Other editions of book The Stories of Alice Adams

“Alice Adams has an inimitable ‘voice’–quick, deft, brilliantly evocative and specific. There is always something special about a story of hers, like a watercolor perfectly executed.” --Joyce Carol Oates Award-winning writer Alice Adams, whose major themes were the varied lives of contemporary women and the hidden workings of human relationships is equally treasured for her short stories and her novels. The stories collected here represent the full range of her career, which included 25 appearances in The New Yorker, 6 O.Henry First Prizes out of a total of 23 appearances, as well as inclusion in numerous Best American Short Stories anthologies. In story after story insight joins with grace to show us the truth about the lives of people around us. Included: “Verlie I Say Unto You,” “Beautiful Girl,” “The Swastika on the Door,” “Greyhound People,” “The Girl Across the Room,” Truth or Consequences,” “Separate Planes,” “Your Doctor Loves You,” “Old Love Affairs,” “Earthquake Damage,” and 43 other classic stories.

With a foreword by Victoria Wilson, Alice Adams’s longtime editor. Famous for illuminating the hidden workings of human relationships, Alice Adams's work was a staple in The New Yorker and a mainstay of the O. Henry Award collections. The Stories of Alice Adams gathers fifty-three of her most celebrated pieces into one career-defining collection. In "Verlie I Say Unto You," the unexpected death of Verlie Jones's lover reveals the unsettling truth about her employers--that, though they "couldn't get along without" Verlie, their maid of ten years, she is nothing more than a stranger to them. In "Berkeley House," a disenfranchised daughter anguished over the sale of her childhood home, discovers that it does not hold the key to her happiness, and perhaps never did. In "Greyhound People," a woman repeatedly and purposely takes the wrong bus from work after meeting its warm and disarmingly candid cast of passengers. In story after story, insight joins with grace to show us the truth about the lives of people around us. A moving and elegant collection and the capstone to a brilliant career.

Twenty-five of her stories appeared regularly in The New Yorker within a ten-year period. Others were published in The Paris Review, Atlantic Monthly, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and McCall's. Her work was included in twenty-three O. Henry Award collections, and she received first prize six times; she was represented in numerous collections of Martha Foley's Best American Short Stories. Now the best of Alice Adams's short fiction is gathered in one volume-fifty-three stories that illumine the hidden workings of human relationships. In "Verlie I Say Unto You," the unexpected death of Verlie Jones's lover reveals the unsettling truth about her employers-that, though they "couldn't get along without" Verlie, their maid of ten years, she is nothing more than a stranger to them. In "Berkeley House," a disenfranchised daughter anguished over the sale of her childhood home finally succeeds in winning the house back, only to discover that it does not hold the key to her happiness, and perhaps never did. In "Greyhound People," a woman repeatedly, and purposely, takes the wrong bus home from work after meeting its warm and disarmingly candid cast of passengers, a refreshing and life-changing break from the coldly polite company she finds on the "right" bus-and at home. In story after story, insight joins with grace to show us the truth about the lives of people around us. A moving and elegant collection and the capstone to the brilliant career of one of the most beloved American writers of our time.

In her long and illustrious career, Alice Adams turned the short story into an art form by offering telling glimpses into the lives of "ordinary people made extraordinary by [her] perception" (Newsweek). Now, with this posthumous compilation, readers can become reacquainted with Þfty-three of Adams's best-loved stories, culled from her Þve award-winning collections. A Þtting tribute -- and an extraordinary primer for those new to Adams's work -- The Stories of Alice Adams celebrates the voice, vision, and spirit of one of America's most beloved writers.