Collected here for the first time are all James Purdy’s short stories—fifty-six—including seven drawn from unpublished archives. Characterised by his dark sense of humour and jaundiced eye towards American culture, Purdy was considered one of the greatest—and most underappreciated—writers in America in the last half of the twentieth century. Although championed by a diverse range of writers, "an authentic American genius" (Gore Vidal) , Purdy’s work has heretofore been relegated to the avant-garde fringes of the American literary mainstream. Marginalised all too often as a "gay author" with themes too scabrous for popular consumption, his stories anticipate both "David Lynch and Desperate Housewives" (The Guardian). American culture has finally caught up with the man Susan Sontag called "one of the half dozen or so living American writers worth taking seriously."

Purdy’s journey to recognition came with as much outrage and condemnation as it did lavish praise and lasting admiration. His first book, Don’t Call Me by My Right Name, reprinted in this edition, had to be printed privately in the United States in 1956, after first being published in Britain.