Long-lasting shorts

Identifying the world’s most-popular collections of short stories (written in the English language, during the 20th century), is a daunting task. However, taking account of sales data, reprint-edition numbers and the enduring level of acclaim, the following have to be on that list – though this list is far from definitive and we make no such claims. Not surprisingly, anthologies compiled by celebrated literary figures are well represented. These include Irish-born writer, James Joyce, mostly associated with his full-length novels: Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegans Wake, but also lauded for his short-story collection, Dubliners (published, 1914). This compilation of 15 stories depicts life in the Irish capital and the search for a national identity at the start of the 20th century. The second collection comes from the pen of American author of the critically acclaimed, The Catcher in the Rye, (published, 1951), J. D. Salinger. Entitled, Nine Stories, this work contains two of the writers most-popular pieces of short fiction, A Perfect Day for Bananafish and For Esmé – with Love and Squalor. Collection No. 3 belongs to another US author, Ray Bradbury – most remembered for his full-length dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451. But Bradbury was a highly accomplished short-story writer, concentrating mostly on the fantasy, SciFi and mystery genres. His two best-regarded collections are: The Martian Chronicles (published 1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951), a collection of 18 SciFi short stories which saw him nominated for the International Fantasy Award in 1952. These three writers were among the most influential and important of the 20th century.