The Oxford Book of American Short Stories Read online

  The Oxford Book of

  AMERICAN

  SHORT

  STORIES

  Edited by

  JOYCE CAROL OATES

  Copyright © 1992

  ISBN 0-19-509262-7

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The editor and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint the following material.

  ALICE ADAMS: "Alaska" from Return Trips by Alice Adams. Copyright © 1984 by Alice Adams. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

  SHERWOOD ANDERSON: "The Strength of God" from Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. Copyright 1919 by B. W. Huebsch. Copyright 1947 by Eleanor Copenhaver Anderson. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.

  JAMES BALDWIN: "Sonny's Blues." Copyright © 1957 by James Baldwin. From Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Double-day Dell Publishing Group, Inc., and the James Baldwin Estate.

  DONALD BARTHELME: "The School." Copyright © 1982 by Donald Barthelme. Reprinted by permission of Wylie, Aitken & Stone, Inc.

  SAUL BELLOW: "Something To Remember Me By." Copyright © 1990 by Saul Bellow. Reprinted by permission of Harriet Was-serman Literary Agency, Inc.

  PINCKNEY BENEDICT: "Town Smokes" from Town Smokes. Copyright © 1987 by Pinckney Benedict. Published by The Ontario Review Press and reprinted by permission of The Ontario Review Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

  PAUL BOWLES: "A Distant Episode" from A Distant Episode: The Selected Stories. Copyright © 1988 by Paul Bowles. Published by The Ecco Press and reprinted by permission of The Ecco Press, New York, and Peter Owen Publishers, London.

  RAY BRADBURY: "There Will Come Soft Rains." Reprinted by permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc. Copyright © 1950, renewed 1977 by Ray Bradbury. Poem by Sara Teasdale reprinted with permission of Macmillan Publishing Company from Collected Poems of Sara Teasdale. Copyright 1920 by Macmillan Publishing Company, renewed 1948 by Mamie T. Wheless.

  RAYMOND CARVER: "Are These Actual Miles?" first appeared in Esquire as "What Is It?" and included in Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, published by McGraw-Hill and to be reissued by Vintage. Copyright © 1972 by Raymond Carver. Reprinted by permission of Tess Gallagher.

  JOHN CHEEVER: "The Death of Justina" from The Stories of John Cheever. Copyright © 1960 by John Cheever. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Jonathan Cape, Ltd.

  KATE CHOPIN: "The Storm." Reprinted by permission of Louisiana State University Press from The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, by Per Seyersted, copyright © 1969.

  SANDRA CISNEROS: "The House on Mango Street," "What Sally Said," "Linoleum Roses," and "A House of My Own" from The House on Mango Street. Copyright © 1989 by Sandra Cisneros. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House. Originally published in somewhat different form by Arte Publico Press in 1984; revised 1988. Reprinted by permission of Susan Bergholz Literary Services, New York.

  RALPH ELLISON: "Battle Royal" from Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Copyright 1948 by Ralph Ellison. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.

  LOUISE ERDRICH: "Fleur" as it appeared in Esquire. Copyright © 1988 by Louise Erdrich. Reprinted by arrangement with the author.

  WILLIAM FAULKNER: "That Evening Sun" from Collected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner. Copyright 1931 and renewed 1959 by William Faulkner. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc., New York, and Curtis Brown, Ltd., London.

  F. SCOTT FITZGERALD: "An Alcoholic Case." Reprinted with permission of Charles Scribner's Sons, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Company, from The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Malcolm Cowley. Copyright 1937 by Esquire, Inc.; copyright renewal © 1965 by Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan.

  ERNEST HEMINGWAY: "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." Reprinted with permission of Charles Scribner's Sons, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Company, and Jonathan Cape Ltd., from Winner Take Nothing by Ernest Hemingway. Copyright 1933 by Charles Scribner's Sons; renewal copyright © 1961 by Mary Hemingway.

  LANGSTON HUGHES: "Red-Headed Baby" from The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes. Copyright 1934 and renewed 1962 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Harold Ober Associates, Inc.

  DAVID LEAVITT: "Gravity" from A Place I've Never Been by David Leavitt. Copyright © 1990 by David Leavitt. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA, Inc.

