's own descent into madness and death. Includes a Foreword by modern master horror writer Ramsey Campbell.The Horla --The Devil --Two friends --Fear --The hand --Coco --The mannerism --The madwoman --Mohammed-Fripouille --The blind man --At sea --Apparition --Saint-Antoine --The wolf --Terror --The diary of a madman --A vendetta --The smile of Schopenhauer --On the river --He? --Old Milon --The head of hair --The inn --Mother Savage --Was he mad? --The dead girl --Mademoiselle Cocotte --A night in Paris --The case of Louise Roque --The drowned man --Who knows?

A Small Pinch of Weather


Joan Aiken - 1969
    Imagine ordering a sunny day from the local weather witch, asking an appletree to answer the telephone and making a beautiful garden out of old cereal boxes. What would you do if you inherited a real hair loom, or found three ugly old ladies and a dragon on your doorstep and would you need a bicycle if you had a unicorn to ride?

Going Places


Leonard Michaels - 1969
    He was born in New York City to Jewish parents; his father was born in Poland. He went to college and earned his B.A. from New York University and went on to acquire an M.A. as well as a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Michigan, before spending most of his adult life in Berkeley, California.Going Places, his first book of short stories, made his reputation as one of the most brilliant of that era's fiction writers; the stories are urban, funny, and written in a private, hectic diction that gives them a remarkable edge. The follow-up, coming six years later (Michaels was perhaps not prolific enough to build a widely popular career), was I Would Have Saved Them If I Could, a collection as strong as the first.

The Magic Tree and Other Tales


Marius Barbeau - 1969
    

A Time to Keep


George Mackay Brown - 1969
    First published in 1969, its 12 stories depict a vast cast of characters drawn from Orkney’s past and present, offering a range of emotions and incidents. They are elemental tales of the fishermen, crofters and farmers of the island and of the harsh, beautiful landscape in which they live.

A Week Like Any Other: Novellas and Stories


Natalya Baranskaya - 1969
    debut in this enthralling collection of fiction. Women's lives are the central preoccupation of Natalya Baranskaya: A scientist frantically juggles her professional life with her duties as wife and mother; a woman writer who regrets never marrying is finally glad of it; a delinquent girl is brought before the people's court for her "anti-social" behavior. With candor and satirical wit, Baranskaya captures perfectly everyday realities of family and society.

Animals You Will Never Forget: 72 True Stories from the Reader's Digest


Reader's Digest Association - 1969
    

Andreev: Selected Stories


Leonid Andreyev - 1969
    

Selected Short Stories


Maxim Gorky - 1969
    He spent his early childhood in Astrakhan where his father worked as a shipping agent, but when the boy was only five years old, his father died, and he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents. This was not a happy time for the young Gorky as conditions were poor and often violent. At the age of eight, the boy's grandfather forced him to quit school and apprenticed him to several tradesmen including a shoemaker and an icon painter. Fortunately, Gorky also worked as a dishwasher on a Volga steamer where a friendly cook taught him to read, and literature soon became his passion. At the age of twelve, Gorky ran away from home and barely survived, half starving, moving from one small job to the next. He was often beaten by his employers and seldom had enough to eat. The bitterness of these early experiences led him to choose the name Maxim Gorky (which means "the bitter one") as his pseudonym.

Cinco Maestros: Cuentos Modernos de Hispanoamirica


Alexander Coleman - 1969
    The stories representing each author might be said to function like a mobile: considered separately, they are unique and interesting pieces of art, while together they form a recognizable pattern and give an impression of the author's imaginative world. The anthology as a whole then becomes a collection of such literary mobiles, a vivid exhibition that testifies to the high level of brilliance achieved by contemporary Spanish-American fiction. CINCO MAESTROS is designed for use in the third semester of study and beyond. The stories in this anthology are made more readily accessible to students by the addition of notes and vocabulary.

