An anthology of short stories by American writers from the period between WWII and the late 60s. The editors write: "Altogether these storeis present a fascinating psychological record of what may best be termed "The Age of Crisis," the age in which modern man finds himself teetering on a fine edge of destiny, when his own fateful decisions will take him either to hell or to paradise."

Contents

• Greenleaf by Flannery O'Connor
• Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty
• The Fancy Woman by Peter Taylor
• Battle Royal [published as part of Invisible Man] by Ralph Ellison
• Come out the Wilderness by James Baldwin
• The Crime by Georgia McKinley
• The Last Mohican by Bernard Malamud
• The Conversion of the Jews by Philip Roth
• A & P by John Updike
• Cruel and Barbarous Treatment by Mary McCarthy
• The Country Husband by John Cheever
• In Dreams Begin Responsibilities by Delmore Schwartz
• Sex Education by Dorothy Canfield
• Holiday by Katherine Anne Porter
• The Ram in the Thicket by Wright Morris
• Among the Dangs by George P. Elliott
• The Gonzaga Manuscripts by Saul Bellow
• Prince of Darkness by J. F. Powers
• Encore by James Purdy
• Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen
• I Look Out for Ed Wolfe by Stanley Elkin
• A Shower of Gold by Donald Barthelme