These Pulitzer Prize-winning stories represent the major short works of fiction by one of the most distinctively American stylists of her day. Jean Stafford communicates the small details of loneliness and connection, the search for freedom and the desire to belong, that not only illuminate whole lives but also convey with an elegant economy of words the sense of the place and time in which her protagonists find themselves. This volume also includes the acclaimed story "An Influx of Poets," which has never before appeared in book form.

Praise

"The appearance of these stories in one volume is an event in our literature. To have built up so distinguished a collection, each story excellent in its own way and each an original departure in relation to the others, is a triumph. " --Guy Davenport, New York Times Book Review

About the Author(s)

Jean Stafford

Jean Stafford (1915-79) was the author of three novels as well as several children's and nonfiction books. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1970.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Joyce Carol Oates
Author's Note

The Innocents Abroad
Maggie Meriwether's Rich Experience
The Children's Game
The Echo and the Nemesis
The Maiden
A Modest Proposal
Caveat Emptor

The Bostonians, and Other Manifestations of the American Scene
Life Is No Abyss
The Hope Chest
Polite Conversation
A Country Love Story
The Bleeding Heart
The Lippia Lawn
The Interior Castle

Cowboys and Indians, and Magic Mountains
The Healthiest Girl in Town
The Tea Time of Stouthearted Ladies
The Mountain Day
The Darkening Moon
Bad Characters
In the Zoo
The Liberation
A Reading Problem
A Summer Day
The Philosophy Lesson

Manhattan Island
Children Are Bored on Sunday
Beatrice Trueblood's Story
Between the Porch and the Altar
I Love Someone
Cops and Robbers
The Captain's Gift
The End of a Career

An Influx of Poets