Best of
Short-Stories

1983

Recitatif


Toni Morrison - 1983
    Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable at the time, they lose touch as they grow older, only to find each other later at a diner, then at a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and in disagreement each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.Written in 1980 and anthologized in a number of collections, this is the first time Recitatif is being published as a stand-alone hardcover. In the story, Twyla's and Roberta's races remain ambiguous. We know that one is white and one is black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage?Morrison herself described this story as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." Recitatif is a remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and about how perceptions are made tangible by reality.

Cathedral


Raymond Carver - 1983
    . . . Carver is a writer of astonishing compassion and honesty. . . . his eye set only on describing and revealing the world as he sees it. His eye is so clear, it almost breaks your heart” (Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World).From the eBook edition.

The Best of Simple


Langston Hughes - 1983
    Semple--first composed for a weekly column in the Chicago Defender and then collected in Simple Speaks His Mind, Simple Takes a Wife, and Simple Stakes a Claim--have been read and loved by hundreds of thousands of readers. In The Best of Simple, the author picked his favorites from these earlier volumes, stories that not only have proved popular but are now part of a great and growing literary tradition.Simple might be considered an Everyman for black Americans. Hughes himself wrote: "...these tales are about a great many people--although they are stories about no specific persons as such. But it is impossible to live in Harlem and not know at least a hundred Simples, fifty Joyces, twenty-five Zaritas, and several Cousin Minnies--or reasonable facsimiles thereof."As Arnold Rampersad has written, Simple is "one of the most memorable and winning characters in the annals of American literature, justly regarded as one of Hughes's most inspired creations."Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, went to Cleveland, Ohio, lived for a number of years in Chicago, and long resided in New York City's Harlem. He graduated form Lincoln University in 1929 and was awarded an honorary Litt. D. in 1943. He was perhaps best known as a poet and the creator of Simple, but he also wrote novels, biography, history, plays (several of them Broadway hits), and children's books, and he edited several anthologies. Mr. Hughes died in 1967.

Collected Stories


Gabriel García Márquez - 1983
    Combining mysticism, history, and humor, the stories in this collection span more than two decades, illuminating the development of Marquez's prose and exhibiting the themes of family, poverty, and death that resound throughout his fiction.

The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe


Edgar Allan Poe - 1983
    This collection includes poetry and prose, including "The Conqueror Worm", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", and "The Pit and the Pendulum". 1,186 pp.

The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake


Breece D'J Pancake - 1983
    In 1983 Little, Brown and Company's posthumous publication of this book electrified the literary world with a force that still resounds across two decades. A collection of stories that depict the world of Pancake's native rural West Virginia with astonishing power and grace, The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake has remained continuously in print and is a perennial favorite among aspiring writers, participants in creative writing programs, and students of contemporary American fiction. "Trilobites", the first of Pancake's stories to be published in The Atlantic, elicited an extraordinary immediate response from readers and continues to be widely anthologized.

Collected Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald


F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1983
    Scott Fitzgerald was famous in the 1920s and 1930s as a short-story writer.  The nineteen stories in this volume were so popular that hardcover collections—Flappers and Philosophers and Tales of the Jazz Age—came out almost immediately after the stories had appeared in magazines. With stories like “The Ice Palace,” “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” and “The Jelly Bean,” he portrayed the emotional depth of a society devoted to excess and racing heedlessly towards catastrophe that was only a few years ahead.

The Encyclopedia of the Dead


Danilo Kiš - 1983
    These stories about love and death, truth and lies, myth and reality range across many epochs and settings. Brilliantly combining fact and fiction, epic and miniature, horror and comedy, this was Danilo Kiš final work, published in Serbo-Croatian in 1983.Kiš is one of the great European writers of the post-war period - GuardianCompulsively readable - Daily Telegraph Fantasy chases reality and reality chases fantasy. Pirandello and Borges are not far away. But these names are intended as approximate references. Kiš is a new, original writer - Times Literary Supplement Intense and exotic, his mysteries hint at unspeakable secrets that remain forever beyond the story-teller's grasp - Boyd TonkinDanilo Kiš was born in the then Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1935. After an unsettled childhood during the Second World War, in which several of his family members were killed, Kiš studied literature at the University of Belgrade where he lived for most of his adult life. He wrote novels, short stories and poetry and went on to receive the prestigious NIN Award for his novel Pešcanik. He died in Paris in 1989.

In the Bedroom: Seven Stories


Andre Dubus - 1983
    A boy must learn to care for his younger brother when their mother leaves the family. A young woman who has never lacked lovers despairs of ever finding love itself, and then makes an accidental discovery that brings her real joy. Culled from Dubus’s treasured collections Selected Stories and Dancing After Hours, these beautiful stories of people at pivotal moments in their lives are some of the most bewitching and profound in American fiction.

