Great American Short Stories

Wallace Stegner (1909–1993) was the author of, among other novels, All the Little Live Things (winner of a Commonwealth Club Gold Medal), Angle of Repose (winner of the Pulitzer Prize), and The Spectator Bird (winner of the National Book Award). His nonfiction includes The Sound of Mountain Water, The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of Bernard DeVoto, and Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West. Three of his short stories won O. Henry Prizes, and in 1980 he received the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times for his lifetime literary achievements.

Mary Stegner was the wife of Wallace Stegner and his constant assistant, as well as a violinist with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. She was Wallace’s coeditor for Great American Short Stories and wrote the afterword for his book Remembering Laughter. She died in 2010.

Using classic literature to teach language arts is an ingenious idea. Who better to learn reading comprehension, vocabulary, and essay writing from than the best of the best writers?

Because this is designed as a teacher-driven course, you will only need the one book, which includes all of the student and teacher information, as well as the answers to the discussion questions. It can be used at any time during high school, with a choice of American literature or British literature. Both of them feature units on novels, essays, and poetry, but American Lit has a short story unit and British Lit has a book review unit. Each one has a list of required reading titles, which are available separately.

This well-rounded course will help your high school students read and understand classic literature and use it for college preparation. Approx. 200 pages, softcover.

-Rebekah