J
EROME
C
HARYN’S
novel
The Green Lantern
was nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award. His most recent novel,
Johnny One-Eye,
is about a double agent during the American Revolution. He lives in New York and Paris, where he teaches film theory at the American University. He has written ten novels about Isaac Sidel, the first four of which are being turned into graphic novels.
S
TEPHEN
C
RANE
, born on November 1, 1871 in Newark, New Jersey, was a journalist, poet, and author. His first novel,
Maggie, A Girl of the Streets: A Story of New York
(1893) was self-published and unsuccessful. Crane attended the College of Liberal Arts at Syracuse University, after which he moved to the Bowery district in New York where he wrote sketches and short stories for newspapers. Crane became ill and died at the age of twenty-eight on June 5, 1900. His other works include
The Black Riders and Other Lines
(1895), “The Little Regiment” (1896), “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” (1897),
The Third Violet
(1897), “The Blue Hotel” (1898), “War Is Kind” (1899),
The Monster and Other Stories
(1899), and
Active Service
(1899).
H
ORACE
G
REGORY
was a poet and critic, born on April 10, 1898 in Milwaukee, and died on March 11, 1982. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1923 and was a professor of English at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. In 1965 he won the Bollingen Prize for Poetry for lifetime achievement. His works include
Chelsea Rooming House
(1930),
Pilgrim of the Apocalypse
(1933),
Poems, 1930-1940
(1941), and
Dorothy Richardson: An Adventure in Self-Discovery
(1967).
O. H
ENRY
was a reporter, columnist, and great American short story writer whose works explored the daily lives of the people of New York City. Born William Sydney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina, O. Henry moved to New York City after serving three years in a penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio for embezzlement. He was released in 1901 and changed his name to O. Henry. He wrote for the
New York World
as well as other magazines. His works include
Cabbages and Kings
(1904), “The Last Leaf” (1907),
The Heart of the West
(1907), and “The Ransom of Red Chief” (1910).
C
LARK
H
OWARD
is an Edgar Award winner (and eight-time finalist) and has also won the Derringer and five
Ellery Queen
Readers Awards. Although he has written novels and true crime books, the short story has always been his favorite form. He has two short story collections and has been included in dozens of anthologies since 1975.
S
USAN
I
SAACS
has been called “Jane Austen with a schmear” (
Washington Post
) and a “witty, wry observer of the contemporary scene” (
New York Times
). She is chairman of the board of the literary organization
Poets & Writers
, a past president of Mystery Writers of America, and is a member of PEN, the National Book Critics Circle, the Authors Guild, and the International Association of Crime Writers. Although her work includes film (
Compromising Positions, Hello Again
) and nonfiction (
Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women Are Really Doing on Page and Screen
), she’s happiest working alone, writing novels. For more information, visit
www.susanisaacs.com
.
B
ARRY
N. M
ALZBERG
, one of science fiction’s most prolific writers, has written over seventy-five novels in the field, as well as novels of suspense, crime fiction, and dark humor, both under his own name and under a number of pseudonyms. He has also written over four hundred short stories, in similarly varied fields. As an editor, he was in charge of
Amazing Stories, Fantastic,
and other magazines, and has produced a number of anthologies. A winner of the John W. Campbell Award and the
Locus
Award, he has been nominated several times for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and was the Shubert Foundation Playwriting Fellow at Syracuse University.
J
ERROLD
M
UNDIS
is a novelist and nonfiction writer who came out of the Midwest to Manhattan as a young man and has lived there on-and-off (mostly on) for more than forty-five years. His best-known novels are
Gerhardt’s Children
and
The Dogs.
He enjoys Central Park and dogs and other elements that appear in his story in this volume. He has two grown sons, currently lives in Manhattan, and is generally in good spirits.
J
OYCE
C
AROL
O
ATES
is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. Author of numerous works including the national best sellers
We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde
, and
The Falls
, which won the 2005 Prix Femina, Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
E
DGAR
A
LLAN
P
OE
, arguably one of the greatest American poets, was born on January 15, 1809 in Boston. Poe was orphaned at the age of two after both of his parents died and was adopted by John Allan. Poe’s first book,
Tamerlane and Other Poems
was published in 1827. Nine years later, he and his family moved to New York. “The Raven” was published in 1845 in the
New York Evening Mirror,
and became his most famous poem. Poe died on October 7, 1849 and was inducted into the United States Hall of Fame in New York in 1910. His other works include
The Raven and Other Poems
(1845),
The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe
(1850),
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
(1838), and
Tales by Edgar A. Poe
(1845).
I
RWIN
S
HAW
, born in the Bronx, New York in 1913 to Jewish immigrants from Russia, was a playwright, screenwriter, and author. His parents moved the family to Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn and changed their name from
Shamforoff
to
Shaw
. Irwin Shaw attended Brooklyn College and wrote for the school newspaper. He graduated with a B.A. in 1934, and by age twenty-one was producing scripts for radio shows. He also wrote for magazines such as the
New Yorker
and
Esquire
. His works include the play
Bury the Dead
(1936), the short stories “The Sailor off the Bremen” (1939) and “Welcome to the City” (1942), and the film
I Want You
(1951).
D
ONALD
E. W
ESTLAKE
has written over eighty novels under his own name and pseudonyms, including Richard Stark. He is a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, a three-time Edgar Award winner, and an Academy Award nominee for his screenplay of
The Grifters.
Westlake was born in Brooklyn in 1933, grew up in Albany, attended the State University of New York from which he received an Honorary Doctorate in 1996, and served in the U.S. Air Force.
E
DITH
W
HARTON
was born in New York during the “Old New York” era, when women were socially prepared for only marriage. She became one of America’s greatest writers and published over forty books in her lifetime. She was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (in 1920 for her novel
The Age of Innocence
), an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Yale Academy, and full membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her works include
Greater Inclination
(1899),
The Valley of Decision
(1902),
The House of Mirth
(1905), and
The Custom of the Country
(1913).
C
ORNELL
W
OOLRICH
, born on December 4, 1903 in New York City, is known by many as the father of noir fiction. His first novel,
Cover Charge
(1926), was written while he attended Columbia University. He wrote suspense stories for the magazines
Argosy, Black Mask,
and
Thrilling Mystery,
and his story “Rear Window” (1954) was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s film by the same name. His novels include
Children of the Ritz
(1927),
The Time of Her Life
(1931),
The Bride Wore Black
(1940),
I Married a Dead Man
(1948),
Hotel Room
(1958), and
The Doom Stone
(1960).