Best Short Story Writers of 1901-1950
I will make another list of the best 19th century short story writers. There are far too many good writers for just 10, so dividing them up by century made sense with the 20th century divided again. Dividing the 20th C. still presents problems as where do authors with long careers or who straddle the dividing line belong (Welty, Capote, Bradbury, Porter, Salinger, Jackson for example). Off the top of my head I came up with over thirty writers. My mother, an English teacher who was my high school English teacher 9th-12th grades, incidentally, came up with even more names.You have made some really beautiful lists Blue_Deveraux. Bravo! All the writers you chose have indeed great quality and style, thank God for your fair apprciation of literature. I voted for Lawrence. My favourite short story by him is 'The Horse Dealer's Daughter'. I found it really gripping and very intriguing!
Saki is unbeatable. His stories reflected wits of uncomparable stature and had a dramatic, unexpected endings. Go read Dusk written by him, if you want an example.
He could go on either side of the dividing line, but I think his best stories are pre-1950.
She is so diffcult to place as she lived almost the entire century (1909-2001) and published almost as many short story collections pre-1950 and post-1950. However, her most famous stories are pre-1950.
Her " Collected Stories" won the Pulitzer and National Book Award in 1966, but most (maybe all? ) of the stories collected were written in the 30s as were her novellas.
Another one who straddles the line, but her most famous novels were pre-1950, and her most famous collection of stories, "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe", while published in 1951, contains stories written pre-1950.