N-Space


Larry Niven - 1969
    talk show Arthur C. Clarke was once asked to name his favorite writer. His answer was "Larry Niven." Countless others agree. The Baltimore Sun and Kirkus Reviews have both dubbed Niven "the premier writer of hard SF," and Gregory Benford has hailed him as "the paradigm of SF personality of the last several decade."Now Larry Niven presents us with his undisputed masterwork. N-Space contains, very simply, the best SF of his career--marvelous fiction, a wealth of anecdotes and gossip, plus Niven's own special brand of wit and excitement.Contents:1 • Introduction: The Maker of Worlds • (1990) • essay by Tom Clancy3 • On Niven • (1992) • essay by Frederik Pohl and Steven Barnes and David Brin and John Hertz and Wendy All and Gregory Benford15 • Dramatis Personae • (1990) • essay by Larry Niven25 • Foreword: Playgrounds for the Mind • (1990) • essay by Larry Niven31 • From World of Ptavvs (excerpt) • (1990) • shortfiction by Larry Niven36 • Bordered in Black • (1966) • shortstory by Larry Niven56 • Convergent Series • (1967) • shortstory by Larry Niven (variant of The Long Night)62 • All the Myriad Ways • [Time Travel - Parallel Universe] • (1968) • shortstory by Larry Niven73 • From A Gift From Earth (Excerpt) • (1990) • shortfiction by Larry Niven90 • The Meddler • (1968) • novelette by Larry Niven112 • Passerby • [State] • (1969) • shortstory by Larry Niven126 • Down in Flames • (1969) • essay by Larry Niven139 • From Ringworld (Excerpt) • (1990) • shortfiction by Larry Niven148 • The Fourth Profession • (1971) • novelette by Larry Niven195 • "Shall We Indulge in Rishathra?" • (1978) • shortfiction by Larry Niven195 •  "Shall We Indulge in Rishathra?" • (1978) • interior artwork by William Rotsler199 • Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex • (1969) • essay by Larry Niven208 • Inconstant Moon • (1971) • novelette by Larry Niven234 • What Can You Say About Chocolate Covered Manhole Covers? • (1971) • shortstory by Larry Niven245 • Cloak of Anarchy • [Known Space] • (1972) • shortstory by Larry Niven269 • From Protector (excerpt) • (1990) • shortfiction by Larry Niven279 • The Hole Man • (1974) • shortstory by Larry Niven293 • Night on Mispec Moor • [State] • (1974) • shortstory by Larry Niven305 • Flare Time • (1978) • novella by Larry Niven347 • The Locusts • (1979) • novelette by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes389 • From The Mote in God's Eye (excerpt) • (1990) • shortfiction by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle394 • Building the Mote in God's Eye • [A Step Farther Out] • (1976) • essay by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle420 • Brenda • (1988) • novella by Larry Niven465 • The Return of William Proxmire • (1989) • shortstory by Larry Niven475 • The Tale of the Jinni and the Sisters • (1988) • shortstory by Larry Niven491 • Madness Has Its Place • [Man-Kzin Wars] • (1990) • novelette by Larry Niven519 • Niven's Laws (1990 version) • (1990) • essay by Larry Niven528 • The Kiteman • [Integral Trees] • (1990) • novelette by Larry Niven571 • The Alien in Our Minds • (1987) • essay by Larry Niven580 • Space • (1990) • essay by Larry Niven597 • Bibliography of Larry Niven • (1990) • essay by uncredited

The Collected Short Stories


Noël Coward - 1969
    Written with Coward's inimitable poise and wit, the stories variously describe back-stage intrigues, Hollywood champagne breakfasts, suburban romances and gossip round the captain's table. He reveals himself as a consummate prose stylist demonstrating why, for all his success in virtually every other field of entertainment, he returned again and again to the short story.

Man in the Yellow Raft


C.S. Forester - 1969
    The stories have a point: they remind us that courage and clear-thinking in the midst of great danger go hand in hand and are the keys to survival. Not only is cowardice disgraceful, it is frequently lethal. Includes: Triumph of the Boon; The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck; Dr Blanke's First Command; Counterpunch; USS Cornucopia; December 6th; Rendezvous.

From Karamzin to Bunin: An Anthology of Russian Short Stories


Carl R. ProfferNikolai Gogol - 1969
    highly recommended.... This anthology of faithful translations of the classics is by far the best of its kind to come out for a long time." --Canadian Slavic Review

21 Great Stories


Abraham H. LassLord Dunsany - 1969
    D. B. Bryan- The necklace by Guy de Maupassant- The adventure of the speckled band by Arthur Conan Doyle- To build a fire by Jack London- Leiningen versus the ants by Carl Stephenson- Eveline by James Joyce- The secret life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber- What stumped the bluejays by Mark Twain- The pearl by John Steinbeck

Fantasms and Magics


Jack Vance - 1969
    Otherwise, the same contents.

M'Hashish


Mohammed Mrabet - 1969
    There’s another world where life is different."These are stories of that world. The word m’hashish (equivalent in Moghrebi of “behashished” or “full of hashish”) is used only in a literal sense, but also figuratively, to describe a person whose behavior seems irrational or unexpected. The tales here deal with some of the possible results, desirable and questionable, of being in that state.Mohammed Mrabet was born in Tangier in 1936. Since meeting in the early 1960's, Paul Bowles has taped and translated numerous strange legends and lively stories recounted by Mrabet: Love with a Few Hairs (novel), The Lemon (novel), The Boy Who Set Fire (stories), Harmless Poisons, Blameless Sins (stories), The Beach Café & Look & Move On (autobiography), and The Big Mirror (novella). After moving back to Tangier after living in New York for four years, Mrabet resumed his role as a fisherman and began painting. He continues to paint while living in the Souani area of Tangier.

