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Other than novels, short stories are the most dominant form of literary storytelling. Printed in magazines and anthologies, students study them in schools and universities. And some of the most famous short stories authors’ narratives are as effective as full-length novels.
There have been many famous short stories authors throughout history. It is impossible to narrow down the best to only a few in one blog post. Five of the most influential are Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Anton Chekhov, O. Henry, and Flannery O’Connor.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe is perhaps the most famous short story writer in the English language. His writing is known for its dark, gothic themes and psychological depth. Poe’s greatest stories are masterpieces of horror and suspense that have influenced many other writers.
He had a remarkable ability to create atmosphere and mood, and some argue the entire landscape of modern-day genre fiction would have been different without him.
And just as important was his keen understanding of what makes people tick.
“he was describing behavior and phenomena that would become the stuff of textbooks several decades after his death.”
Sean Murphy of Pop Matters,
Poe’s Best Stories
Two of Poe’s best stories are The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher.
The Tell-Tale Heart is the story of a man driven to madness by his own guilt. In it, the first-person narrator murders an old man due to believing he has an evil eye, but he is adamant he can hear the corpse’s heart beating.
The Fall of the House of Usher is another of Poe’s psychologically driven stories. About a dark, crumbling, potentially sentient mansion that may be cursing the family living there, it may just reflect the rot that’s eating away at the family…or both.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne is an important figure among famous short stories authors. His works, both long and short, are known for their moral complexity and symbolic depth, and his stories explore themes of guilt, sin, and redemption. This is prevalent in his classic novel The Scarlet Letter as well as in his best-known short stories.
“…guilt—actual or imagined, revealed or concealed—to be a universal human experience…”
The Poetry Foundation website
That indicates a major reason he set most his work in colonial New England. He could set his own ideas about guilt against the Puritan morality of the time.
Hawthorne’s Best Story
The Hawthorne story that has had the most lasting impact on American literature is Young Goodman Brown. It’s the story of a Puritan man who meets the Devil in the woods. As they walk together, Brown discovers many of his friends and neighbours are in league with the Devil. But he refuses to join them and spends the rest of his life bitter and alone, convinced he’s surrounded by evil.
It’s never clear whether his night with the Devil was a dream or reality. But Hawthorne’s point, is that the extremes of Puritan paranoia can ruin someone’s life and ability to judge morality.
Anton Chekov
The Russian author Anton Chekhov is one of the greatest short stories writers of all time. Chekhov’s stories are known for their subtlety, emotional depth, and psychological insight. They have influenced many other famous short stories writers.
Two of his best stories are The Lady with the Dog and The Bet. The former is the story of a love affair between a middle-aged married banker from Moscow and a younger woman. She is also married, and they meet while on vacation in Yalta. The latter is about a banker betting a lawyer that life in prison is worse than the death penalty.
In both stories, the protagonists go on spiritual journeys and find themselves forever changed by their experiences.
O. Henry
O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter, was an American writer. He’s another of the most famous short stories authors. His short stories are known for being sharp, twisty, and often funny.
They are still popular and have a reputation for being tightly plotted with surprise endings.
The most famous of his stories is The Gift of the Magi. It’s about a poor young couple exchanging gifts on Christmas. The wife sells her hair to buy her husband a watch chain. The husband then sells his watch so he can buy his wife some hair combs.
It has been adapted on screen and parodied many times. The world-famous children’s show Sesame Street even based a Christmas special on it.
Another O. Henry classic is The Ransom of Red Chief. In it, some men kidnap a boy who’s so annoying they pay his father off to let them return him. The story inspired several adaptations, including the 1986 film Ruthless People starring Bette Midler.
Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor was an American writer known for her dark, unsettling, and often violent short stories. O’Connor’s stories, explore themes of faith, grace, and redemption, and are notable for their sharp wit and moral complexity. Her characters are often morally grey.
One of her most famous is A Good Man is Hard to Find which starts off as a simple slice-of-life tale. A family made up of a husband, wife, two young children, and mother-in-law go on a road trip. By the end of the trip, a criminal called The Misfit slaughters the entire family.
Meanwhile, The Life You Save May Be Your Own is about a grifter using an old woman. He agrees to marry her deaf-mute daughter, but he is only interested in her car. He abandons his new bride at a diner and makes off with the automobile.
In a Nutshell
The above are arguably the best and most famous short stories authors who have contributed to the rich, diverse tradition of the literary form. Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Anton Chekov, O. Henry, and Flannery O’Connor have all enriched world literature through their short stories.
Sources
Edgar Allan Poe’s 10 Best Stories – Sean Murphy – October 29, 2015
The Poetry Foundation: Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Summary and Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown’ – Dr Oliver Tearle