These thirteen short stories represent Mark Harris’s distinguished work in this genre from 1946 to 1993. They were undertaken at a time when the author was becoming famous as a novelist for such triumphs as Bang the Drum Slowly and The Southpaw. Although Harris loves and writes tellingly about the pleasures of baseball, his primary subject has always been the human condition and the shifts of mortal men and women as they try to understand and survive what life has dealt them. While baseball is virtually absent from the stories in this collection, Harris’s gift for the wry appreciation of human variety is never lacking. The pleasure we take in these stories reminds us why Harris ranks as one of this age’s most perceptive and satisfying writers.

Mark Harris (1922-2007) is the author of a famous quartet of baseball novels—including Bang the Drum Slowly—as well as Something about a Soldier, Speed, and The Talemaker. All are available as Bison Books.

 

Jon Surgal is a writer and critic. His father introduced him to baseball and the work of Mark Harris.