41 Places:41 Stories is a book of found narratives, true stories picked up on street corners, taxi ranks, pubs, car parks - even in public toilets. Each tale inhabits its own geography: a specific place in the centre of a British seaside town. If the essence of narrative is change, William Shaw distils it here in these tales of love, loss and self-discovery. Brighton is, after all, a place where people have always come to transform themselves.

Including his most famous works, such as “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Furnished Room,” this collection of forty-one O. Henry short stories demonstrates his extraordinary technical genius. “There are stories in everything. I’ve got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts, and newspaper stands.”—O. Henry Readers the world over recognize O. Henry as the best short story writer of the early twentieth century—even today a masterful surprise at the end of a story is described as “an O. Henry twist,” and a prominent short fiction award bears his name. Widely known as a master of irony, O. Henry also displayed in his stories dazzling wordplay and a wry combination of pathos and humor. Cunningly arranged according to geographic location, these tales display the wide range of O. Henry’s world, from the streets of his beloved New York City to the heat of Honduras and other exotic locales. With his wonderful plot turns, unexpected climaxes, and deep insights into human nature, O. Henry’s works will live on as prime examples of the well-told tale. Includes an Introduction by Burton Raffel and an Afterword by Laura Furman

Groff Conklin was the most important science fiction anthologist through the years of the genre's true second generation, that point at which its previously magazine-bound masterpieces were being systemtically located, aligned and placed into permanent format. His contribution over the period of two decades was irreplaceable and all of our postwar history exists in the penumbra of his work. Bud Webster has in this index granted an act of scholarship and homage of equal irreplaceability. - Barry Malzberg, author and editor