Katrina Kenison has been the series editor of The Best American Short Stories since 1990. She currently resides
in Massachusetts.
Updike, John :
John Updike is the author of numerous books, including the acclaimed Rabbit novels, Couples, In the Beauty of
the Lilies, and Bech at Bay. His novels have won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book
Award, the National Book Critics' Circle Award, and the William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of
Arts and Letters. Recently he received the 1998 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to
American Letters.
Summary
Since the series' inception in 1915, the annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories have launched literary
careers, showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmed for all time the significance of the
short story in our national literature. Now THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURY brings together the
best of the best - fifty-five extraordinary stories that represent a century's worth of unsurpassed accomplishments
in this quintessentially American literary genre. Here are the stories that have endured the test of time: masterworks
by such writers as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Saroyan, Flannery
O'Connor, John Cheever, Eudora Welty, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, Cynthia Ozick, and scores
of others. These are the writers who have shaped and defined the landscape of the American short story, who have
unflinchingly explored all aspects of the human condition, and whose works will continue to speak to us as we enter
the next century. Their artistry is represented splendidly in these pages. THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES series
has also always been known for making literary discoveries, and discovery proved to be an essential part of selecting
the stories for this volume too. Collections from years past yielded a rich harvest of surprises, stories that
may have been forgotten but still retain their relevance and luster. The result is a volume that not only gathers
some of the most significant stories of our century between two covers but resurrects a handful of lost literary
gems as well. Of all the great writers whose work has appeared in the series, only John Updike's contributions
have spanned five consecutive decades, from his first appearance, in 1959, to his most recent, in 1998. Updike
worked with coeditor Katrina Kenison to choose stories from each decade that meet his own high standards of literary
quality.