In this powerful collection, classics including Guy de Maupassant’s “Love” and Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” join contemporary offerings such as Wallace Stegner’s “The Blue-Winged Teal,” “On the Antler” by E. Annie Proulx, and David Quammen’s “Walking Out.” From duck, goose, and grouse hunting to stiffer contests for deer, elk, moose, bear, and big African game—in one case, even a manhunt—all kinds of hunting and all possible outcomes, from the comic to the heartwarming, disastrous, or bizarre, are explored. Against the backdrop of ocean, frozen swamp, forest, or jungle, we see the deep bonds between father and son, huntsman and dog, man and nature being forged or shattered as the line between sport and survival blurs, and the hunter risks becoming prey to weather, to circumstance, or to human and animal foes.

A handful of sinister characters and dark plots pepper this collection, but for the most part, these 25 tales portray fishermen as endearing folk, good humored and quick with a yarn, eager to help a novice, and famously prone to exaggerate. The scenery includes roiling oceans, still ponds, swift rivers, and bubbling brooks, and the fish themselves range from the noble trout to salmon, tarpon, bass, dolphin, permit, flounder, grouper, weakfish, northern pike, and even a sea monster. This collection includes three classic stories: the Grimm fairy tale “The Fisherman and His Wife,†first published in 1815; “A Fishing Excursion,†by the mid-19th-century French writer Guy de Maupassant; and Henry Van Dyke’s 1899 tale, “The Fatal Success.†The remaining stories span the 20th century and represent contemporary favorites such as Stephen King and E. Annie Proulx; early-century masters Stephen Vincent Benet and John Taintor Foote; and Philip Wylie, P. J. O'Rourke, Robert Traver, among others.

No other sport has inspired as many great writers as baseball and this exceptional anthology brings together 34 short stories about the national pastime. The stories span several decades and are written by some of America's favorite writers, including Zane Grey, James Thurber, Robert Penn Warren, T. C. Boyle, and Michael Chabon, among others. Many of the stories are about the game itself, while others use baseball as a backdrop for timeless themes, such as morality, greed, and love. Nine new stories have been added for this new edition and include "Bullet in the Brain" by Tobias Wolff, in which baseball is the surprising last memory of a dying man; George Plimpton's "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch," a story about a fictional baseball player who throws a 150-mph fastball and was a notorious April Fools' Day hoax in Sports Illustrated; and Leslie Pietrzyk's "What We All Want" about a pitcher's wife's concern for her aging husband. This collection is for all baseball lovers—long after the season is over.