Here is a volume, says its publishers, that ""gathers together for the first time nineteen stories that span Carson McCullers' entire writing career."" There are, however, actually 21 titles in the book, with half of its near-400 pages being devoted to a reprinting of the 1946 novel The Member of the Wedding and the novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Included, too, are the six stories ""collected"" in 1951 and published as The Ballad of the Sad and Other Stories (""Wunderkind,"" ""The Jockey,"" ""Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland,"" ""A Tree--A Rock--A Cloud,"" ""The Sojourner,"" and ""A Domestic Dilemma""). Remaining, then, are 13 stories, some (according to the introduction by Virginia Spencer Carr) from very early in the writer's career, some from very late. Exact dates of composition are not provided, nor is information as to where, when, or whether these titles were previously printed.