  URSULA K. LE GUIN: "Texts." Copyright © 1990 by Ursula K. Le Guin; first appeared in American Short Fiction by permission of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project; reprinted from The Sound of Writing by permission of Ursula K. Le Guin and the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project.

  BERNARD MALAMUD: "My Son the Murderer" from Rembrandt's Hat by Bernard Malamud. Copyright © 1968, 1973 by Bernard Malamud. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., and Russell&Volkening, Inc., as agents for the author.

  BOBBIE ANN MASON: "Big Bertha Stories" from Love Life by Bobbie Ann Mason. Copyright © 1988 by Bobbie Ann Mason. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

  BHARATI MUKHERJEE: "The Management of Grief" from The Middleman and Other Stories by Bharati Mukherjee. Copyright © 1988 by Bharati Mukherjee. Reprinted by permission of Grove Press, Inc., Penguin Books Canada, Ltd., and Bharati Mukherjee.

  TIM O'BRIEN: "The Things They Carried." Copyright © 1990 by Tim O'Brien. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company/Seymour Lawrence. All rights reserved.

  FLANNERY O'CONNOR: "A Late Encounter with the Enemy" from A Good Man Is Hard To Find and Other Stories. Copyright 1953 by Flannery O'Connor and renewed 1981 by Mrs. Re-gina O'Connor, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., and Harold Matson Company, Inc.

  JOYCE CAROL OATES: "Heat" from Heat. Copyright © 1991 by The Ontario Review, Inc. Published by NAL/Dutton and reprinted by permission of The Ontario Review, Inc.

  CYNTHIA OZICK: "The Shawl" from The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick. Copyright © 1980, 1983 by Cynthia Ozick. Originally appeared in The New Yorker. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Jonathan Cape, Ltd.

  KATHERINE ANNE PORTER: "He" from Flowering Judas and Other Stories. Copyright 1930 and renewed 1958 by Katherine Anne Porter, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovano-vich, Inc., and Jonathan Cape, Ltd.

  LESLIE MARMON SILKO: "Yellow Woman" from The Storyteller by Leslie Marmon Silko. Copyright © 1981 by Leslie Marmon Silko. Published by Seaver Books, New York.

  ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER: "The Lecture" from The Seance and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Copyright © 1968 by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., and Jonathan Cape, Ltd.

  AMY TAN: "Two Kinds" from The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Copyright © 1989 by Amy Tan. Reprinted by permission of The Putnam Publishing Group.

  PETER TAYLOR: "Rain in the Heart" from The Old Forest and Other Stories by Peter Taylor. Copyright 1941, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1959, 1979, 1981, 1985, © 1986 by Peter Taylor. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., and Russell & Volkening, Inc., as agents of the author.

  JEAN TOOMER: "Blood-Burning Moon" reprinted from Cane by Jean Toomer, by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright 1923 by Boni & Liveright. Copyright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer.

  JOHN UPDIKE: "The Persistence of Desire" from Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories by John Updike. Copyright © 1959 by John Updike. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Andre Deutsch Ltd.

  EUDORA WELTY: "Where Is the Voice Coming From?" reprinted by permission of Russell & Volkening, Inc.
as agents for the author. Copyright © 1963 by Eudora Welty, renewed in 1991 by Eudora Welty.

  JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN: "Fever" from Fever: Twelve Stories by John Edgar Wideman. Copyright © 1989 by John Edgar Wideman. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, Inc., and Wylie, Aitken & Stone, Inc.

  WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS: "The Girl with a Pimply Face" from The Farmers' Daughters. Copyright © 1961 by William Carlos Williams. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.

  TOBIAS WOLFF: "Hunters in the Snow" from In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, copyright © 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981 by Tobias Wolff. First published by The Ecco Press in 1981. Reprinted by permission.

  RICHARD WRIGHT: "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" from Eight Men by Richard Wright. Copyright © 1987 by the Estate of Richard Wright. Used by permission of the publisher, Thunder's Mouth Press, and Ellen Wright for the Estate of Richard Wrieht.

