Collecting Rare Books and First Editions - The Short Story and The Private Library (Part V)

By L. D. Mitchell

Folks interested in collecting books of short stories certainly realize by now that what we have covered in our posts thus far does not even begin to scratch the surface of what's available.

We have not covered at all, for example, the numerous small literary magazines that do so much to keep the short story alive as a viable literary form. Nor have we covered the hundreds of other authors, writing in a plethora of languages, who deserve recognition for demonstrated excellence in this literary form. Fortunately, a number of books exist which can readily remedy these deficiencies. If some of these are too expensive for your own book collecting needs, most larger public and academic libraries are likely to have a copy on hand.

If you have a favorite author, and that author has achieved a modicum of fame, chances are very good that a bibliography has been published which details, as comprehensively as possible, any short stories your author may have penned (in addition, of course, to whatever other works he or she produced).

Subject bibliographies also will detail known short stories relevant to the subject at hand.

With these and similar titles at hand, one should have no problem at all filling one's bookshelves with numerous volumes of short stories....

The article by L. D. Mitchell was published in The Private Library. It is presented here by permission of the author. Thank you very much.

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