Sixty Stories Signed First Edition Reference

Sixty Stories is the essential Donald Barthelme collection — a gathering of sixty stories from his first fifteen years of publication that represents the full range of his achievement in the short form. Published by Putnam in 1981, it includes many of his most celebrated stories: “The Balloon,” “The School,” “Me and Miss Mandible,” “The Indian Uprising,” “Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning,” and “A City of Churches,” among dozens of others.

The Collection

The sixty stories demonstrate Barthelme’s extraordinary range: stories that last two pages and stories that last twenty; stories built from dialogue and stories built from lists; stories that parody specific literary forms and stories that invent new ones. What unifies them is Barthelme’s voice — deadpan, witty, linguistically precise, and capable of finding beauty in the most unpromising materials.

The collection was a critical and commercial success by Barthelme’s standards, reaching a wider audience than his individual collections had achieved. It established the canonical version of Barthelme’s short fiction career and provided the standard introduction to his work for a generation of readers and writers.

First Edition Identification

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York Publication date: 1981 Copyright page: First printing per Putnam convention

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed first edition, fine/fine: $200–$500
• Inscribed copies: $300–$700
• Unsigned first edition, fine/fine: $40–$100

Sixty Stories is the single most important Barthelme acquisition for collectors who want one volume that represents the man and his work. Its generous scope, its inclusion of all the essential stories, and its moderate pricing make it the obvious foundation for a Barthelme collection.