Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Volume 1

by Frank N. Magill

***This is volume 1 of seven only.*** "Critical Survey of Short Fiction" is provided as an exhaustive examination of the history, characteristics, structure, and prime examples of literature's most popular form. There are three major divisions in this seven volume work, as outlined Essays, Authors, Current Authors. Essays are long, detailed, analytic treatments which synthesize a wide range of information, from the social and historical to the philosophic and religious to the technical and semantic. Clusters of essays examine the genres roots in such ancient forms as the ballot, the Bible narrative, the medieval epic; its development through modern chronological.; Its unique evolution in particular countries, regions, and ethnic groups. Because of the nature of short stories, the authors a set is arranged by authors rather than by works. Each author article includes at the beginning a list of printable short fiction works and brief sections discussing other literary forms in which the author wrote, influences on his work as well as the influence of his work on the writing of others, characteristics of his short fiction as a whole, and his biography. Finally the current authors section is a result of an invitation to several hundred current authors to contribute a one-page description of their work — their background, style, thematic concerns, and the like. This particular volume deals with the first 406 essays with such topics Short Fiction Chronology, Terms and Techniques, Point of View, Short Beginnings to 1800, 1840-1880, Etc., Language and Narrative in the Bible, Parables of Jesus of Nazareth, the Fabled Tradition, the Saga and Tháttr, and Ballad Narrative.

406 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1981

About the author

Dr. Frank Northen Magill (1907-1997) was a writer and editor of distinguished reference works for over forty years.

Magill also founded the Salem Press in 1949. Magill’s expertise became so recognizable in the hundreds of volumes of reference works published by Salem Press that librarians sometimes referred to the publications as “Magill books.”

Born in Smyrna, Ga., Magill earned an undergraduate degree at Georgia Tech and a master’s degree in engineering at Columbia University. He began working as an engineer, then served as a major in the Army Air Corps during World War II. While stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, Magill read widely and conceived of a book that he titled “Masterplots.” That was the first book to be published by Salem Press, in 1949.

Eventually the company branched into history, humanities, social science and sciences. Operating offices in New York and Los Angeles, Magill earned a doctorate and taught a popular reference course at USC.