The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction


Ann Charters - 1983
    This brief edition of the most widely adopted book of its kind offers all of the editorial features of the longer book with about half the stories and writer commentaries in a shorter, less expensive format.

Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer


Tanith Lee - 1983
    In RED AS BLOOD, she displays her soaring imagination at its most fantastically mischievous. Not for nothing was the title story named as a Nebula nominee. Not for nothing was the author of THE BIRTHGRAVE & THE STORM LORD called by New York's Village Voice, "Goddess-Empress of the Hot Read."Here are the world-famous tales of such as the Brothers Grimm as they might have been retold by the Sisters Grimmer! Fairy tales for children? Not on your life!Contents:Paid Piper (1981)Red as Blood (1979)Thorns (1972)When the Clock Strikes (1980)The Golden Rope (1983)The Princess and Her Future (1983)Wolfland (1980)Black as Ink (1983)Beauty (1983)

Fantastic Tales: Visionary and Everyday


Italo CalvinoIvan Turgenev - 1983
    The resulting volume is both an education in the history of fantastic literature and a rollercoaster ride of wonder and terror, vampires, ghosts, and the rebellious creatures of our own psyches. Selections include:E.T.A. Hoffmann--"The Sandman"G&#233rard de Nerval--"the Enchanted Hand"Nikolai Gogol--"The Nose"Edgar Allan Poe--"The Tell-Tale Heart"Hans Christian Andersen--"The Shadow"Ambrose Bierce--"Chickamauga"Robert Louis Stevenson--"The Bottle Imp"Henry James--"The Friends of the Friends"H.G. Wells--"The Country of the Blind"Comprising stories of the supernatural and narratives of the everyday uncanny, Fantastic Tales is a gallery of enchantments, deliciously entertaining yet more disturbing than our most persistent nightmares.CONTENTSIntroduction by Italo CalvinoI. The Visionary Fantastic of the Nineteenth CenturyThe Story of the Demoniac Pacheco by Jan PotockiAutumn Sorcery by Joseph von EichendorffThe Sandman by E. T. A. HoffmannWandering Willie’s Tale by Sir Walter ScottThe Elixir of Life by Honoré de BalzacThe Eye with No Lid by Phliarte ChaslesThe Enchanted Hand by Gérard de NervalYoung Goodman Brown by Nathaniel HawthorneThe Nose by Nikolai Vasilyevich GogolThe Beautiful Vampire by Théophile GautierThe Venus of Ille by Prosper MériméeThe Ghost and the Bonesetter by Joseph Sheridan Le FanuII. The Everday Fantastic of the Nineteenth CenturyThe Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan PoeThe Shadow by Hans Christian AndersenThe Signal-Man by Charles DickensThe Dream by Ivan Sergeyevich TurgenevA Shameless Rascal by Nikolai Semyonovich LeskovThe Very Image by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-AdamNight: A Nightmare by Guy de MaupassantA Lasting Love by Vernon LeeChickamauga by Ambrose BierceThe Holes in the Mask by Jean LorrainThe Bottle Imp by Robert Louis StevensonThe Friends of the Friends by Henry JamesThe Bridge-Builders by Rudyard KiplingThe Country of the Blind by H. G. Wells

The Stories of William Trevor


William Trevor - 1983
    

In a Lonely Place


Karl Edward Wagner - 1983
    Contents:In the PinesWhere the Summer EndsSticksThe Fourth Seal.220 SwiftThe River of Night’s Dreaming Beyond Any Measure

Unicorn Variations


Roger Zelazny - 1983
    The title story, "Unicorn Variation", was written as a result of Zelazny having been asked to contribute to two different upcoming anthologies — one collecting stories set in bars, and one collecting stories about unicorns. When Zelazny mentioned these requests to his close friend George R. R. Martin, the other told Zelazny of a third upcoming anthology — one which would collect stories about chess — and jokingly suggested that Zelazny write a story about playing chess against a unicorn in a bar, so that he could sell the story three times. Zelazny did just that and then went on to win a Hugo Award for the story.Contents:Introduction (Unicorn Variations) [essay] (1983)Unicorn Variation (1981)The Last of the Wild Ones [Sam Murdock] (1981)Recital (1981)The Naked Matador (1981)The Parts That Are Only Glimpsed: Three Reflexes [essay] (1978)Dismal Light [Francis Sandow] (1968)Go Starless in the Night (1979)But Not the Herald (1965)A Hand Across the Galaxy (1967)The Force That Through the Circuit Drives the Current (1976)Home is the Hangman [Nemo] (1975)Fire and/or Ice, Exeunt Omnes, A Very Good Year ... [essay] (1983)Fire and/or Ice (1980)Exeunt Omnes (1980)A Very Good Year ... (1979)My Lady of the Diodes (1970)And I Only Am Escaped to Tell Thee (1981)The Horses of Lir (1981)The Night Has 999 Eyes (1964)Angel, Dark Angel (1967)Walpurgisnacht (1981)The George Business (1980)Some Science Fiction Parameters: A Biased View [essay] (1975)

