The List of Anthologies

Is there any subject an anthologist hasn’t thought of? Here’s a recent sampling:

* “Byrne’s Book of Great Pool Stories”: Robert Byrne, an author and pool player, gathers stories from Pushkin, Tolstoy and John O’Hara among others.

* “The New Roger Caras Treasury of Great Dog Stories”: Editor Caras’ anthology includes works by James Thurber, Mark Twain and Dave Barry.

* “Closers: Great American Writers on the Art of Selling”: Includes stories by John Cheever, John Updike, Richard Ford and Raymond Carver.

* “The Breast”: The subject of this anthology is self-evident. Contributions include stories and essays by Nora Ephron, Barbara Ehrenreich and Italo Calvino.

* “Trial and Error”: A collection of great literary courtroom scenes, including fiction by Harper Lee, Joyce Carol Oates and William Faulkner.

* “The Literary Cyclist”: Great bicycle scenes in literature, including works by Twain, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.

* “Neurotica”: Literature about Jewish sexual neurosis. Authors include Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick and Erica Jong.

* “The Ex-Files”: Stories about ex-mates. David Foster Wallace is among the better known contributors.

* “An Exhilaration of Wings”: Devoted to the “timeless pleasure of bird-watching,” this anthology includes contributions from Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry David Thoreau.

* “On the Couch: Great American Stories About Therapy”: Stories by Lorrie Moore, Donald Barthelme, Lawrence Block and others.

* “High Infidelity”: Stories about one of the world’s oldest pastimes, including works by Updike, Margaret Atwood and Russell Banks.

* “The Oxford Book of Work”: A compilation of sayings and literature about everything from housework to factories. Dickens, Freud and Karl Marx are among those quoted.

* “Getting It On: A Condom Reader”: Contributions from Anne Rice, John Irving and several others.

* “Road Trips, Head Trips”: Life in the fast lane, and some slow ones, too. Hemingway, Steinbeck and S.J. Perelman are among the writers.

* “The Dedalus Book of German Decadence: Voices of the Abyss”: A collection of “decadent” German writing.

* “Scarlet Riders: Action Packed Mountie Stories From the Fabulous Pulps”: Yes, that’s the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.