&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RGreat American Short Stories: From Hawthorne to Hemingway &&L/I&&Ris part of the &&LI&&R &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R  &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&R New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars - Biographies of the authors - Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events - Footnotes and endnotes - Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work - Comments by other famous authors - Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations - Bibliographies for further reading - Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences―biographical, historical, and literary―to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/I&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&RUniquely capable of capturing a moment in time, the short story occupies a cherished place in the history of American literature. During the last 200 years, some of this nation’s greatest writers have produced outstanding examples of this art form, many of which are included in this collection.&&LBR&&R&&LBR&&RBeginning with well-known stories by Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe, this diverse and colorful collection includes tales by Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Sherwood Anderson, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Stephen Crane, and Mary Wilkins Freeman. From Sarah Orne Jewett’s portraits of rural Maine to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s brilliant tales from the Jazz Age, these stories span the breadth of the American experience. In addition to acknowledged masters of the short story form, such as O. Henry, Jack London, and Ernest Hemingway, this volume features stories by Charles W. Chesnutt, the first important African-American novelist, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a leading theorist of the early women’s movement.&&LBR&&R&&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&LSTRONG&&RCorinne Demas&&L/B&&R &&L/B&&Ris Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College and a fiction editor of the &&LI&&RMassachusetts Review&&L/I&&R. She has a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She is the author of two collections of short stories, two novels, a memoir, and numerous books for children. &&L/P&&R&&L/DIV&&R Corinne Demas is Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College and a fiction editor of the Massachusetts Review . She has a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She is the author of two collections of short stories, two novels, a memoir, and numerous books for children. From Corinne Demass Introduction to Great American Short Stories: From Hawthorne to Hemingway When Edgar Allan Poe first described his conception of an ideal "prose tale" he could hardly have imagined that his vision would be guiding the genre of the short story for the next century and a half. His definition was not a rigid formula—like the rules for a sonnet, for instance—but rather a prototype for success. He outlined the qualities that he believed made a short story succeed, rather than set an immutable standard, and his insights influenced all the short-story writers who followed him. Poes influential discourse on the short story was part of a critical review that he wrote about Nathaniel Hawthornes collection Twice Told Tales in Grahams Magazine in May 1842. The elements of the short story that he centers on in his critique are unity and length, and the necessary connection between the two. In almost all classes of composition, the unity of effect or impression is a point of the greatest importance. It is clear, moreover, that this unity cannot be thoroughly preserved in productions whose perusal cannot be completed at one sitting. The concept of the "single sitting," as Poe presents it, is not a mere erudite hypothesis, but a tangible, practical one. The ordinary novel is objectionable, from its length. . . . As it cannot be read at one sitting, it deprives itself, of course, of the immense force derivable from totality . Worldly interests intervening during the pauses of perusal, modify, annul, or counteract, in a greater or less degree, the impressions of the book. But simple cessation in reading, would, of itself, be sufficient to destroy the true unity. In the brief tale, however, the author is enabled to carry out the fullness of his intention, be it what it may. During the hour of perusal the soul of the reader