The Times Are Never So Bad


Andre Dubus - 1983
    . . may be the most compelling and suspenseful work of fiction [Dubus] has written."--Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Times Book ReviewStories of men and women attempting to live together, to tell the truth as they see it (or don't see it), and to survive the crises, and sometimes the violence, of domestic life. Now included in Andre Dubus's Collected Short Stories & Novellas ) this original edition includes A Father's Story, as well as the novella The Pretty Girl. Upon its publication in 1991, Tobias Wolff wrote, "'It is a world of secrets, ' says the narrator of A Father's Story. Andre Dubus's fine new collection is made of those secrets, observed with an art that is luminous with honesty and generosity. Dubus is interested in essential things--in the shadowy powers that circle our lives and the slender resources of faith and love with which we try to keep them at bay."

The Moccasin Telegraph and Other Stories


W.P. Kinsella - 1983
    These comical Indian tales feature Silas Ermineskin, an eighteen-year-old trickster and storyteller who has a genius for irony and a talent for trouble

Happy Endings


Margaret Atwood - 1983
    The names of characters recur throughout the stories, and the stories reference each other (for example, "everything continues as in 'A'"), challenging narrative conventions. In addition, the story explores themes of domesticity, welfare, and success.

The Collected Stories


Dylan Thomas - 1983
    A highpoint of the collection is Thomas's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, a vivid collage of memories from his Swansea childhood that combines the lyricism of his poetry with the sparkle and sly humor of Under Milk Wood. Also here is the fiction from Quite Early One Morning, a collection planned by Thomas shortly before his death.Altogether there are more than forty stories, providing a rich and varied literary feast and showing Dylan Thomas in all his intriguing variety-somber fantasist, joyous word-spinner, comedian of smalltown Wales. The book includes an entertaining, informative reflection on Thomas by another Welsh poet and storyteller, Leslie Norris, as well as a brief listing of publication details by Professor Walford Davies, editor of Dylan Thomas: Early Prose Works.After the fair --Tree --True story --Enemies --Dress --Visitors --Vest --Burning baby --Orchards --End of the river --Lemon --Horse's ha --School for witches --Mouse and the woman --Prospect of the sea --Holy six --Prologue to an adventure --Map of love --In the direction of the beginning --Adventure from a work in progress --Portrait of the artist as a young dog: Peaches --Visit to Grandpa's --Patricia, Edith and Arnold --Fight --Extraordinary little cough --Just like little dogs --Where Tawe flows --Who do you wish was with us? --Old Garbo --One warm Saturday --Adventures in the skin trade: Fine beginning --Plenty of furniture --Four lost souls --Quite early one morning --Child's Christmas in Wales --Holiday memory --Crumbs of one man's year --Return journey --Followers --Story --Appendix: early stories: Brember --Jarley's --In the garden --Gaspar, Melchior, Balthsar --List of sources

Ethiopian Tattoo Shop


Edward Hays - 1983
    Parables are stories with numerous meanings-two, four, or many more. Once again Edward Hays unlocks a treasury of original parable-stories as traveling companions for those on the spiritual quest. Parables are unique because they are stories with silent spaces, using imaginative symbols to lead us toward answers to the great questions that surround our journey through everyday. Each parable holds hidden insights that point the way to happiness and happily to the Way. Open the cover and enter the magical world of the story through the door of the Ethiopian Tattoo Shop. Each story is accompanied by a brief interpretation, a key provided by the author which serves as a starting point for your own explorations. Intricately illustrated with a blend of Ethiopian and other ancient art, this book brings together a remarkable blend of beauty and insight.

The Sentinel


Arthur C. Clarke - 1983
    Clarke. It is the startling realism of his vision that has made classics of his novels, such as CHILDHOOD'S END and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. It has also made Clarke himself one of the genre's most successful writers. The trade paperback was published to commemorate the arrival of the year 2001, one of the most notable dates in science fiction history. THE SENTINEL is a brilliant collection of Clarke's highest calibre short fiction.

