These stories originally appeared, sometimes in different form, in the following publications: “Pot Shack” in Buzz; “Night Train” in Double Take; “Daddy’s Girl,” “I Need a Man to Love Me” (published as “Nights in White Satin”), and “I Want to Live!” in Harper’s; “The Black Lights,” “Cold Snap,” “Mouses,” “The Pugilist at Rest,” “Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine,” “Superman, My Son,” “Way Down Deep in the Jungle,” and “A White Horse” in The New Yorker; “All Along the Watchtower,” “Bomb Shelter Noel,” “Diary of My Health,” “A Merry Little Christmas,” and “Pickpocket” in Playboy; “Mosquitoes” in Story; “Volcanoes from Hell” in Tin House; “Tarantula” in Zoetrope.

“The Pugilist at Rest,” “The Black Lights,” “I Want to Live!,” “Silhouettes,” “Mosquitoes,” and “A White Horse” were previously published in The Pugilist at Rest (Little, Brown and Company, 1993). “Cold Snap,” “Superman, My Son,” “Way Down Deep in the Jungle,” “Pickpocket,” “Pot Shack,” and “I Need a Man to Love Me” were previously published in Cold Snap (Little, Brown and Company, 1995). “Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine,” “The Roadrunner,” “A Run Through the Jungle,” “40, Still at Home,” “Tarantula,” “Mouses,” and “Daddy’s Girl” were previously published in Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine (Little, Brown and Company, 1999).

“The Pugilist at Rest,” “I Want to Live!,” “Cold Snap,” and “Way Down Deep in the Jungle” were selected for The Best American Short Stories in 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995, respectively. “I Want to Live!” was also selected for The Best American Short Stories of the Century. “The Pugilist at Rest” and “Tarantula” each won the O. Henry Prize and were included in that anthology in 1993 and 1998, respectively.

About the Author

Thom Jones, who died in 2016, was a National Book Award finalist, O. Henry Award winner, and the author of three story collections: The Pugilist at Rest, Cold Snap, and Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine. He received an MFA from the University of Iowa in 1973 and thereafter worked an array of jobs, from copywriter to janitor, until he was published for the first time, in The New Yorker, in his midforties. His stories went on to be published in other magazines such as Harper’s, Esquire, Playboy, and Story and were reprinted numerous times in The Best American Short Stories. John Updike chose his story “I Want to Live!” for The Best American Short Stories of the Century.

Also by Thom Jones

Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine

Cold Snap

The Pugilist at Rest

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