The Ballad of the Sad Café: And Other Stories

by Carson McCullers

Overview

A Southern woman is undone by love and gossip in the classic novella, one of seven stories in this “brilliant . . . panorama of remarkable talent” (The New York Times).
 
One of the most celebrated and enduringly popular works in Southern literature, this collection assembles Carson McCullers’s best stories, including her beloved novella “The Ballad of the Sad Café.” A haunting tale of love and violence in a small Southern town, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable woman whose home serves as the town’s gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes McCullers’s first published story, “Wunderkind,” about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.
 
First published in 1951, The Ballad of the Sad Café was adapted for the stage by the Edward Albee and later made into a film starring Vanessa Redgrave and Keith Carradine.
 
“McCullers's finest stories.” —The New York Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547416601
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	06/11/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	162
Sales rank:	173,904
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Carson McCullers (1917–1967) was the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding, Reflections in a Golden Eye, and Clock Without Hands. Born in Columbus, Georgia, on February 19, 1917, she became a promising pianist and enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York when she was seventeen, but lacking money for tuition, she never attended classes. Instead, she studied writing at Columbia University, which ultimately led to The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, the novel that made her an overnight literary sensation. On September 29, 1967, at age fifty, she died in Nyack, New York, where she is buried.

Date of Birth:

February 19, 1917

Date of Death:

November 29, 1967

Place of Birth:

Columbus, Georgia

Place of Death:

Nyack, New York

Education:

Columbia University and New York University, 1935