The Cathedral of Mist


Paul Willems - 1983
    Described here are the emotionally disturbed architectural plan for a palace of emptiness; the experience of snowfall in a bed in the middle of a Finnish forest; the memory chambers that fuel the marvelous futility of the endeavor to write; the beautiful woodland church, built of warm air currents and fog, scattering in storms and taking renewed shape at dusk, that gives this book its title. The Cathedral of Mist offers the sort of ethereal narratives that might have come from the pen of a sorrowful, distinctly Belgian Italo Calvino. It is accompanied by two meditative essays on reading and writing that fall in the tradition of Marcel Proust and Julien Gracq. Paul Willems (1912-97) published his first novel, Everything Here Is Real, in 1941. Three more novels and, toward the end of his life, two collections of short stories bracketed his career as a playwright.

Yentl the Yeshiva Boy


Isaac Bashevis Singer - 1983
    When he dies, Yentyl feels that she no longer has a reason to remain in the village, and so, late one night, she cuts off her hair, dresses as a young man, and sets out to find a yeshiva where she can continue her studies and live secretly as a man.

The Winds of Change and Other Stories


Isaac Asimov - 1983
    Asimov at his best! A 21-story saluteAbout Nothing • (1975)A Perfect Fit • (1981)Belief • (1953)Death of a Foy • (1980)Fair Exchange? • (1978)For the Birds • (1980)Found! • (1978)Good Taste • (1976)How It Happened • (1979)Ideas Die Hard • (1957)Ignition Point! • (1981)It Is Coming • [Multivac] • (1979)The Last Answer • (1980)The Last Shuttle • (1981)Lest We Remember • (1982)Nothing for Nothing • (1979)One Night of Song • [Azazel] • (1982)The Smile That Loses • [Azazel] • (1982)Sure Thing • (1977)To Tell at a Glance • (1983)The Winds of Change • (1982)

More Stories of the Old Duck Hunters


Gordon MacQuarrie - 1983
    Here are 53 classic hunting and fishing stories, some from sporting magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, including unpublished works from the author's literary estate. Available in individual volumes or collected in a slip-cased three-volume set.

Machines That Think


Isaac Asimov - 1983
    With: Asimov (5x), Bierce, Wyndham, Vincent, Bates, R. M. Williams, Del Rey, van Vogt, Ellison, Leinster, Anderson, Miller, Bone, Harrison, Shaara, Dick (2x), Dickson, Clarke, Silverberg, Brunner, Brown, Vinge, Wolfe and Zebrowski.

On Seashore Far a Green Oak Towers: A Book of Tales


Alexander PushkinKonstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky - 1983
    

The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories


Charles Bukowski - 1983
    In Europe, however (particularly in Germany, Italy, and France where he is published by the great publishing houses), he is critically recognized as one of America's greatest realist writers.

Moon Deluxe


Frederick Barthelme - 1983
    Barthelme made his remarkable debut with these tender and affectionate stories, most of which were originally published in The New Yorker. Moon Deluxe received the high praise of such writers as John Barth, Raymond Carver, Ann Beattie, and Margaret Atwood, and earned Barthelme a permanent place in the pantheon of contemporary American writers. In these stories he delicately probes the peculiar corners of contemporary culture, capturing the fast and often touching ways we relate to each other and to the time in which we live.

Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was


Angélica Gorodischer - 1983
    In eleven chapters, "Kalpa Imperial"'s multiple storytellers relate the story of a fabled nameless empire which has risen and fallen innumerable times. Fairy tales, oral histories and political commentaries are all woven tapestry-style into Kalpa Imperial: beggars become emperors, democracies become dictatorships, and history becomes legends and stories. But this is much more than a simple political allegory or fable. It is also a celebration of the power of storytelling. Gorodischer and translator Ursula K. Le Guin are a well-matched, sly and delightful team of magician-storytellers. Rarely have author and translator been such an effortless pairing. "Kalpa Imperial" is a powerful introduction to the writing of Angelica Gorodischer, a novel which will enthrall readers already familiar with the worlds of Le Guin.Selected for the "New York Times" Summer Reading list.* "The dreamy, ancient voice is not unlike Le Guin's, and this collection should appeal to her fans as well as to those of literary fantasy and Latin American fiction."--"Library Journal" (Starred Review)"There's a very modern undercurrent to the Kalpa empire, with tales focusing on power (in a political sense) rather than generic moral lessons. Her mythology is consistent--wide in scope, yet not overwhelming. The myriad names of places and people can be confusing, almost Tolkeinesque in their linguistic originality. But the stories constantly move and keep the book from becoming overwhelming. Gorodischer has a sizeable body of work to be discovered, with eighteen books yet to reach English readers, and this is an impressive introduction."--"Review of Contemporary Fiction""Borges and Cortazar are alive and well."--"Bridge Magazine""Those looking for offbeat literary fantasy will welcome "Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was, " by Argentinean writer Angelica Gorodischer. Translated from the Spanish by Ursula Le Guin, this is the first appearance in English of this prize-winning South American fantasist."--"Publishers Weekly""It's always difficult to wrap up a rave review without babbling redundant praises. This time I'll simply say "Buy this Book!""--"Locus""The elaborate history of an imaginary country...is Nabokovian in its accretion of strange and rich detail, making the story seem at once scientific and dreamlike."--"Time Out New York""Kalpa Imperial" has been awarded the Prize "Mas Alla" (1984), the Prize "Sigfrido Radaelli" (1985) and also the Prize Poblet (1986). It has had four editions in Spanish: Minotauro (Buenos Aires), Alcor (Barcelona), Gigamesh (Barcelona), and Planeta Emece Editions (Buenos Aires).Praise for the Spanish-language editions of "Kalpa Imperial" "Angelica Gorodischer, both from without and within the novel, accomplishes the indispensable function Salman Rushdie says the storyteller must have: not to let the old tales die out; to constantly renew them. And she well knows, as does that one who met the Great Empress, that storytellers are nothing more and nothing less than free men and women. And even though their freedom might be dangerous, they have to get the total attention of their listeners and, therefore, put the proper value on the art of storytelling, an art that usually gets in the way of those who foster a forceful oblivion and prevent the winds of change."--Carmen Perilli, "La Gaceta," Tucuman"At a time when books are conceived and published to be read quickly, with divided attention in the din of the subway or the car, this novel is to be tasted with relish, in peace, in moderation, chewing slowly each and every one of the stories that make it up, and digesting it equally slowly so as to properly assimilate it all."--Rodolfo Martinez"A vast, cyclical filigree . . . Gorodischer reaches much farther than the common run of stories about huge empires, maybe because she wasn't interested in them to begin with, and enters the realm of fable, legend, and allegory."--Luis G. Prado, "Gigamesh," Barcelona

The Snow Storm


Alexander Pushkin - 1983
    

Overnight to Many Distant Cities


Donald Barthelme - 1983
    

Distortions


Ann Beattie - 1983
    Beattie captures perfectly the profound longings that came to define an entire generation with insight, compassion, and humor.

Lands of Memory


Felisberto Hernández - 1983
    Felisberto Hernández's extraordinary stories have been always greatly prized by other writers, and the two novellas and four stories collected in Lands of Memory show why. "Lands of Memory" and "In the Times of Clemente Colling" are two dreamlike novellas, which are carried along like pieces of otherworldly music by odd rhapsodic memories. Curiously haunting, the four stories also included in Lands of Memory turn upon small improbable events—small unpredictable, off-the-wall events which turn upside-down a first recital or a salesman's calling. These works have been long overdue for translation into English, and New Directions is pleased to have them in Esther Allen's stunning versions.

Heroes of Bear Creek


Robert E. Howard - 1983
    Contents:*A Gent from Bear Creek (Novel) * The Riot at Cougar Paw* Pilgrims to the Pecos* Gents on the Rampage* The Apache Mountain War* Pistol Politics* The Conquerin' Hero of the Humbolts* A Ring-tailed Tornado* No Cowherders Wanted* Mayhem and Taxes * Evil Deeds at Red Cougar* Sharp's Gun Serenade* The Peaceful Pilgrim* While Smoke Rolled* A Elkins Never SurrendersCover Illustration: James Warhola

Story, and Other Stories


Lydia Davis - 1983
    

Destiny: From Paul Harvey's the Rest of the Story


Paul Aurandt Jr. - 1983
    

The Lottery: A play in one act


Brainerd Duffield - 1983
    

Matters of Life and Death: New American Stories


Tobias Wolff - 1983
    

Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories


Alifa Rifaat - 1983
    Rifaat (1930-1996) did not go to university, spoke only Arabic, and seldom traveled abroad. This virtual immunity from Western influence lends a special authenticity to her direct yet sincere accounts of death, sexual fulfillment, the lives of women in purdah, and the frustrations of everyday life in a male-dominated Islamic environment.Translated from the Arabic by Denys Johnson-Davies, the collection admits the reader into a hidden private world, regulated by the call of the mosque, but often full of profound anguish and personal isolation. Badriyya's despariting anger at her deceitful husband, for example, or the hauntingly melancholy of "At the Time of the Jasmine," are treated with a sensitivity to the discipline and order of Islam.

Stories from Suburban Road


T.A.G. Hungerford - 1983
    Hungerford’s highly acclaimed, bestselling autobiographical short stories recount his childhood in semi-rural suburbia in the 1920s and 1930s. Bird-nesting and school days, crabbing and swimming in the Swan River, Chinese market gardens and the old corner store are all brought to life through the eyes of an inquisitive, adventurous boy.

