The editors collected short stories for an English course aimed at college undergraduates. They included stories "not commonly anthologised" as well as "the more traditional material". No other teaching or student "crutch" has been provided by way of critical aids.

The authors do provide very brief Biographical information about the authors -- including the dates of publications of the stories. ( )

Contents:
- Conrad Aiken: Mr. Arcularis
- Sherwood Anderson: Death in the Woods
- Ray Bradbury: The Pedestrian
- John Cheever: Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor
- John Collier: Bottle Party
- Joseph Conrad: The Secret Sharer
- Stephen Crane: The Open Boat
- William Faulkner: Mule in the Yard
- William Faulkner: The Old People
- F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Lost Decade
- E.M. Forster: The Celestial Omnibus
- Graham Greene: The Basement Room
- Ernest Hemingway: Cat in the Rain
- James Joyce: Araby
- James Joyce: A Little Cloud
- D.H. Lawrence: Shades of Spring
- Katherine Mansfield: The Garden Party
- Katherine Mansfield: The Daughters of the Late Colonel
- Katherine Anne Porter: Theft
- V.S. Pritchett: The Saint
- Sinclair Ross: One's a Heifer
- William Saroyan: The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse
- William Daniel Steele: How Beautiful with Shoes
- John Steinbeck: The Leader of the People
- Dylan Thomas: A Story
- James Thurber: The Greatest Man in the World
- Lionel Trilling: Of This Time, Of That Place
- Eudora Welty: Livvie
- Angus Wilson: Totentanz
- Ethel Wilson: Mrs. Golightly and the First Convention
- Virginia Woolf: The New Dress

with author bibliographies