John O’Hara Stories: Library of America Edition
Charles McGrath, editor

The Overlooked – Why did it take me 67 years to finally read John O’Hara’s stories? A contemporary of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, O’Hara has had more stories published in The New Yorker than any writer. And still it took me devouring Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Raymond Carver, and John Cheever before I found John O’Hara. I would typically fault my own reading experience, a puzzle with a lot of missing pieces. But in this case, something else is at play. A lot of us might recall the names of some Olympic Gold Medalists. Fewer will recall the names of the Silver Medalists. Only true fans or students of the sport will be able to list the Bronze Medalists. As good as John O’Hara is as a writer – and he’s very good – his work and life have been overshadowed by Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Faulkner, and then later, the other two Johns: Cheever and Updike. Similarly, his stories were seldom included in collections and college texts, and, therefore, less frequently taught. As Fitzgerald famously noted: “An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters ever afterward.” It’s having your writing taught that ensures lasting fame.