History, Tales, and Sketches: The Sketch Book / A History of New York / Salmagundi / Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.


Washington Irving - 1983
    Irving’s early writings earned the admiration of literary figures like Hawthorne, Poe, Coleridge, Byron, Scott, and Dickens. He was widely traveled, a connoisseur of the theater both at home and abroad, and an intimate of royalty and high society in Europe and America.Irving’s career as a writer began obscurely at age seventeen, when his brother’s newspaper published his series of comic reports on the theater, theater-goers, fashions, balls, courtships, duels, and marriages of his contemporary New York, called Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent. Written in the persona of an elderly gentleman of the old school, these letters captured his fellow townsmen at play in their most incongruous attitudes of simple sophistication. Irving’s next work, Salmagundi, written in collaboration with his brother William and James Kirke Paulding, and published at irregular intervals in 1805–06, continued this roguish style of satire and burlesque. Gossipy and current, filled with the latest news of the theater and other goings-on about town, or stirring up yet another literary squabble or scandal, Salmagundi is written with the innovativeness and energy of an accomplished new voice bursting upon a startled literary scene.A History of New York, publicized by an elaborate hoax in the local newspapers concerning the disappearance of the elderly “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” turned out to be a wild and hilarious spoof that combined real New York history with political satire. Quickly reprinted in England, it was admired by Walter Scott and Charles Dickens (who carried his copy in his pocket). In later years, as Irving revised and re-revised his History, he softened his gibes at Thomas Jefferson, the Dutch, and the Yankees of New England; this Library of America volume presents the work in its original, exuberant, robust, and unexpurgated form, giving modern readers a chance to enjoy the version that brought him immediate international acclaim.The Sketch Book contains Irving’s two best-loved stories, “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” It also includes many sketches of English country and city life, as well as nostalgic portraits of vanishing traditions, like the old celebrations of Christmas. One of Irving’s most captivating books, it reveals both the brilliance of his realistic depictions and his ability to appropriate European fables and themes to native purposes.A writer of great urbanity and poise, acutely sensitive to the nostalgia of a passing age, Washington Irving was a central figure in America’s emergence on the international scene.

The Three Fat Women of Antibes and Gigolo and Gigolette


W. Somerset Maugham - 1983
    

Through Elegant Eyes Stories of Austro and Men Who Know Everything


R.A. Lafferty - 1983
    

The Best Science Fiction of the Year 12


Terry Carr - 1983
    Le Guin * 197 • Understanding Human Behavior • (1982) • novelette by Thomas M. Disch * 221 • Relativistic Effects • (1982) • novelette by Gregory Benford * 243 • Firewatch • [Time Travel] • (1982) • novelette by Connie Willis (aka Fire Watch) * 283 • The Wooing of Slowboat Sadie • [Springfield] • (1982) • shortstory by George Alec Effinger [as by O. Niemand ] * 293 • With the Original Cast • (1982) • novelette by Nancy Kress * 323 • When the Fathers Go • (1982) • novelette by Bruce McAllister * 351 • The Science Fiction Year (1982) • (1983) • essay by Charles N. Brown * 359 • Recommended Reading - 1982 • (1983) • essay by Terry Carr

From the Heart of Darkness


David Drake - 1983
    This horror slams like a muzzle blast into its victim's awareness, carves its image with razor claws of violence as vivid as graphic as uncensored imagination. This horror comes from the center of the man soul, FROM THE HEART OF DARKNESS.Contents:Children of the Forest (1976)The Barrow Troll (1975)Smokie Joe (1977)The Shortest Way (1974)Dragons' Teeth (1975)Men Like Us (1980)The Automatic Rifleman (1980)Something Had to Be Done (1975)Out of Africa (1983)Best of Luck (1978)The Hunting Ground (1976)Than Curse the Darkness (1980)Blood Debt (1976)The Dancer in the Flames (1982)The Red Leer (1979)Firefight (1976)

Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair


Lewis Nordan - 1983
    

An Amateur's Guide to the Night


Mary Robison - 1983
    

Spindrift


Margaret Meyerkort - 1983
    A volume of Miscellaneous Poems, Songs, Stories collected by Kindergarten Teachers from Steiner Schools in Britain for use in their work.

From the Bottom Up


Leigh Allison Wilson - 1983
    Leigh Allison Wilson is, as one of her narrators says of the country music lover, "an inveterate truth seeker who, deep down, believes every word is at best a pack of decent lies and at worst a matter of opinion." This debut collection was one of the first two winners of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.

A Man Jumps Out of an Airplane


Barry Yourgrau - 1983
    Here are dreamscapes compressed into razor-sharp prose, where a twelve inch girl lolls in her date's spaghetti, where a warrior steps out of the Iliadas an intruder in a backyard swimming pool, where a man climbs inside a cow on a bet.Hilarious, subversive, and uniquely entertaining, Yourgrau treats readers to a circus of surreal, impish beauty, poignant flashes of tragedy, and a headstand of everyday reality.

The Ice Monkey and Other Stories


M. John Harrison - 1983
    

Mr. Death and the Redheaded Woman


Helen Eustis - 1983
    11, 1950 under the title, The Rider on the Pale Horse.

Through Many Windows


Arthur Gordon - 1983
    

Discoveries: Fifty Stories of the Quest


Harold Schechter - 1983
    Narayan, Stephen Milhauser, Ellen Gilchrist, and Patrick McGrath. Organized around the successive stages of humanity's most durable myth, the hero's quest narrative pattern delineated by renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell, this edition offers a summary and explication of Campbell's analysis of the quest motif, a new biographical introduction to Campbell's life and work, and a section of concise biographical entries on each of the fifty authors. As in the earlier edition, the quality and quantity of the selections give instructors the freedom to present the stories in whatever order and structure they choose. For those who wish to take advantage of the anthology's thematic organization, the editors provide questions for discussion and possible writing assignments that do not sacrifice the comprehensive diversity of the selections or their identity as distinctive works of literature open to various interpretations. A highly accessible introduction to the technical aspects of the close analysis of fiction, this text also offers a number of special features: two supplementary tables of contents, one organized by alternate themes, and one by the traditional elements of fiction; an introductory essay defining those technical elements and including a sample analysis of one the stories in the anthology; and a glossary of critical terms.

Me Again: Uncollected Writings of Stevie Smith


Stevie Smith - 1983
    The uncollected writings of Stevie Smith

A World of Fiction: Twenty Timeless Short Stories


Sybil MarcusGrace Paley - 1983
    Advanced students will sharpen their reading, speaking, vocabulary, and writing skills as they discover the pleasure and reward of reading fiction. This anthology provides complete and unabridged selections by: Woody Allen . Kate Chopin . Nadine Gordimer . James Joyce . D.H. Lawrence . Bernard Malamud . Katherine Mansfield . William Maxwell . Frank O Connor . Grace Paley . Anne Petry . Budd Schulberg . James Thurber . Anne Tyler . Arturo Vivante . Kurt Vonnegut . Alice Walker . Tobias Wolf . Monica Wood . Virginia Woolf FeaturesFive new stories Updated author biographies Focus on Language sections that highlight grammatical structures and vocabulary Exploration of literary elements such as time, setting, action, and motive A wide variety of stimulating discussion and writing topics "Contents:Husbands, wives, and lovers. --Can-can / Arturo Vivante --The story of an hour / Kate Chopin --Epicac / Kurt Vonnegut --The legacy / Virginia Woolf --The Kugelmass episode / Woody Allen --An intruder / Nadine Gordimer --Parent and child. --Powder / Tobias Wolff --Mother / Grace Paley --A short digest of a long novel / Budd Schulberg --The rocking-horse winner / D.H. Lawrence --The boarding house / James Joyce --My Oedipus complex / Frank O'Connor --Loneliness and alienation. --The model / Bernard Malamud --Disappearing / Monica Wood --Miss Brill / Katherine Mansfield --Teenage wasteland / Anne Tyler --Social change and injustice. --Like a winding sheet / Ann Petry --The lily-white boys / William Maxwell --The catbird seat / James Thurber --Everyday use / Alice Walker --Explanation of literary terms.

Mademoiselle Pearl


Guy de Maupassant - 1983
    Forced to select his ‘queen’ he settles on the Chantal’s housekeeper, Mademoiselle Pearl. Now looking upon Mademoiselle Pearl with a new found curiosity – while at the same time realising that the Chantal’s treat the Mademoiselle as something more than a housekeeper – Gaston questions Chantal about Mlle Pearl’s background."It's the most intriguing story I ever heard. Imagine coming into the world like that! Imagine such a boring family having such a wonderful secret."

First Love / A Fire at Sea


Ivan Turgenev - 1983
    First Love is introduced by David Cecil. A Fire at Sea is lesser known work, dictated by Turgenev in French at the end of his life in 1883, recalling an incident while he never forgot. It is introduced by Isaiah Berlin. This beautifully packaged series of classic novellas includes the works of masterful writers. Inexpensive and collectible, they are the first single-volume publications of these classic tales, offering a closer look at this underappreciated literary form and providing a fresh take on the world's most celebrated authors.

Angel in the Parlor: 5 Stories and 8 Essays


Nancy Willard - 1983
    

You Are Now Entering The Human Heart: Stories


Janet Frame - 1983
    While she is a novelist of international reputation and distinction, her first published book was a modest collection of stories about childhood, The Lagoon (1951). This selection of her shorter fiction includes work from that first collection, and from The Reservoir and Snowman Snowman (1962). It also includes a group of more recent, uncollected stories.The stories in You Are Now Entering the Human Heart range from impressions of a New Zealand childhood to sardonic yet compassionate accounts of life in some of the world's largest cities. Among them are tales of scrupulous realism, along with others which possess the haunting resonance of dream and fable. There is brilliance of style and startling variation of length -- some pieces are a page long, while one (Snowman Snowman) has the dimensions of a short novel. But however striking their differences, all of the stories glitter with those truths about language and the human spirit which lie at the heart of Janet Frame's fiction. The selection has been made by the author herself, and it gives New Zealanders the chance to rediscover the full range and power of their greatest writer of fiction since Katherine Mansfield.

Tigers Forever


Ruskin Bond - 1983
    Although he fears him, a young Indian boy is unhappy when the villagers decide to hunt the tiger that roams the forest near their home.

Vintage Thurber: A Selection Of The Best Writings And Drawings Of James Thurber: V. 1


James Thurber - 1983
    

Wine on the Desert


Max Brand - 1983
    

The Arbor House Treasury of Detective and Mystery Stories from the Great Pulps


Bill PronziniHorace McCoy - 1983
    ChampionFatal Accident - John D. MacDonaldSee no evil - William Campbell GaultCrime of Omission - John D. MacDonaldThe Girl in the Golden Cage - John Jakes

In Bed One Night & Other Brief Encounters


Robert Coover - 1983
    

The Fantasy Hall of Fame


Robert SilverbergC.L. Moore - 1983
    Merritt --The weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan / Clark Ashton Smith --The valley of the worm / Robert E. Howard --Black god's kiss / C.L. Moore --The silver key / H.P. Lovecraft --Nothing in the rules / L. Sprague De Camp --A gnome there was / Henry Kuttner --Snulbug / Anthony Boucher --The words of Guru / C.M. Kornbluth --Homecoming / Ray Bradbury --Mazirian the magician / Jack Vance --O ugly bird! / Manly Wade Wellman --The silken swift / Theodore Sturgeon --The golem / Avram Davidson --That hell-bound train / Robert Bloch --Kings in Darkness / Michael Moorcok --Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes / Harlan Ellison --Gonna roll the bones / Fritz Leiber --The ones who walk away from Omelas / Ursula K. Le Guin.

Granta 7: Best of Young British Novelists


Bill BufordLisa St. Aubin de Terán - 1983
    Who were the best young British novelists ten years ago? And who among them have emerged as the important writers of today? This classic issue of Granta (reprinted six times) collects new fiction from the twenty writers, judged in 1983, to be the best of their generation.

Orpheus and Eurydice


Menelaos Stephanides - 1983
    

The Secret of Quaking Asp Cabin and Other Stories


Zane Grey - 1983
    Secret of Quaking Asp Cabin --Blue feather --Flight of Fargo Jones --Lightning --Monty Price's nightingale

Space Odyssey: an Anthology of Great Science Fiction Stories


Robert SilverbergThomas M. Disch - 1983
    CampbellMysterious doings in the Metropolitan Museum by Fritz LeiberThe crystal egg by H.G. WellsThe Gioconda of the twilight moon by J.G. BallardThe tunnel under the world by Frederik PohlThe coffin cure by Alan E. NourseCastaway by Arthur C. ClarkeThe lost machine by John Wyndham"--And he built a crooked house--" by Robert A. HeinleinThe third expedition by Ray BradburyThe day beofre the revolution by Ursula K. LeGuinThe insect tapes by Michael Scott RohanCarrier by Robert SheckleyDescending by Thomas M. DischAbreaction by Theodore SturgeonVault of the beast by A.E. van VogtEurema's dam by R.A. LaffertyGhetto by Paul AndersonIs your child using drugs? Seven ways to recognize a drug addict by Rachel PollackThe ninth symphony of Ludwig Van Beethoven and other lost songs by Carter ScholzThe electric ant by Philip K. Roth"Arena" by Fredric BrownThe man who came back by Robert Silverberg

The Favorites: A Collection of Stories and Articles Selected by Editors of Children's Magazines


Lee WyndhamJoseph Rubinstein - 1983
    

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon (Volume 2)


Sei Shōnagon - 1983
    

The Complete Works


Urmuz - 1983
    Urmuz’s work has been claimed as a forerunner of Dada, and of Surrealism as well, and shows again the sharp sense of the vitality of the avant-garde amongst Romanian practitioners.