The American Short Story Handbook

This is a concise yet comprehensive treatment of the American short story that includes an historical overview of the topic as well as discussion of notable American authors and individual stories, from Benjamin Franklin’s “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker” in 1747 to “The Joy Luck Club”.

• Includes a selection of writers chosen not only for their contributions of individual stories but for bodies of work that advanced the boundaries of short fiction, including Washington Irving, Sarah Orne Jewett, Stephen Crane, Jamaica Kincaid, and Tim O’Brien
• Addresses the ways in which American oral storytelling and other narrative traditions were integral to the formation and flourishing of the short story genre
• Written in accessible and engaging prose for students at all levels by a renowned literary scholar to illuminate an important genre that has received short shrift in scholarly literature of the last century
• Includes a glossary defining the most common terms used in literary history and in critical discussions of fiction, and a bibliography of works for further study

"A stunning contribution by an acknowledged master of the study of the genre. With a superb introduction, choice of stories, and scholarly support, Nagel's new volume will the first choice for any reader. This is the definitive collection and handbook on the American short story."?Jeanne Reesman, University of Texas at San Antonio

?This new Handbook offers a valuable overview of the American short story with attention to individual authors and masterpieces as well as to the historical development of the form. There is no scholar who knows more about the short story in the United States than James Nagel, and students will find this book to be reliable, informative, and illuminating.??Alfred Bendixen, Princeton University

?A brilliant chronological mapping of the largely ignored genre of the American short story, by one of the master scholars of American literature. Generous in its historical inclusiveness and rich contextualization, this is far more than a ?Handbook.? It will stand for some time as the definitive work in the field as it establishes the emerging tradition and the canon of the American short story.??Gloria Cronin, Brigham Young University

James Nagel is the Eidson Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Georgia and a Visiting Scholar at Dartmouth College, USA. He is President of the Society for the Study of the American Short Story and Former President of the International Ernest Hemingway Society.  Early in his career he founded the scholarly journal Studies in American Fiction and the widely influential series Critical Essays on American Literature, which published 156 volumes of scholarship.  Among his twenty-three books are Stephen Crane and Literary Impressionism (1980), Hemingway in Love and War (1989, which was made into a Hollywood film starring Sandra Bullock), The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle (2001), Anthology of The American Short Story (2007), The Blackwell Companion to the American Short Story (Wiley Blackwell, 2010), and Race and Culture in Stories of New Orleans (2014). He has been a Fulbright Professor as well as a Rockefeller Fellow. He has published some eighty articles in the field and lectured on American literature in fifteen countries.

The Handbook of the American Short Story is a concise yet comprehensive treatment of the topic that is designed to illuminate an important literary genre that has been given short scholarly shrift over the last century. Written by a renowned literary scholar in accessible and engaging prose for students at all levels, it provides an historical overview of the topic, as well as discussion of notable American authors and individual stories. The author examines the literary history of the genre from Benjamin Franklin's "The Speech of Miss Polly Baker" in 1747 to Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" in 1819 to "The Joy Luck Club". He covers the intellectual and historical conditions that contributed to the stories of each age, the ideas and themes that emerged in the movement, and the artistic means of expression common to the era. The book includes a selection of writers chosen not only for their contributions of individual stories but for their bodies of work that advanced the boundaries of short fiction. The selected writers, including Edgar Allen Poe, Sarah Orne Jewett, Stephen Crane, Jamaica Kincaid, and Tim O'Brien, represent the chronological flow of the form, both genders, and a variety of ethnicities and nationalities. The final section of the book offers detailed exegesis of 30 great individual stories. With a glossary of important terms and a bibliography for further study, this is a seminal introduction that will expand and challenge readers' understanding of the American short story.

The Handbook of the American Short Story is a concise yet comprehensive treatment of the topic that is designed to illuminate an important literary genre that has been given short scholarly shrift over the last century.

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