Burton Raffel (1928–2015)

This collection of short stories begins early in the history of the US and moves forward from there, with one entry per writer featured. Brief biographies of each writer were also included before the stories. For me, this had the effect of placing the stories in their proper historical context and creating a sense of forward motion as I moved through the collection. I felt as if I was getting a sampling of many different writers (some I'd heard of, some I hadn't, some I'd read works of before and others I hadn't) and gaining a stronger sense of how US culture and the short story as a form have evolved over time.

I think this did a lot to help with the fact that many of the stories obviously include the types of attitudes a modern reader would no longer approve of, especially as someone living in the US who has a sense of how things have progressed since the final story featured and has a hope that we will continue to do so. Maybe I'll even have some small part in shaping that. A writer can dream!

That being said, there were some stories that were surprisingly refreshing, particularly from the earlier female authors. I found myself wondering why I never had heard about them before and in some cases wanting to read more of their works. Perhaps I will at some point.

No rating given here because some of the stories I loved (The Yellow Wallpaper will always be one of my favorites) while others I certainly didn't (skip the Hemingway story if it's going to be triggering for you). I think that's always going to be the case with a collection like this. Different people have different tastes, but I think the collection as a whole achieved its goal in providing the reader a wide and varied selection.… (mer)

These are Greek lyrics translated by one of my favorite poet-translators, Burton Raffel. The poets included in this anthology provide a glimpse into archaic Greek culture through their poetry. Among them are the very obscure to the somewhat less obscure, with a few familiar names like Plato. There are poems and fragments of poems for everyone's taste. I enjoyed making connections with my own life and our twenty-first century culture. It was also interesting to see the influence that these ancient poets had on some of our greatest modern poets. Overall it is a beautiful selection of poetry.… (mer)