"A century from now," novelist Anne Tyler suggested in a 26 January 1985 USA Today article, "when our descendants look back and marvel at our ignorance, they might very well mention the relative lack of homage we paid to Peter Taylor. He is, after all, the undisputed master of the short story form." Taylor's techniques and themes are neither startling nor sensational, which might account for his lack of popular acclaim. Scholar Albert J. Griffith states, "The voice that speaks in his stories is essentially the voice of a gentleman--cultured but not dilettantish, ironic but not cynical, urbane but not foppish; Taylor preserves what was best in the genteel tradition in American letters, without any of the mawkishness and prudery often associated with it." Although Taylor has been overlooked by the general public, critics regard him as one of the most accomplished American short-story writers of the twentieth century. During...