Best Stories, May 1947

Best Stories, Vol. 2 No. 3 (May 1947)

This issue contains four complete stories. "Atomic Love" by Pearl C. Degenhart follows sixteen-year-old Patsy Culver, a tomboy tennis player, who becomes smitten when she spots a red-haired boy at the courts. Desperate to win a tennis match against her brother Tom to attend a party where the boy (Dean Lang) will be present, she transforms herself with makeup and victories to secure an invitation. "A Letter for Miss Billy" by Buchardt Chowkin consists of correspondence between foreman Jacob Bomms of the T-Bar-T ranch in Arizona and his young employer Billy Thornton, now living in New York City at the Hotel Fitzroy. Jake reports on ranch operations while Billy describes city life—libraries, sightseeing tours, and an embarrassing encounter with the hotel manager. Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" concerns a scientist obsessed with erasing a marks on his wife's cheek. John D. MacDonald's "The Notched Ears" features an American man of science encountering a strange mystery in Calcutta.