The short story has thrived in America from the moment that we began to develop our own secular literature,free from slavish imitation of Anglo-European fcrms and from subordinafion to religious function．From Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James in the nineteenth century to Ernest Hemingway and Wnliam Faulkner in the twentieth, most of our greatest novelists have also written great short stories．Many other American writers，without achieving equal mastery in the Ionger novel，have excelled in the short story．Such writers as Edgar Allan Poe。Sherwood Anderson．and Kalherine Anne Porter come immediately tomind...

"PARKER ADDERSON, PHILOSOPHER"

by AMBROSE BIERCE

A wry, wisecracking Civil War spy is awaiting execution, but his last interrogation by a Confederate general leads to events neither could foresee. Ambrose Bierce uses his favorite device of "reversal of character" to create this natural vehicle for a haunting film about physical--and spiritual violence.

"BERNICE BOBS HER HAIR"

by E SCOTT FITZGERALD

Advice on how to become popular with young men backfires for two young women in a story written in the Jazz Age, but is immediately familiar as a right-on-target study of modern flirting, dating, and relationships.

"ALMOS’A MAN"

by RICHARD WRIGHT

When David, a black farm laborer of seventeen, is ridiculed because he wants to be treated like a man, he decides that owning a gun will gain him the respect he seeks in this deeply moving story by one of America’s greatest African American writers.

Foreword by Robert Gener

Introduction by Calvin Skaggs

"Parker Adderson, Philosopher" by Ambrose Bierce

 Scenes from Parker Adderson, Philosopher,

   by Arthur Barron

 "On Ambrose Bierce..." by Alfred Kazin

"The Blue Hotel" by Stephen Crane

 Scene from The Blue Hotel, by H. M. Petrakie

 Interview with Jan Kadar

 "On Stephen Crane..." by Alfred Kazin

"The Jolly Corner" by Henry James

 Scenes from The Jolly Corner,

   by Arthur Barron

"On Henry James..." by Henry Nash Smith

"I’m a Fool" by Sherwood Anderson

 Scene from I’m a Fool, by Ron Cowen

 "On Sherwood Anderson ..." by Jordan Pecile

"Bernice Bobs Her Hair" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 Bernice Bobs Her Hair, screenplay by

   Joan Micklin Silver

 Interview with Joan Micklin Silver

"On F. Scott Fitzgerald..."

   by Matthew Bnccoli

"Soldier’s Home" by Ernest Hemingway

 Soldier’s Home, screenplay by Robert Geler

 "On Ernest Hemingway..." by Earl govit

"Almos’ a Man" by Richard Wright

 Scene from Almos’ a Man, by leslie Lee

 "On Richard Wrisht..." by Fred Stealths

"The Displaced Person" by Flannery O’Connor

Scenes from The Displaced Person,

  by Horton Foote

Interview with Horton Foote

"On Flannery O’Connor...!’ by James M. Cox

"The Music School" by John Updike

 The Music School, screenplay by John Korty

"On John Updike..." by Joyce Markle