Carson McCullers died in 1967 after a too-brief life of pain and personal trial, but her celebrated place in American letters survives more surely than ever.This volume gathers together a large selection of her previously uncollected work--short stories, essays and poetry, including eight stories never before published. These writings span more than thirty years, from 'Sucker,' written when she was seventeen, to 'A Hospital Christmas Eve,' published after her death. Several of the pieces appeared in magazines now long out of print and almost impossible to obtain. The unpublished stories printed here for the first time were found among her papers by her sister and literary executor, Margarita G. Smith, who has edited this collection.

Contents:

Early Stories
• Sucker
• Court in the West Eighties
• Poldi
• Breath from the Sky
• The Orphanage
• Instant of the Hour After
• Like That
• Wunderkind
• The Aliens
• Untitled Piece
• Author's Outline for "The Mute" (The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter)
  Later Stories
• Correspondence
• Art and Mr. Mahoney
• The Haunted Boy
• Who Has Seen the Wind?