The collected stories of Jean Stafford

Originally published: New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1969;The innocents abroad: Maggie Meriwether's rich experience -- The children's game -- The echo and the nemesis -- The maiden -- A modest proposal -- Caveat emptor. The Bostonians, and other manifestations of the American scene: Life is no abyss -- The hope chest -- Polite conversation -- A country love story -- The bleeding heart -- The Lippia lawn -- The interior castle. Cowboys and Indians, and magic mountains: The healthiest girl in town -- The tea time of Stouthearted ladies -- The mountain day -- The darkening moon -- Bad characters -- In the zoo -- The liberation -- A reading problem -- A summer day -- The philosophy lesson. Manhattan Island: Children are bored on Sunday -- Beatrice Trueblood's story -- Between the porch and the altar -- I love someone -- Cops and robbers -- The captain's gift -- The end of a career

These Pulitzer Prize-winning stories represent the major short works of fiction by one of the most distinctively American stylists of her day. Jean Stafford communicates the small details of loneliness and connection, the search for freedom and the desire to belong, that not only illuminate whole lives but also convey with an elegant economy of words the sense of the place and time in which her protagonists find themselves. This volume also includes the acclaimed story "An Influx of Poets," which has never before appeared in book form.