Edward Joseph Harrington O'Brien

Edward Joseph Harrington O'Brien
Edward Joseph Harrington O'Brien (1890–1941) was an influential American writer, editor, and critic known for his contributions to the short story genre. He is best remembered for editing the annual anthology series "The Best American Short Stories," which began in 1915 and became a significant platform for showcasing emerging talent. O'Brien was also a poet and literary critic, who championed modernist literature and the works of new authors like James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence. His dedication to curating short fiction helped shape the landscape of American literature in the early 20th century.

Author's Books:


I suppose there is no one of us who can honestly deny that he is interested in one way or another in the American short story. Indeed, it is hard to find a man anywhere who does not enjoy telling a good story. But there are some people born with the gift of telling a good story better than others, and of telling it in such a way that a great many people can enjoy its flavor. Most of you are acquainted... more...

INTRODUCTION I should like to take the text for my remarks this year on the American Short Story from that notable volume of criticism, "Our America" by Waldo Frank. For the past year, it has been a source of much questioning to me to determine why American fiction, as well as the other arts, fails so conspicuously in presenting a national soul, why it fails to measure sincerely the heights and... more...

Grateful acknowledgment for permission to include the stories and other material in this volume is made to the following authors, editors, publishers, and copyright holders: To The Pictorial Review Company and Miss Edwina Stanton Babcock for permission to reprint "The Excursion," first published in The Pictorial Review; to The Century Company and Mr. Thomas Beer for permission to reprint... more...

THE JOURNAL (N.B.—On the opening pages of the blank book in which this journal is contained there is a short fragment which bears no relation that I can discover to the entries that follow, and I am inclined to believe that it is the beginning of an autobiography which Middleton never continued. In my uncertainty, however, I print it, and accordingly it is transcribed below.—THE EDITOR.)... more...