Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Magill's Choice Short Story Writers, rev. ed. Edited by Charles E. May. Salem Press, Inc.: Pasadena, Calif.: 2008. 3 vols. $217.00. 1163 p. ISBN 978-1-587-1-58765-389-6.

Students looking for information about short story writers, 147 of the most frequently taught and read, will find them here. Vol. 1 lists the contents of all three volumes, but the other two only show their contents. Each signed entry has the author's birth and death dates, their principal short fiction and its year, a paragraph about other literary forms, achievements, a biography, analysis and the synopsis of the work often with some critical analysis. Their other major works are cited and a brief bibliography is given. Most but not all have a black and white photograph of the author or reproduction of a painted portrait. It was interesting to find Chaucer here beside Hans Christian Anderson, and Dorothy Lessing. Appendixes include an 11-page glossary of terms and techniques and a timeline of the authors from earliest to latest with their date and place of birth. Students may use this to review the plot and also to see how critical reviews are written.