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NBC Presents: Short Story was a half-hour program offering dramatizations of contemporary American short stories by famed writers such as William Faulkner
William Faulkner

William Faulkner was a Nobel Prize in Literature-winning United States author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short story....
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an United States writer of novels and short stories, whose works are evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself....
 and Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson was an influential United States author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years....
.

Broadcasting from Hollywood, the series premiered February 21, 1951 on NBC with an adaptation of "Fifty Grand" by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
. Script editor for the series was Hugh Kemp, who supervised scripts by George Lefferts, Ernest Kinoy and others. The series was first heard on Wednesdays at 10:30pm EST and then moved May 4 to Fridays at 8:00pm.






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NBC Presents: Short Story was a half-hour program offering dramatizations of contemporary American short stories by famed writers such as William Faulkner
William Faulkner

William Faulkner was a Nobel Prize in Literature-winning United States author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short story....
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an United States writer of novels and short stories, whose works are evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself....
 and Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson was an influential United States author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years....
.

Broadcasting from Hollywood, the series premiered February 21, 1951 on NBC with an adaptation of "Fifty Grand" by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
. Script editor for the series was Hugh Kemp, who supervised scripts by George Lefferts, Ernest Kinoy and others. The series was first heard on Wednesdays at 10:30pm EST and then moved May 4 to Fridays at 8:00pm. Featuring stories by Conrad Aiken
Conrad Aiken

Conrad Potter Aiken was an American novelist and poet, whose work includes poetry, short story, novels, and an autobiography.He was born in Savannah, Georgia....
 ("Silent Snow, Secret Snow
Silent Snow, Secret Snow

"Silent Snow, Secret Snow" is Conrad Aiken's best-known short story, often included in anthology of classic American Horror fiction and fantasy short fiction....
"), Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson was an United States writer, mainly of short story, most notably the collection Winesburg, Ohio . That work's influence on American fiction was profound, and its literary voice can be heard in Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell and others....
, Stephen Vincent Benét
Stephen Vincent Benét

Stephen Vincent Ben?t was an American author, poet, short story writer, and novelist. Ben?t is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body , for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, The Devil and Daniel Webster and By the Waters of Babylon....
, Ring Lardner
Ring Lardner

Ringgold Wilmer Lardner was an United States sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical takes on the sports world, marriage, and the theatre....
 and John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck III was an American literature. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937....
, the first series continued until July 13. The dramas were directed by Andrew C. Love. Overall supervision of production was by Margaret Cuthbert and Wade Arnold. Lamont Johnson
LaMont Johnson

LaMont Johnson was an United States jazz pianist who has played in the hard bop and post-bebop genres. He recorded extensively with Jackie McLean in the 1960s, and has also recorded with Ornette Coleman, Kenny Burrell, Bud Shank, Paul Beaver, and Bernie Krause, among others....
, Don Stanley and John Wald were the announcers.

Second series

Moving to Fridays at 9:30pm EST, the second series ran from November 23, 1951 to March 14, 1952 with William Welch as script editor and Wade Arnold as executive producer. The College by Radio plan was discontinued. Stories in the second series were by Benét, Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an United States literature, fantasy, Horror fiction, science fiction, and mystery writer.Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury is widely considered one of the greatest and most popular American writers of speculative fiction of the twentieth century....
 ("The Rocket"), James M. Cain
James M. Cain

James Mallahan Cain was an United States journalist and novelist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labelling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the hardboiled....
, Erskine Caldwell
Erskine Caldwell

Erskine Preston Caldwell was an United States author....
. John Cheever
John Cheever

John Cheever was an United States novelist and short story writer, sometimes called "the Anton Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester County, New York suburbs, and old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy, Massachusetts, where he was born....
, Anton Chekov, John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy

John Galsworthy Order of Merit was an England novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter....
, Graham Greene
Graham Greene

Henry Graham Greene Order of Merit, Order of the Companions of Honour was an English writer best known as a novelist, but who also produced short stories, plays, screenplays, travel writing and criticism....
, Lardner, Steinbeck, Frank Stockton, Ben Ames Williams
Ben Ames Williams

Ben Ames Williams American writer who published over thirty novels, including The Strange Woman , House Divided , Leave Her to Heaven , and Come Spring ....
 and others.

Third series

The third series ran from April 11 to May 30, 1952 with stories by Nell Bell, John Collier
John Collier (writer)

John Collier was a British-born author and screenplay writer best known for his Short story, many of which appeared in The New Yorker from the 1930s to the 1950s....
 ("De Mortuis"), Eric Knight
Eric Knight

Eric Knight was an author who is mainly notable for creating the fictional collie Lassie.Born on April 10, 1897, in Menston in Yorkshire, England, Eric Mowbray Knight was the third of four sons born to Frederic Harrison and Marion Hilda Knight, both Quakers....
, William Daniel Steele, James Street
James Street

James Street may refer to:...
, James A. Michener
James A. Michener

James Albert Michener was an United States author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which are novels of sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in a particular geographic locale and incorporating historical facts into the story as well....
 and James Thurber
James Thurber

James Grover Thurber was an United States author, cartoonist and celebrated wit.Thurber was best known for his contributions to The New Yorker magazine....
,

Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New York ....
 cooperated with NBC by scheduling a literary appreciation course with a Short Story tie-in. This was part of NBC's College by Radio plan. Cast members included Parley Baer
Parley Baer

Parley Baer was an United States actor in film, television, and Radio programming....
, Jeff Corey
Jeff Corey

Jeff Corey was an United States stage and screen actor who became a well-respected acting teacher after being Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s....
, Howard Culver
Howard Culver

Howard Culver was an American radio and television actor, best known as hotel clerk Howie Uzzell during the entire run of TV's Gunsmoke. On radio he starred in the title role of the Western adventure series Straight Arrow, which aired on Mutual from May 6, 1948 to June 21, 1951....
, John Dehner
John Dehner

John Dehner was an United States actor in radio, television, and films, playing countless roles, often as a droll villain. Between 1941 and 1988, he appeared in over 260 films and television programs....
, Georgia Ellis
Georgia Ellis

Georgia Ellis was an American actress who is best known for her recurring role of Kitty in the popular Western radio drama Gunsmoke....
, Paul Frees
Paul Frees

Paul Frees was an United States voice actor and character actor....
, Virginia Gregg
Virginia Gregg

Virginia Gregg Burket was an American actress best known for her many roles in radio dramas.Gregg was born in Harrisburg, Illinois, Illinois, the daughter of musician Dewey Alphaleta and businessman Edward William Gregg....
, Jack Kruschen
Jack Kruschen

Jack Kruschen was a Canadian-born character actor who worked primarily in United States film, television and radio programming....
, Dan O'Herlihy
Dan O'Herlihy

Daniel O'Herlihy was an Academy Award-nominated Ireland film actor....
 and Barney Phillips
Barney Phillips

Barney Phillips was an United States film, radio and television actor....
.

Similar programs

There were several related shows that also offered literary adaptations: Best Plays (1952-53), Short Short Stories and The World's Great Novels
The World's Great Novels

The World's Great Novels was a radio series, directed by Homer Heck, which presented adaptations of novel. Broadcast on WMAQ, Chicago, and NBC from 1944 to 1948, it was initially heard Saturdays at 7pm during the first 1944-45 season and then moved to Fridays at 11:30pm....
 (1944-48). With "the best published short shorts... originals by famous authors," Short Short Stories was a 15-minute daytime drama series which aired three days a week.

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