FROM THE PUBLISHER

As the Fielder's Choice roster shows, lots of "those who didn't make the club" went on to successful careers in fiction. Among the twenty-seven selections are short stories from Ring Lardner, Majes Thurber, Paul Gallico, Damon Runyon, P.G. Wodehouse, and Frank Sullivan. There are excerpts from longer works by Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, John Sayles, Chaim Ptok, and Irwin Shaw, as well as excerpts from novels perhaps best known for their screen adaptions: Mark Harris's Hang the Drum Slow, Valentine Davies's It Happens Ever Spring, and William Brashler's The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings.