Milton Crane's 50 Great Short Stories
This book was in my parents' library when I was growing up, and through it I was introduced to writing that influenced my own work. I've gone on to teach many of these stories, which are a part of the canon of American literature and appear in numerous anthologies. It is convenient to have all these lifelong favorites in one compilation. Published 60 years ago, the individual stories in this collection not only define a time and a genre, but have endured as exemplars for anyone seeking to identify what it means to write an effective narrative.