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Introduction

  WASHINGTON IRVING

  Rip Van Winkle

  WILLIAM AUSTIN

  Peter Rugg, the Missing Man

  NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

  The Wives of the Dead

  HERMAN MELVILLE

  The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids

  EDGAR ALLAN POE

  The Tell-Tale Heart

  HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

  The Ghost in the Mill

  SAMUEL CLEMENS

  Cannibalism in the Cars

  SARAH ORNE JEWETT

  A White Heron

  KATE CHOPIN

  The Storm

  CHARLES CHESNUTT

  The Sheriff's Children

  CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN

  The Yellow Wallpaper

  HENRY JAMES

  The Middle Years

  JACK LONDON

  In a Far Country

  MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN

  Old Woman Magoun

  STEPHEN CRANE

  The Little Regiment

  EDITH WHARTON

  A Journey

  SHERWOOD ANDERSON

  The Strength of God

  WILLA CATHER

  A Death in the Desert

  JEAN TOOMER

  Blood-Burning Moon

  ERNEST HEMINGWAY

  A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

  F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

  An Alcoholic Case

  WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

  The Girl with a Pimply Face

  KATHERINE ANNE PORTER

  He

  WILLIAM FAULKNER

  That Evening Sun

  ZORA NEALE HURSTON

  Sweat

  LANGSTON HUGHES

  Red-Headed Baby

  RICHARD WRIGHT

  The Man Who Was Almost a Man

  PAUL BOWLES

  A Distant Episode

  FLANNERY O'CONNOR

  A Late Encounter with the Enemy

  JAMES BALDWIN

  Sonny's Blues

  RALPH ELLISON

  Battle Royal

  RAY BRADBURY

  There Will Come Soft Rains

  PETER TAYLOR

  Rain in the Heart

  EUDORA WELTY

  Where Is the Voice Coming From?

  ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER

  The Lecture

  BERNARD MALAMUD

  My Son the Murderer

  SAUL BELLOW

  Something To Remember Me By

  JOHN CHEEVER

  The Death of Justina

  URSULA K. LE GUIN

  Texts

  DONALD BARTHELME

  The School

  JOHN UPDIKE

  The Persistence of Desire

  ALICE ADAMS

  Alaska

  RAYMOND CARVER

  Are These Actual Miles?

  LESLIE MARMON SILKO

  Yellow Woman

  CYNTHIA OZICK

  The Shawl

  JOYCE CAROL OATES

  Heat

  TOBIAS WOLFF

  Hunters in the Snow

  TIM O'BRIEN

  The Things They Carried

  BOBBIE ANN MASON

  Big Bertha Stories

  JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN

  Fever

  BHARATI MUKHERJEE

  The Management of Grief

  AMY TAN

  Two Kinds

  LOUISE ERDRICH

  Fleur

  DAVID LEAVITT

  Gravity

  SANDRA CISNEROS

  The House on Mango Street

  What Sally Said

  Linoleum Roses

  A House of My Own

  PINCKNEY BENEDICT

  Town Smokes

  THE OXFORD BOOK OF American Short Stories

  Introduction

  FAMILIAR names, unfamiliar titles: this, in part, was my initial inspiration in assembling The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. The challenge was to discover, wherever possible, short stories by our finest writers that were less known than the stories by these writers usually found in anthologies, yet of equal merit and interest; stories that, while reflecting authors' characteristic styles, visions, and subjects, suggested other aspects of sensibility. We Americans are justly proud of our literature, and a good deal of that pride stems from our awareness of the crucial role of the short story—in its earliest manifestations, the short tale or romance—as a form ideally suited to the expression of the imagination.

  In my reading of many months I was enormously pleased to discover virtually unknown yet fascinating work by certain of our classic American writers, whose famous titles recur from anthology to anthology with dismaying predictability. Certainly, Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Birthmark" are brilliant moral parables—but what of the more psychologically realistic "The Wives of the Dead," of which no one seems to have heard? Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" has entered our literary consciousness, deservedly, but what of "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids," with its eerily contemporary theme of sexual/class exploitation? (I first read this unclassifiable prose piece— hardly a "tale" in any conventional sense, still less a "story"—when I was an undergraduate at Syracuse University, and I have been haunted by its images ever since. Herman Melville, our first native feminist?—can it be so?) Henry James's aesthetic is nowhere more perfectly realized than in "The Beast in the Jungle," anthologized virtually everywhere; yet what of "The Middle Years," so much more direct, more human, more personal in its statement of the isolates (or the artist's) life? It is in this lesser-known story that The Master speaks with painful candor, giving voice to what all artists know, yet perhaps would not want to express in such raw, unmediated terms:

  We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.

