In the January 25th, 1914 edition of the New York Times, twenty-six of the most successful authors of their day responded to a query, "What is the best short story in English?"
Original article here.
Transcribed.Previous discussion here.
The stories they selected constitute a time capsule: what the literati deemed as the best in short literature before the diversity of literary voices was commonplace,...
Friday, May 29, 2015
Thursday, May 28, 2015
A Brief History of the Evolution of the Short Story
From the Introduction to The Best Short Stories Series, Volume 2, Martin Hill Ortiz
The Evolution of the Short Story
That which is commonly considered the modern short story—the short story as a distinct art form and separate from folk tales and odes—came into being as recently as the beginning of...
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
The All-Time Best Short Stories: A List from the New York Times, 1914
Famous Authors Select the Best Short Stories: 1914.
My fascination with lists is long-standing. Many early lists represent discrete bits of history and reveal the mindset of their times. While researching information on Arthur Conan Doyle, a character in my upcoming novel, A Predator's Game, I ran...
What is the Best Short Story in English? A 1914 New York Times Article.
Below is a transcription of a 1914 article presented in the New York Times. I corrected several
typographical errors. The author of the article made minor mistakes in
counting the number of short stories, overlooking one and leaving off the
attribution of which author selected which story for others....
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
New York Times Bestsellers: Historical Changes. Fifty-Five Years in Four Easy Pieces
A Summary of the Changes.
To get an idea how the New York Times Adult Fiction Bestseller List has changed over the last fifty-five years, rather than looking at decades, it is better to divide the data into fourths, quartiles. Each period has approximately 150 novels but, due to the longer stays...
Friday, May 22, 2015
New York Times Bestselling Authors: Ages, an additional note.
I haven't time to compose a full post.
I wanted to add a bit of perspective to my previous post. While the average age of the author whose books were number #1 on the adult fiction bestseller list was 54 years, this number included all works by a given author. In terms of the age when the bestselling author first made it to number one on the list, the average age dropped, but not by much, to 48.1...
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
New York Times Bestsellers: Ages of Authors
One aspect of literature that fascinates me is the fact that it celebrates accumulated wisdom. Authors often bloom in their middle and senior years.
I examined the ages at which the authors had their bestsellers. To simplify the process I subtracted birth year from year initially appearing on...
Monday, May 18, 2015
New York Times Bestsellers: Genres, Then and Now
Sorting Out Genre.
I have pored through the 598 novels which made it to the number one position on the New York Times Adult Fiction Bestseller list between 1960 and 2015 sorting them into genres. This was a mind-numbing task with many judgment calls, so take the results with a grain of salt. When...
Thursday, May 14, 2015
New York Times Bestsellers: A Look At The Authors
The New York Times Adult Fiction Bestsellers List is a surrealistic reflection of America, where Nobel Prize winners rub shoulders with manic typists, a landscape of Don Corleone and werewolves.
The AuthorsBetween the years 1960 and 2015, 204 authors account for the 598 novels in the number one position...
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
The New York Times Adult Fiction Bestselling Novels: 1960 to 2015
I've put together a database to analyze the novels which made it to the number one position on the New York Times Adult Fiction Bestseller list during the period of 1960 through April 2015. I excluded from my analysis the occasional collection of short stories (mostly Stephen King), two inspirational...
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
King of the Golden Hill, Part Four
What Questions Can I Answer?
I initially assembled a database of the New York Times Bestseller Adult Fiction List with a modest goal: to look at those novels which had stayed on top at least four weeks, a sort of peek at the blockbusters among the top selling fiction.
Along the way I decided this was unsatisfactory to address some of the questions which were popping up, so I decided to extend my...
Thursday, May 7, 2015
King of the Golden Hill: Part Three.
It's Crowded Getting to the Top.
A total of 462 novels spent at least one week atop the New York Times Bestsellers List for Adult Fiction during the period of 1960 through 2009. Adjusting for 37 weeks of strikes and 84 weeks when short story/novella collections and other non-novel books dominated,...
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