The Best American Series

The Best American series is an annually-published collection of books, published by Houghton-Mifflin Publishing, each of which features a different theme. The first in the series was originally created in 1915, during the early times of the 'short story', when a man named Edward J. O'Brien began collecting short tales he felt were well-written during the previous year.

As time went by the series became more formally organized, with an individual editor narrowing the field down to a few hundred stories. These stories were then sent to a selected, established writer within the field and she / he chose from among those the final 20-odd pieces to be included in that year's collection.

Some previous editions have included a list of "other stories" which didn't make the final cut. When listed in the book, those pieces which are selected are showcased in alphabetical order by the author's last name.

Many editions are a good mix of more-established authors (ex. Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Chabon) with up-and-coming writers who have achieved moderate success (ex. Lorrie Moore).

Over time additional books were added to the series, including but not limited to : the Best Mystery Stories, Best Essays and Travel Writing. Two were of particular note : The Best American Nonrequired Reading series, which began in 2002, and the Best American Recipes, both top-sellers from among the various collections.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading collection typically selects pieces from a "younger" (and, many feel, more "edgy" and "liberal") pool of material and has included, in past years, works from satire newspaper The Onion as well as literal comics, technically a publication just like anything else, by Adrian Tomine. The 2004 edition of the series featured a forward by Lord of the Rings actor Viggo Mortensen.

The Best American Recipes series pulls recipes published during the previous year from various sources : cookbooks, websites, even the backs of boxes of food all into one simple collection. Critics in recent years have noted that the preparation of the food items has occasionally become needlessly complex, however the editors - who generally remain the same from year to year, unalike the other series - do provide the reader with notes on where to acquire certain less-common foodstuffs.

An introduction to the recipe compilation is written by a rotating-each-year food personality, such as UK cook Jamie Oliver.

The popularity of the Recipes series has prompted many other established food and wine companies to compile their own "best of the year" series, with varying degrees of success.