# Best American short story ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2006, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037 "2006-07-03T13:51:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/21 "2006-07-03T16:49:00Z")
Stephen King’s short story collection in \*\*Night Shift \*\* is arguably his finest writing. “Quitters Inc.” “The Ledge” and especially “Last Rung of the Ladder” are outstanding. Throw in “Sometimes They Come Back” and “I Know What You Need” and this makes for a must-have for your short story anthologies. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/22 "2006-07-03T16:55:20Z")
_The Yellow Wallpaper_ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman should probably be on the list. Some stuff by Dashiel Hamett Continental Op series would probably be a good addition. I can’t think of the story names off the top of my head, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/23 "2006-07-03T16:58:07Z")
For me, there’s always [_Spinning in Infinity_, Part One](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6430943&postcount=246), and [_Spinning in Infinity_, Part Two](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6430951&postcount=247). Probably doesn’t quite meet the requirements of the OP, cause it’s not printed on dead tree, but it sure is a terrific story. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/24 "2006-07-03T17:21:10Z")
Most of what I know is science fiction, but the best science fiction short story ever, in my opinion, is Larry Niven’s “Inconstant Moon”. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/25 "2006-07-03T17:32:31Z")
Well, if you’re sticking to literary, highbrow type stuff, Gigi’s already mentioned both “A Rose for Emily” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” I’d have to toss a coin to decide between those two. Jack London’s “Love of Life” and possibly “The Apostate” also need serious consideration. If you’re going to include popular material, I’d strongly advise Larry Niven’s “All the Myriad Ways.” Although it’s technically science fiction, this is possibly the creepiest horror story I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/26 "2006-07-03T17:47:05Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] Flannery O’Connor…how FREEKIN’ 'bout it? [/QUOTE] Yup yup!! She ties with Jane Austen for my collections to take to a desert island. It would take my years to see all the symbols, even the ones she didn’t mean as symbols. There was some quote she had about making a brown hat brown: it had to be some color and she chose brown, case closed. Nothing to read into it. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/27 "2006-07-03T17:49:49Z")
I’m going to vote for **The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber**. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/28 "2006-07-03T17:53:28Z")
Any ‘best ever short story’ list has to include Damon Runyon. I nominate ‘The Idyll Of Miss Sarah Brown’. And maybe Jeffrey Deaver’s short story collection, ‘Twisted’, is so recent that one might argue his work hasn’t yet proved it can stand the test of time. But it’s a brilliant collection of stories, demonstrating a wide range of story telling talents. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/29 "2006-07-03T18:07:46Z")
[QUOTE=wolf in second hand clothing] Or **Flowers for Algernon** I forget the author [/QUOTE] Daniel Keyes. (I know that even without getting up and walking across to the bookshelves. I am such a nerd.) [QUOTE=Chronos] Most of what I know is science fiction, but the best science fiction short story ever, in my opinion, is Larry Niven’s “Inconstant Moon”. [/QUOTE] Not “Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation”? C’mon, it has the greatest title ever, taken from Frank J. Tipler’s famous paper about the frame dragging effects of said rotating (“infinitely long”) [Tipler cylinders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipler_Cylinder) under GR and the mechanism for preservation of causality (which itself is a paradox). Not the best writing in any technical sense but a great premise, non? While there’s some great SF out there (and IMHO, most SF works best in short story format), I’m actually going to throw my vote in for Vonnegut’s short, “Who Am I This Time?”, found in his collection _Welcome To The Monkey House_. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/30 "2006-07-03T18:41:00Z")
[QUOTE=Sam Stone] I’m going to vote for **The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber**. [/QUOTE] Go **Sam Stone**! I’m kinda surprised no one else has noted it after my original mention - it really is amazing. Hemingway wrote many great ones, but that one is amazing. I saw the original manuscript right before it sold at auction for some ungodly amount… ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/31 "2006-07-03T18:41:25Z")
**Mrs. Parker** was no slouch as a short-story writer: _Big Blonde, A Telephone Call, Lady with a Lamp, Horsie, The Standard of Living_ . . . ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/32 "2006-07-03T18:43:08Z")
_“The Tell-Tale Heart”_ by Edgar Allan Poe _““Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman”_ by Harlan Ellison _“Victory Unintentional”_ by Isaac Asimov ---
**Author:** ![DirkGntly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/33 "2006-07-03T18:45:05Z")
[QUOTE=LunaV] Anything by Poe! He’s a master… A few that stayed with me were: _An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge_ - Ambrose Pierce \*The Rocking-Horse Winner \* - DH Lawrence \*The Necklace \* - Guy de Maupassant [/QUOTE] Wasn’t “The Necklace” the one where, at the end, he takes off the ribbon necklace, and her head falls off?? ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/34 "2006-07-03T18:48:56Z")
[QUOTE=Sam Stone] I’m going to vote for **The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber**. [/QUOTE] I’ll third that one. “The Lottery” and the aforementioned Stephen King shorts are also amazing. King is especially impressive considering his stock in trade is 1500 page mega epics; the skill set required to write _The Stand_ or _It_ is so different from that required to write “The Last Rung of The Ladder” (and different again from the skills required to write short novels such as _The Running Man_ or _Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redepmtion_) that it astonishes me that King does all three so well. Oh, and nobody asked me, but my favorite short story of all time, period (American or not) is W. Somerset Maugham’s “Rain.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/35 "2006-07-03T19:08:36Z")
Off the top: “The Lottery” “Rocket Man” “And There Will Come Soft Rains” “All of Summer in a Day” “Bartleby the Scrivner” “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (I’m a huge Bradbury fan, if you can’t tell). ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/36 "2006-07-03T19:11:56Z")
[QUOTE=DirkGntly] Wasn’t “The Necklace” the one where, at the end, he takes off the ribbon necklace, and her head falls off?? [/QUOTE] Nope, it’s the one where the lady borrows an expensive necklace, loses it, works all her life at crappy jobs to repay her friend, and then finds out the necklace was a cheap fake. Bummer. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/37 "2006-07-03T19:17:04Z")
As far as Bradbury goes, \*All Summer In A Day \* is my favorite. But jayzuz, what a depressing read. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/38 "2006-07-03T19:17:54Z")
[QUOTE=DirkGntly] Wasn’t “The Necklace” the one where, at the end, he takes off the ribbon necklace, and her head falls off?? [/QUOTE] The one you mentioned was in a collection of Italian folk tales I had. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/39 "2006-07-03T19:41:30Z")
It’s not the greatest of all time, but you did ask for personal favorites: while I do like the other Harlan Ellison stories already mentioned, I’d like to slip in a nomination for one that’s a favorite of mine: **Grail**. It’s about the search for true love, and what happens when you find it, with some demons thrown in. And for Ray Bradbury, I nominate **The Jar**. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/40 "2006-07-03T19:43:48Z")
Are any of Harlan Ellison’s crime/gang stories still in print? I remember one about a gang of teenaged bank robbers who were always super-polite and, if they saw someone with a really nice silk tie, took it as well. It was in one of those Pyramid antholigies from the 70s, either **Gentleman Junkie** or **No Doors, No Windows**. More recently, “The Cats” by John Updike and “Can I Get a Kosher Meal?” by Saul Bellow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037.md?page=3)