The novelist, dramatist, and poet Carson McCullers was at the peak of her powers as a writer of short fiction. In nineteen stories that explore her signature themes of wounded adolescence, loneliness in marriage, and the tragicomedy of life in the South, McCullers's novellas "The Member of the Wedding" and "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" are also included. "[These novellas are] assuredly among the masterpieces of our language," Tennesee Williams said.