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Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, O. Henry Award and Edgar Awards, the 19 writers in this 2005 edition are not just considered some of the best Southern writers, but among the best American writers period. With works by such writers as Dennis Lehane, Moira Crone, Robert Olen Butler, Cary Holladay, Tom Franklin, and Rebecca Soppe, this collection provides an electrifying current of deep, dark subjects set in the brutal, but charming south.

The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) is a book written by the British economist John Maynard Keynes. After the First World War, Keynes attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as a delegate of the British Treasury. In this book, he argued for a more generous peace, not out of a desire for justice or fairness - but for the sake of the economic well-being of all of Europe, including the Allied Powers, which the Treaty of Versailles would prevent.

J. B. Polley was only 21 when the war broke out; he enlisted in Company F of the Fourth Texas Infantry, a regiment in Hood’s Brigade. His book is based on his eyewitness account, the reminiscences of many of his comrades, plus numerous battle reports by various generals. The Texas Brigade distinguished itself for its tenacity throughout the American Civil War.

The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904) is a political economy book by Thorstein Veblen which examines the growing corporate domination of culture and the economy. At its core, The Theory of Business Enterprise is an analysis of two intertwined but clashing motivations: that of business and that of industry. Business is the making of profits. Industry is the making of goods.

Edgar Allen Poe, the hugely well-known American short story writer and poet, is considered a literary pioneer for many reasons, but the surprising and humourous story behind his short "story" "Von Kempelen and His Discovery" is often overlooked. Predating Orson Welles’ radio hoax by nearly a hundred years, "Von Kempelen and His Discovery" was a mock scientific article first published in 1849 in the journal The Flag of Our Union and reported a German chemist had discovered an alchemical process that could turn lead into gold.

During a cholera epidemic in New York City, the narrator visits a relative living just outside of the city. One day, the narrator has a vision of a ghastly monster alighting in the distant hills. After a second vision, his host reveals that the "monster" is neither as large nor as distant as the visitor imagined, being only an insect.

"Landor’s Cottage" is a characteristically vivid and detailed description of Poe’s family home and the surrounding valley. Poe describes the natural beauty of the setting with elegance and emotion and gives us the opportunity to delve deeper into Poe as a person as he writes candidly about the beauty that surrounds him.  

"The Domain of Arnheim" is a short tale about a man of great means named Ellison who builds a castle with a garden of breathtaking beauty called Arnheim. In "The Domain of Arnheim", Poe delves deep into the human mind, creative imagination, the soul, and the nature of beauty. 

Two drunken sailors, Hugh and Legs, find themselves in a part of London quarantined due to the plague. Passing by one of the buildings, they are lured inside by loud noises and discover a party of people around a table and a cellar full of liquor. A quarrel ensues, a barrel of punch is knocked over, and everyone but the sailors and two of the women drown in the deluge of liquor.

What is considered an autographical piece, the story centers around a young couple in love in a wonderful and isolated valley of beauty, until illness changes everything and the valley, too, begins to lose its luster.  

In this tragic tale of a summer sea voyage, the narrator’s old friend, Cornelius Wyatt, is onboard the Independence, sailing from South Carolina to New York City, with his wife and two sisters and an oblong pine box. A hurricane near Cape Hatteras leads to tragedy, and the truth is revealed about Wyatt’s family. 

"America's best novelist" ( The Denver Post), two-time Edgar Award winner James Lee Burke is renowned for his lush, suspense-charged portrayals of the Deep South – the people, the crime, the hope and despair infused in the bayou landscape. This stunning anthology takes us back to where Burke's heart and soul beat -- the steamy, seamy Gulf Coast -- in complex and fascinating tales that crackle with violence and menace, meshing his flair for gripping storytelling with his urbane writing style.

The Convict and Other Stories is a superb collection of stories set in and around the American Deep South and its charismatic people.