The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy

James Purdy
Purdy

The publication of The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy is a literary event that marks the first time all of James Purdy's short stories—fifty-six in number, including seven drawn from his unpublished archives—have been collected in a single volume. As prolific as he was unclassifiable, James Purdy was considered one of the greatest—and most underappreciated—writers in America in the latter half of the twentieth century.—W.W. Norton



"A collection of sparse, gritty stories that celebrate the outsider in mid-century America, by an overlooked and underrated author whose admirers run from Edward Albee to Gore Vidal to Susan Sontag."—Submitted by Ryan S., Selector


Bicentennial Staff Picks

  • The Lost Coast


  • The Stand


  • The Ghost Clause


  • Star Wars : from a certain point of view : 40 stories celebrating 40 years of Star Wars


  • The Far Field


  • Ulysses


  • The Chronicles of Amber


  • Copper Beach


  • Dawn


  • Daisy Jones & The Six


  • Anne of Green Gables


  • Sunny


  • The Lost Words: A Spell Book


  • The Raven Boys


  • Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale


  • Providence


  • Inferno: The World at War 1939-1945


  • Watchmen


  • The Essential Tales of Chekhov


  • Nitro --The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapes of Ted Turner's WCW


  • Dangerous Laughter


  • The Woman in White


  • Clear and Present Danger


  • Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters


  • Cannery Row


  • Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow


  • Near to the Wild Heart


  • The House at Pooh Corner


  • Once & Future, Volume 1


  • Autobiography of an Execution


  • The Library


  • The Shell Seekers


  • The Travelling Cat Chronicles


  • Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City


  • Fog Island


  • The Eye of Minds


  • Know My Name: A Memoir


  • The Road Less Traveled


  • Robin


  • Warrior of the Wild


  • The Time Traveler's Wife


  • Dark of the Moon


  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


  • The Life and Art of Felrath Hines : from dark to light


  • To Kill A Mockingbird


  • Dragon Bound


  • The Licanius Trilogy


  • Unterzakhn


  • Mouse Guard: Fall 1152


  • Illuminatus! Trilogy


  • Wired


  • Snotgirl Vol. 1


  • The Murderer's Ape


  • The Johnstown Flood


  • Foundryside


  • The Master and Margarita


  • Figuring


  • Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero


  • Why You Like This Photo : the Science of Perception


  • Four Novels of the 1940s & 50s


  • Simulacra and Simulation


  • The Wild Robot


  • The Little Prince


  • The Diary of a Young Girl


  • Cry, Heart, But Never Break


  • Taproot : a story about a gardener and a ghost


  • Castoff: The Strange Adventures of Petra De Winter and Bram


  • Spoon River Anthology


  • Running with Sherman


  • The King's Stilts


  • Wild Beauty


  • Matter : a Culture novel


  • On A Sunbeam


  • The New Moosewood Cookbook


  • Pretty Deadly, Volume One: The Shrike


  • The Mistress of Spices


  • The Snowy Day


  • The College of Beer : The Story of Nick's English Hut


  • The Color Monster


  • Persepolis


  • Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks


  • Raintree County


  • Jane Eyre


  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine


  • A Study in Scarlet Women


  • The Charterhouse of Parma


  • Travels With Charley


  • Under the Volcano


  • Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years


  • The Clan of the Cave Bear


  • Growth of the Soil


  • Life


  • Siddhartha


  • My Brother's Husband, Vol. 1


  • Wolf Hall


  • Me Talk Pretty One Day


  • My Name is Asher Lev


  • Dragon's Merry Christmas


  • The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath


  • The Pirate Coast


  • Birdie and Me


  • The Snow Child


  • Oreo


  • Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey


  • In the Dust of This Planet


  • Station Eleven


  • Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker


  • The Luster of Lost Things


  • The Brothers Karamazov


  • Lost Horizon


  • Giver of Stars


  • Their Eyes Were Watching God


  • The Silmarillion


  • The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy


  • VALIS


  • Dealing with Dragons


  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking


  • Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art


  • Stormy: A Story About Finding a Forever Home


  • The Go-Between


  • Hawkeye omnibus


  • A Clockwork Orange


  • Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World


  • The Never Game


  • Oleanna


  • The Universe in a Nutshell


  • The Word Is Murder


  • Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality


  • His Majesty's Dragon


  • Strange Planet


  • The Shipping News


  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time


  • X'ed Out


  • Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste


  • The Rest is Noise


  • Tropic of Cancer


  • The Girl From Rawblood


  • Feeling Sorry for Celia


  • Naked Lunch


  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows


  • Suttree


  • I Know This Much is True


  • Catch 22


  • Dune Messiah


  • Six Seasons


  • True Grit


  • The Quilter's Apprentice


  • Prelude to Bruise


  • Three Things About Elsie


  • Little Bear


  • The Monkey's Raincoat


  • The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works


  • The Room : A Novel


  • Do Fish Sleep?


  • The Lifespan of a Fact


  • Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid


  • What is the What


  • Hopscotch


  • Fables. 8, Wolves


  • My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Book One


  • The Goldfinch


  • War and Peace


  • Parable of the Sower


  • Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


  • A Little Princess


  • I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness


  • The Index Card


  • Patriot Games


  • Chloe's Vegan Desserts


  • The Story of Ferdinand


  • The Blue Sword


  • The Woman in the Dunes


  • Braiding Sweetgrass


  • Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?


  • Look Both Ways : a Tale Told in Ten Blocks


  • Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems & Drawings of Shel Silverstein


  • Big Sur


  • The Friend


  • East of Eden


  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone


  • Slaughterhouse Five


  • Through a Life


  • Ecology of a Cracker Childhood


  • Dietland


  • The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms


  • The Music Lesson


  • Cinder


  • Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction


  • The Stardust Road


  • Foucault's Pendulum


  • One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish


  • Communing With The Divine: A Clairvoyant's Guide To Angels, Archangels and the Spiritual Hierarchy


  • The Last Wish


  • Riddley Walker


  • Dune


  • Gilead


  • Rural Free


  • In Full Color


  • The Lord of the Rings


  • The Jordan Rules