The Treasury of American Short Stories

by Nancy Sullivan

A balanced selection of short fiction by American writers contains works by more than sixty authors, from Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe, through Twain, James, and Hemingway, to Joyce Carol Oaks and Woody Allen

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Literature, Classics, American

748 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Nancy Sullivan was a poet and emeritus professor of English at Rhode Island College. She taught additionally at Brown University.

It was Tom Chandler, poet laureate of Rhode Island emeritus, who described Sullivan in lofty terms in a 2004 column for The Providence Journal: “We are a place of many hidden treasures, both in our land and in our people — especially our people,” Chandler wrote. “One of Rhode Island's literary treasures is poet Nancy Sullivan, of West Kingston, a nationally honored writer for more than four decades.”

Poetry fellow National Endowment for the Arts, 1976-1977; named to Hunter College Hall of Fame, New York City, 1998. Member Poets House, Poetry Society of America, Humanities Forum Rhode Island.
Bachelor, Hunter College, 1951. Master of Arts, University Rhode Island, 1953. Doctor of Philosophy, University Connecticut, 1963.

Reviews

[Jacob Heartstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my biggest reading challenges this year was to read more short stories, as this is usually a genre I read only reluctantly but find increasingly interesting, the older I get.

Hence, it felt like a sign when I found this collection of 64 short stories by American authors from the mid-18th to the late 20th century among some of my dad's old books my mum wanted to get rid of, and I challenged myself to slowly make my way through all of them in 2022. Nine months after starting, I read them all (well, I DNFed three, but I think that's still an acceptable quota), and I am quite happy with the results:

As can be expected there were some great ones, good ones, okay-ish ones, and also some terrible ones in there, but overall I enjoyed most of the stories. With few exceptions they were well selected, from a broad spectrum of genres, authors and eras, and I even discovered some potentially favourite new authors, so I'll happily declare the challenge successfully completed!

[John Everett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather disappointing overview. Initially I was intrigued by the less obvious selections by famous authors, but these tend to be sub-par. Many of the more obscure authors appear to be justly so. A few gems amidst a surfeit of pointless mediocrity.

[Lily K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many of the stories in this book are uninteresting and way too long. If you search long enough you will find some good interesting stories. These stories are more adult than for kids though. None of the stories really connect to me and that's kind of why I didn't enjoy it.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not the worst stories in the world, but they definitely seem like the unwanted leftovers of these several authors' works after all the good stuff had been already taken, copyrighted, published, re-published and lauded elsewhere.

[melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the following stories:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving (p. 1)
Rappaccini's daughter - Nathaniel Hawthorne (p. 25)
The Lottery - Shirley Jackson (p. 458)

[Chery · Rating 4 out of 5]

This compilation of short stories from some of the finest American authors of the 19th and 20th centuries, was a delight from start to finish. Placed in chronological order, and including such talents as Mark Twain, Henry James, Theodore Dreiser, Dorothy Parker, William Saroyan, Shirley Jackson, John Updike, Woody Allen, and Joyce Carol Oates, this collection is true to its name; a treasure. I highly recommend this book.

[Pearl · Rating 3 out of 5]

american short stories.. ehh

[Cws]

813

[Damon · Rating 3 out of 5]

About 40% of the stories were really good, another 30% were good.

[Denise DeRocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Great Collection - and a fair one!