# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/41 "2006-07-03T19:49:15Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle] 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. [/QUOTE] A good short story, but not American. It did, however, serve as the inspiration for Henry James’ short story _Paste_. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/42 "2006-07-03T19:52:55Z")
[QUOTE=minlokwat] 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. [/QUOTE] I loved Rock n Roll heaven or Poppy ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/43 "2006-07-03T19:53:14Z")
[QUOTE=ddgryphon] “And There Will Come Soft Rains” (I’m a huge Bradbury fan, if you can’t tell). [/QUOTE] Oooo I forgot about that one! Amazing story… Er…am I the only one who dislikes Flannery O’Conner? I’ve read many of her stories as lit requirements and can’t stand them. Too allegorical for my taste. ---
**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, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/44 "2006-07-03T19:56:28Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] 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. [/QUOTE] :smack: Oops. Make that _Spinning in the Sunlight_. ---
**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, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/45 "2006-07-03T19:58:35Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] Oh, and nobody asked me, but my favorite short story of all time, period (American or not) is W. Somerset Maugham’s “Rain.” 😃 [/QUOTE] Me, too, but it’s called _Miss Thompson_ (1921). Stage adapter John Colton retitled it _Rain_. (See Joan Crawford’s version, she’s terrific!) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/46 "2006-07-03T20:09:02Z")
Nothing by O Henry? Too bad Saki wasn’t American; “Shredni Vashtar” is one of the best short stories ever. Hard to narrow it down. But my top 100 would have to include “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts” by Shirley Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/47 "2006-07-03T20:17:59Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Nothing by O Henry? [/QUOTE] Good call on the glaring omission. I’ll nominate _The Ransom of Red Chief_. ---
**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, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/48 "2006-07-03T20:57:48Z")
[QUOTE=LunaV] Er…am I the only one who dislikes Flannery O’Conner? I’ve read many of her stories as lit requirements and can’t stand them. Too allegorical for my taste. [/QUOTE] I am very literal-minded and enjoy them just for the starkness of the actual action. Plus I read them when I was a kid and didn’t know much about allegory. That’s why I should be \*\*forced \*\* to go the desert island; to have to figure out what they really mean! ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/49 "2006-07-03T21:36:55Z")
I love most of the stories mentioned so far. I’d like to nominate “Rappacini’s Daughter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” by Mark Twain. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/50 "2006-07-03T22:48:25Z")
[“Paper Pills”](http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Sherwood_Anderson/Winesburg_Ohio/PAPER_PILLS_concerning_Doctor_Reefy_p1.html) - **Sherwood Anderson** (1919) (I can’t believe no one has mentioned Anderson. [“Hands”](http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Sherwood_Anderson/Winesburg_Ohio/HANDS_concerning_Wing_Biddlebaum_p1.html) is also exceptionally good.) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/51 "2006-07-04T00:27:23Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Nothing by O Henry? Too bad Saki wasn’t American; “Shredni Vashtar” is one of the best short stories ever. Hard to narrow it down. But my top 100 would have to include “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts” by Shirley Jackson. [/QUOTE] **Baldwin** , we may like many of the same stories! I love both O.Henry and Saki(H.H. Munro). I named one of my cats Tobermory, for Saki’s story of the same name. Best description of “cattitude” ever! And Saki’s “The Toys of Peace” could be a story written today. I have a whole book of the man’s work, and get it out when I run into a thread like this. Where Saki was the epitome of Britishness, O. Henry is the same for Americans. I read “After Twenty Years” in high school, and it was one of the few stories in our text that I liked. Sad, though. “The Caliph, the Cupid, and the Clock” has a happy ending, but there’s also a surprise. A twist at the end was common in O.Henry stories. And it contains one of the first depictions of a drug addict I’ve read, in U.S. literature. Then there’s “Mammon and the Archer” about the triumph of true love(oh really?) and “Memoirs of a Yellow Dog”, told from the viewpoint of a housepet. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/52 "2006-07-04T02:13:23Z")
