The Best Short Stories of 1915, and the Yearbook of the American Short Story

This anthology captures American short fiction at a pivotal crossroads. In 1915, the short story had emerged as the distinctly American literary form, and Edward J. O'Brien was just beginning his legendary annual surveys that would shape the canon for decades. The stories gathered here represent the craft in that precise moment before the Great War transformed everything. Writers experiment with realism, regionalism, and early modernist techniques, offering both established voices and emerging talents working in a form Americans had made their own. O'Brien's introduction positions the American short story as distinct from European traditions, arguing for its democratic vitality and its connection to the pulse of contemporary life. The tales range across American experience, from rural villages to urban streets, exploring moral complexities and quiet dramas of ordinary lives. What emerges is a portrait of a nation on the eve of profound change, preserved in the amber of these narratives. For readers who love the form's origins, or anyone curious about what Americans were reading at the start of the last century, this collection offers a fascinating time capsule.