Long, Last, Happy: New and Selected Stories was published by Grove Press in 2010, the year Barry Hannah died. The collection gathered stories from across his entire career — from the explosive early work in Airships and Captain Maximus through the recovery-era stories of Bats Out of Hell and High Lonesome to previously uncollected late work. It served as both a retrospective and a memorial, demonstrating the sustained brilliance of a career that had produced some of the most original prose in American fiction.
The title — Long, Last, Happy — was taken from the fairy-tale ending “and they lived long, last, and happy,” a Southern folk variant that Hannah heard growing up in Mississippi.
Collecting Long, Last, Happy
First edition (Grove Press, New York, 2010): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $25–$60
- Very good: $10–$25
The book has increased in value since Hannah’s death in 2010, as his literary reputation has continued to grow.
Projected values (2026–2036): Strong appreciation. The definitive Hannah collection.
The Selected Stories
Long, Last, Happy: New and Selected Stories (2010) was published in the year of Hannah’s death and collects the best stories from his entire career — from Airships through Captain Maximus, Bats Out of Hell, and High Lonesome — alongside new, previously uncollected work. Rick Bass’s introduction places Hannah in context as “the best short story writer alive” (a claim many critics endorsed), and the collection serves as both introduction and monument.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Hannah die? Hannah died of a heart attack on March 1, 2010, in Oxford, Mississippi, at the age of 67. He had achieved sobriety in the 1990s and was teaching at Ole Miss at the time of his death. The literary world’s response was immediate and extensive, confirming his standing as a major American writer.