I’ll have to nominate _The Cop and the Anthem_ or the timeless _The Gift of the Magi_ for O. Henry, but I liked _The Ransom of Red Chief_ too. Definately something by E.A. Poe, probably either _The Tell-Tale Heart_ or _The Cask of Amontillado_. _A Rose For Emily_ isn’t Poe, but it’s very much in the same vein, and superbly written. And while I dispise Shirley Jackson on the whole, _The Lottery_ is one of the best short stories I’ve ever read. And you’ve got to include Mark Twain in an American Short Stories class- _The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County_ is a classic. I’ll second **pinkfreud** on _Rappacini’s Daughter_ by Hawthorne, too. Science Fiction is very American and has a fantastic tradition of short stories; you’d be hard pressed to find an author in the genre who hasn’t written at least a few stories. If you want a really short one, try _Punch_ by Frederick Pohl; it’s maybe a page and a half long. Some good middle-length SF might inculde Heinlein’s _The Menace from Earth_ or If a longer, almost novella-type is more what you’re looking for, _Flowers for Algernon_ is wonderful, and Heinlein’s _By His Bootstraps_ is a fantastic exercise in time travel. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/53 "2006-07-04T03:02:37Z")
My favorite from Ray Bradbury’s _Martian Chronicles_ was the one about the guy left alone on Mars who kept from going crazy with the hobby of making phone recordings timed to start playing back to him later in life… designed to make him go crazy. Another vote for Ambrose Bierce. I read an anthology of his Civil War stories at the same time as I did a new translation of Issac Babel’s Red Cavalry stories that was being lavishly praised by reviewers. Bierce was very much superior to Babel on a similar theme. I regret that we’ve reached page 2 of this thread and no mention yet of John Cheever. (John Cheever. There, now I’m happy) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/54 "2006-07-04T04:08:57Z")
My favorite short story writer of all time is Frank O’Connor. You can decide for yourself whether he was “American.” He was born and raised in Ireland and most of his stories are set in Ireland… but lived most of his adult life in the USA and published most of his greatest stories in “The New Yorker.” His two best stories are “Guests of the Nation” (which inspired “The Crying Game,” even though there weren’t any transvestites in it!) and “Christmas Morning.” ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/55 "2006-07-04T15:41:37Z")
One of the greatest short stories that I have read was “Saul Bird Says: Relate, Communicate! Liberate!” by Joyce Carrol Oates. It has a retro plot, giving a quasi-insiders view of what went on during the campus unrest of the 60s and 70s, and in the minds of those that were led by the radicals. Has some great psychological subplots and some brilliant irony. I think that it won a Pulitzer Prize or something like that in 1971. It is rare enough to give students a refreshing break from the standard junk that can be found in any Short Story classes. I also second “The Man Who Corrupted Hadleysburg.” hh ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/56 "2006-07-04T16:50:08Z")
I’ll add my votes to: _An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge_ and _To Build a Fire_ Oddly similar stories, huh? ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/57 "2006-07-04T21:18:48Z")
[Light of Other Days](http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/shaw/shaw1.html) by Bob Shaw has always been one of my favorite SF stories. Any of J.D. Salinger’s short works are pretty interesting. I like _Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters_ and _For Esme With Love and Squalor_. ---
**Author:** ![Yamirskoonir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/c0e974/32.png) [@Yamirskoonir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yamirskoonir)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/58 "2006-07-05T20:49:04Z")
Salinger, Salinger, Salinger! Bradbury, Bradbury, Bradbury! Also: _A Tree, a Rock, a Cloud_, Carson McCullers _A Clean, Well-lighted Place_, Ernest Hemingway And I strongly second _The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber_ and _The Yellow Wallpaper._ Also, I’m terribly fond of Scott Bradfield’s _Penguins for Lunch_, but perhaps it’s not a “must read.” ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/59 "2006-07-05T21:46:10Z")
Not sure it would qualify for Best Ever, but some sort of mention should go to _The Catbird Seat_ by James Thurber. ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037/60 "2006-07-06T00:52:35Z")
This thread yanked me out of long-time-lurking mode, because I had to throw my support behind: Cathedral by Raymond Carver (runners-up: Neighbors and Fat) Kiss by Tobias Wolff The Moor by Russell Banks and A&P by Updike and another tip o’ the hat to Gift of the Magi [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-american-short-story-ever/363037.md?page=4)