Nightfall Two


Isaac Asimov - 1969
    Each story has been selected by the author himself, and each has an introduction specifically written for this collection by Dr. Asimov. Together the two volumes showcase Isaac Asimov's story-telling talent.

The Preserving Machine


Philip K. Dick - 1969
    DICKRobot psychiatrists activated by $20 coinsA war veteran who keeps changing into a blob of organic jellyBusiness advice from the souls of the departedA machine that turns musical scores into small, furry animalsA dog story that recalls Kafka's 'Investigations of a Dog' These are some of the treasures of imagination in this collection of Philip K. Dick's short fiction. They display all the uncanny inventiveness & sad, quirky humanism of his wonderful novels as well as being a testing ground for many of their later themes.Comprising:The Preserving Machine (1953);War Game (1959);Upon the Dull Earth (1954);Roog (1952);War Veteran (1955);Top Stand-By Job (1963);Beyond Lies the Wub (1952);We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (1966);Captive Market (1955);If There Were No Benny Cemoli (1953);Retreat Syndrome (1964);The Crawlers (1954);Oh, to Be a Blobel! (1964);What the Dead Men Say (1964);Pay for the Printer (1956).

Murder of the Frogs and Other Stories


Don Carpenter - 1969
    

May Your First Love Be Your Last, And Other Stories


Greg Clark - 1969
    

Especially at Christmas


Celestine Sibley - 1969
    During her many years as a newspaper writer, Celestine Sibley has made people her main concern, some disputable, some distinguished, some outrageous, but all inspiring; and at Christmas time she remembers them and the gifts they gave her. The gifts, in fact, are the people themselves and this is really the true meaning and spirit of Christmas.

The Owl Pen Reader


Kenneth McNeill Wells - 1969
    The READER, which combines the four books in slightly abridged form, is published because the experiences it tells are forever and universally interesting and the writing imperishably fresh. It tells how a journalist and his artist wife gave up city living and bought for fifteen dollars a century-old shack that originally was built of massive timbers when trees were trees. The Wellses moved it to a quiet wilderness place, rebuilt it, named it "Owl Pen" and turned to the farming life.The OWL PEN READER tells of half a lifetime spent in the Canadian Eden: their brave quiet efforts at self-sufficiency, their learning to cope with a new world of ageless verities, their discovery that birds and animals are like persons. Kenneth Wells relates this intimate story in an easy narrative style that draws strength from its understatement and its simple reverence for day-to-day incident. Lucy Wells ornaments the account with beautiful wood engravings."

The Best American Short Stories 1969


Martha FoleyMary Josephine Lavin - 1969
    

Selected Writings of Hoffmann, Vol. 1: The Tales


E.T.A. Hoffmann - 1969
    Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 73-88790

The O'Hara Generation


John O'Hara - 1969
    Stratton of Oak KnollMary and NormaYou Can Always Tell NewarkPat CollinsThe First DayYour Fah Neefah NeefaceThe Friends of Miss JuliaThe ManagerThe Madeline Wherry CaseThe BonfireThe Hardware ManAndreaFlightThe GeneralAfternoon WaltzFatimas and Kisses

A Book of Princes and Princesses


Ruth Manning-Sanders - 1969
    

Have I Ever Lied to You?


Art Buchwald - 1969
    

The Hitchhiking Game (Laughable Loves, #3)


Milan Kundera - 1969
    A couple plays a role-playing game which initially excites them but then later scares one and repulses the other.

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1969 (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, #221)


Edward L. FermanPhilip K. Dick - 1969
    Aldiss - The Soft PredicamentTheodore Sturgeon - The Man Who Learned LovingGahan Wilson - BooksPhilip K. Dick - The Electic AntLarry Niven - Get A Horse! Cover by Ronald Wolotsky, 2nd cover by Chesley Bonestell (Original painting: Russian astronauts have arrived on the rim of Copernicus only to discover that the Americans have already been there, and one has even carved his name on a rock - an old American custom.)

Folk-Tales of the Coast Salish


Thelma Adamson - 1969
    A major contribution to our knowledge of western Washington Salish oral traditions, Folk-Tales of the Coast Salish contains 190 texts from nineteen consultants—most collected in English or in English translation. The 155 stories represent Upper Chehalis and Cowlitz Salish narrative traditions, primarily myths and tales, and constitute the largest published body of oral literature for either of these groups. Adamson included as many as four variants of the same tale-type, and Adele Froehlich prepared a useful forty-three-page section of abstracts with comparative notes from eight regional text collections. Folk-Tales of the Coast Salish provides a rich data source for those interested in the content and comparative analysis of Native texts told in English. With few exceptions, the tales refer to the time “when all the animals were people.” This new edition enhances Adamson’s seminal work with the inclusion of a biographical sketch of Adamson and of her friend and noted ethnomusicologist George Herzog, who produced the appended music transcriptions.

366 Goodnight Stories


Esmé Eve - 1969