  As schoolchildren we read and admired Mark Twain's early, frankly derivative tall tale, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," but the darker, more sinister, yes and funnier Twain, as represented in the mordant "Cannibalism in the Cars," is virtually unknown. (And why, in most general anthologies, is there no representation at all of Twain's great contemporary Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose popularity as a writer was by no means confined to her most famous work, Uncle Tom's Cabin?) So too with such familiar classics as Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat," Jack London's "To Build a Fire," Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever," Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," Willa Cather's "Paul's Case," William Carlos Williams' "The Use of Force." These are certainly great works of art; at the very least, they have helped to define the range and depth of the short story in America. But the reader begins to feel frustration when they are encountered repeatedly, alternated now and then with a very few other titles of almost equal familiarity. Though among them F. Scott Fitzgerald, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Saul Bellow, John Cheever, Peter Taylor, and John Updike have written literally hundreds of short stories, the
same two or three titles by each writer are recycled continuously. Why, given such plenitude, is this so? Do editors of anthologies consult only other anthologies, instead of reading original collections of stories? But isn't the implicit promise of an anthology that it will, or aspires to, present something different, unexpected?

  How ironic, it seemed to me, yet, perhaps, how symbolic, that in our age of rapid mass-production and the easy proliferation of consumer products, the richness and diversity of the American literary imagination should be so misrepresented in most anthologies and textbooks!

  Of course, I must confess that, despite months of reading and rereading, I could not avoid reprinting certain very familiar favorites. Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," Ernest Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," William Faulkner's "That Evening Sun"—the consequence of an ideal conjunction of quality of prose and quantity of pages. (All anthologies are compromises when a finitude of space is an issue.) James Baldwin's and Ralph Ellison's much-reprinted "Sonny's Blues" and "Battle Royal" are works by major American writers who did not cultivate the short story form, and so offer very few titles. Other old favorites which the scanning eye will note as absent—Ring Lardner's "Haircut," James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"—were reluctantly excluded because they are so readily available elsewhere, and because, with space restrictions, I thought it more important to present outstanding titles by writers representing a broad spectrum of cultural traditions: Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Paul Bowles, Leslie Marmon Silko, Bharati Mukherjee, Amy Tan, David Leavitt, Sandra Cisneros, to name but a few.

  "No creative writer can swallow another contemporary," Virginia Woolf once noted, as a way, perhaps, of rationalizing her own highly subjective tastes, "—the reception of living work is too coarse and partial if you're doing the same thing yourself." Even if one is not doing the same thing oneself, or anything approaching it, there remains an obvious difficulty in attempting an overview of the very landscape one inhabits.

  As we move through the post-War era and into contemporary times, the proliferation of published stories and the immense diversities of talent make selection enormously difficult. What riches here, and what sorrow for the editor in having to exclude so much! Here indeed is American plenitude—not solely of talent but of distinct aesthetic agendas; distinct ethnic and minority voices; distinct regional themes. It will be evident that, beginning with Harriet Beecher Stowe, I have sought to include more women writers than commonly appear in such volumes; yet, in the past two decades, so many outstanding women writers have emerged, and are emerging still, often as "ethnic" voices, that a proportional representation of their work, in such limited space, is all but impossible. Ethnic and minority fiction has revitalized our contemporary literature and constitutes, it might be argued, a new regionalism. (Or is American literature at its core a literature of regions? Note how, in this volume, works by contemporaries so seemingly diverse as John Edgar Wideman and Sandra Cisneros, Eudora Welty and Saul Bellow, Leslie Silko, Louise Erdrich, and Bobbie Ann Mason, as well as John Updike, Peter Taylor, and John Cheever, are related along lines that have less to do with traditional American themes than with stories set in highly specific, brilliantly realized American places. Indeed, in writers so clearly linked to an idiomatic oral tradition as Flannery O'Connor and the young West Virginian Pinckney Benedict, place is voice.)