THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 1954

This perennial annual herewith takes off from assorted magazines -- S.E.P. Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Esquire, Woman's Day, Fantastic and the more expected Atlantic Monthly, Harper, university review and quarterlies, and provides equally varying tales, which currently are of a less experimental type. Frazee's My Brother Down There was a Queen winner; B. Traven's The Third Guest is a pleasant fairy tale of Death and a woodcutter; there's a chapter from Jarrell's Pictures From An Institution; Elizabeth Enright has a sensitive picture of adults and children in a playground; Irwin Shaw tells of love wanted and love given; Jean Stafford views embattled parents and the result on their youngest daughter; Almet Jenks writes of mountaineering and its basic philosophies; Ira Wolfert sees an analogy between the spirit of a gamecock and the seed of greatness in man; there's a good historical documentary in Geoffrey Bush's story of the murder of Christopher Marlowe. And there are plenty of newcomers to brighten the scene. Widely known and recognized, this is established in its field.