Admired as a "writer's writer," praised as a stylist extraordinaire, Jean Stafford (1915-79) produced some 50 short stories - as well as novels, essays, and other works - during her lifetime. Her short fiction evinces a sharp sense of place and irony; her characters typically lack roots and chase after dreams; and although Stafford herself conceded no allegiance to the contemporary women's movement, her stories plainly center on the female experience.

Whether "Children Are Bored on Sunday" or "Bad Characters," whether "In the Zoo" or "The End of a Career," a Stafford short story never fails to surprise, entertain, and instruct. Today, decades after Stafford's heyday as a leading fiction writer for the New Yorker and other periodicals, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author remains of enduring interest to critics, biographers, feminists, and aficionados of the short story form.

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In Jean Stafford: A Study of the Short Fiction, Mary Ann Wilson presents a flawless analysis of the themes, techniques, relationships, and life circumstances shaping Stafford's short stories.

Organizing her material geographically - in concert with Stafford's arrangement of her Collected Stories - Wilson appraises the writer's major and minor stories, interspersing detailed readings with fertile biographical material: the influential role of New Yorker editor Katharine White; Stafford's marriages to writers Robert Lowell, Oliver Jensen, and A. J. Liebling; her peripatetic lifestyle, troubled relationship with her father, disfiguring automobile accident, and much more.

Adding to readers' understanding of the writer and her work are provocative selections from Stafford's speeches and essays and from critics' commentary over the years.