The Best American Short Stories is a yearly anthology that's part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS has anthologized more than 2,000 short stories,[1] including works by some of the most famous writers in contemporary American literature. Along with the O. Henry Awards, Best American Short Stories is one of the two "best-known annual anthologies of short fiction."[2]
1915-1941: Origin and early history under Edward O'Brien
The series began in 1915, when Edward O'Brien edited his selection of the previous year's stories. This first edition was serialized in a magazine; however, it caught the attention of the publishing company Small, Maynard & Company, which published subsequent editions until 1926, when the title was transferred to Dodd, Mead and Company.
The time appeared to be a propitious one for such a collection. The most popular magazines of the day featured short fiction prominently and frequently; the best authors were well-known and well-paid. More importantly, there was a nascent movement toward higher standards and greater experimentation among certain American writers. O'Brien capitalized on this moment. He was deeply and vocally skeptical of the value of commercial short fiction, which tended to the formulaic and sentimental; he insisted, in introduction after introduction, on the need for a consciously literary development of the short story. He used his selections to reinforce this call. Over the years of his editorship, he drew attention to two generations of American authors, from Sherwood Anderson and Edna Ferber to Richard Wright and Irwin Shaw. Perhaps the most significant instance of O'Brien's instincts involves Ernest Hemingway; O'Brien anthologized that author's "My Old Man" when it had not even been published yet, and was, moreover, instrumental in finding an American publisher for In Our Time. (He also dedicated the 1923 edition to the young author, while misspelling his name “Hemenway.”) O'Brien was known to work indefatigably: he claimed to read around 8,000 stories a year, and his editions contained lengthy tabulations of stories and magazines, ranked on a scale of three stars (representing O'Brien's notion of their "literary permanence").
Though the series attained a degree of fame and popularity, it was never universally accepted. Fans of the period's popular fiction often found his selections precious or willfully obscure. On the other hand, many critics who accepted "literary" fiction objected to O'Brien's occasionally strident and pedantic tone. After his death, for instance, The New Yorker compared him to the recently deceased editor of the Social Register, suggesting that they shared a form of snobbery.
1941-1978: Editorship of Martha Foley
O'Brien died of a heart attack in London in 1941. He was replaced as editor of the series by Martha Foley, founder and former editor of Story magazine. O'Brien, who had once called Story one of the most important events in literary history since the publication of Lyrical Ballads, presumably would have approved the choice. Foley edited the publication, at first alone and then with the assistance of her son, David Burnett, until 1977. These years witnessed both the ascendancy and eclipse of the type of short story favored by O'Brien: writers as diverse as John Cheever, Bernard Malamud, Joyce Carol Oates, and Tillie Olsen offered sharply observed, generally realistic stories that eschewed trite conventions. At the same time, Foley evinced some degree of awareness of the new currents in fiction. Donald Barthelme, for instance, was chosen for The School in 1976. Foley also attended to the rise of so-called minority literature, dedicating the 1975 volume to Leslie Marmon Silko, although it has been argued that the series was less perceptive in this area than it might have been.
Since 1978
After Foley's death, the publisher—by that time, Houghton Mifflin—elected to take the series in a new direction. Under the guidance of a series editor (Shannon Ravenel 1978–1990, Katrina Kenison 1991–2006, Heidi Pitlor 2007– ), a different writer of reputation would select the contents and introduce the volume each year. The editor would choose the best twenty stories from 120 stories recommended by the series editor. This format has been followed since, although the guest editor has occasionally gone beyond what the series editor recommended (e.g., John Gardner in 1982).
In 2002, Houghton-Mifflin made the series part of its broader Best American series.
The Best American Short Stories of the Century; 100 Years of The Best American Short Stories
In 2000, John Updike selected 22 unabridged stories from the first 84 annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories, and the result is The Best American Short Stories of the Century. The expanded CD audio edition includes a new story from The Best American Short Stories 1999 to round out the century.
In 2015, Lorrie Moore served as the guest editor for a centennial anthology from the series, 100 Years of The Best American Short Stories.
Critical reception
The Best American Short Stories series "became a repository of values" with relation to university creative writing programs and literary magazines, and has "exerted influence" in college libraries, short fiction courses, and fiction workshops.[3]
Many of the individual volumes of the series have been highly praised[4][5][6] while The Best American Short Stories of the Century, which reprinted stories from volumes published during the 20th century, was called a "spectacular tapestry of fictional achievement."[7]
It has also been noted that the individual volumes provide a running judgement of tastes regarding short stories across the decades. As critic Richard Eder wrote in The New York Times in 1999, "Instead of a strictly contemporary judgment we have a running one: These were the stories that judges in the 1930's, 40's and 50's chose. We get a sense of how we and our writers have changed. And we avoid the deadly ahistorical numbness of ourselves talking to ourselves.[8]
^"The Best American Short Stories of the Century," Publishers Weekly, 3/8/1999, volume 246, issue 10, page 47.
^"Short and Sweet" by Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly, 11/05/99, issue 511, page 73.
^"'Long-Cellared Wine': 'Double Birthday,' Edward J. H. O'Brien, and the Best American Short Stories Series" by Timothy W. Bintrim and Scott Riner, Willa Cather Review, spring 2023, volume 64, issue 1, page 18.
^"The Best American Short Stories, 2021" by Emily Park, Booklist, 9/15/2021, Vol. 118, Issue 2, page 17.
^"The Best American Short Stories, 2020" by Emily Park, Booklist, 10/15/2020, Vol. 117, Issue 4, page 23.
Years of BASS, a year spent reading back issues of BASS 1978–2009. Includes spreadsheet of all stories and authors. Additional information including original publications where the stories first appeared.
