I started thinking about Updike and how I said in my recent post it’s his short stories that work best for me, when I was trying to get back to sleep last night after something woke me up. That started me thinking about writers whose short stories I have loved (in a few cases, like Updike’s, more than their other writing, e.g. Hemingway). I had trouble with some letters, maybe you can prod my memory:
ANDERSON, SHERWOOD
BECKETT, SAMUEL, JORGE LUIS BORGES and DONALD BARTHELME
CHEKHOV, ANTON and KATE CHOPIN
D?
E?
FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT
GELLHORN, MARTHA, WILLIAM H. GASS, RICHARD GRAYSON and MERRILL GILFILLAN (see GRASSHOPPER FALLS)
HAWTHRONE, NATHANIEL and ERNEST HEMINGWAY [can't believe I left off DALE HERD, one of my all time most favorite short story writers!]
I?
JAMES, HENRY, JAMES JOYCE, SARAH ORNE JEWETT and LEROI JONES (his TALES, written before he changed his name to AMIRA BARAKA, was one of my favorite books back in the ‘60s and still is, more like prose poems than stories)
KAFKA, FRANZ and JACK KEROUAC
LEE, ANDREA (see INTERESTING WOMEN)
MAUPASSANT, GUY DE
NABOKOV, VLADMIR
O’CONNOR, FRANK and FLANNERY O’CONNOR
POWERS, MAGDALEN
Q?
RILKE, RAINER MARIA (his STORIES OF GOD) and JEAN RHYS
SAROYAN, WILLIAM and HUBERT SELBY JR.
TURGENEV, IVAN and JEAN TOOMER
UPDIKE, JOHN
VONNEGUT, KURT
WILLIAMS, WILLIAM CARLOS and TERENCE WINCH (check out CONTENDERS)
X?
Y?
Z?
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6 comments:
You have these letters already, but Stephen King, believe it or not, has written many fantastic short stories including The Body, which was turned into the movie "Stand By Me" with River Phoenix.
And Truman Capote; one of my all time favorites being "Children On Their Birthdays," and the incredible "A Christmas Memory," perhaps one of the least-sentimental but deeply emotional stories ever written.
James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" is one of my favorite shorts, no doubt because I lived a similar New York story. Tried some of his other work - it did nothing for me.
And what of Ray Carver?
Nice additions. I dug Baldwin and Capote. King's written a few I admire as well. Carver's I admire, but I have to admit they're not stories I want to read again. There was always something missing for me, and after all the noise about the editorial decisions that were only revealed posthumously, it made sense to me.
Dear M:
Tobias Wolfe is my favorite short-story writer. Ann Beattie's early stories are really good. Andre Dubos, Flannery O'Connor, and Louise Erdrich would be on my list as well. J. D. Salinger?
yrs,
TPW
Yeah J. D. Salinger I thought of (Flannery's on there) but wasn't sure if SYEMOUR and RAISE HIGH THE ROOFBEAM CARPENTER are considered short stories of novellas. Dubos (sp.?) is good too as are Erdrich and early Beattie. So I guess I agree with you! I've read some of Alice Munro's stories that I dug too, but not enough to make a call.
M:
I was thinking of Salinger's 9 Stories (isn't that the actual title?)---you know, "A Perfect Day for Banana Fish," "For Esme, with Love and Squalor," etc. Have you read Tobias Wolfe?
TPW
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