Carson McCullers--novelist dramatist poet--was at the peak of her powers as a writer of short fiction. Here are nineteen stories that explore her signature themes: wounded adolescence loneliness in marriage and the tragicomedy of life in the South. Here too are "The Member of the Wedding" and "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe " novellas that Tennessee Williams judged to be "assuredly among the masterpieces of our language." (A Mariner Reissue)