occasions: for George Mills in 1982 and for Mrs. Ted Bliss, his last novel, in 1995. The MacGuffin was a finalist for the 1991 National Book Award for Fiction. However, although he enjoyed high critical praise, his books have never enjoyed popular success. The 1976 Jack Lemmon film Alex & the Gypsy was based on Elkin's novella "The Bailbondsman". Elkin died May 31, 1995, of a heart attack, twenty days after his 65th birthday. His manuscripts and correspondence are archived in Olin Library at Washington University in St. Louis. Elkin's literary legacy is represented by the literary agency headed by Georges Borchardt. He has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Works Novels Boswell: A Modern Comedy (1964) A Bad Man (1967) The Dick Gibson Show (1971) The Franchiser (1976) The Living End (novella) (1979) George Mills (1982) The Magic Kingdom (1985) The Rabbi of Lud (1987) The MacGuffin (1991) Mrs. Ted Bliss (1995) Story collections Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers (1966) Early Elkin (1985) Novella collections Searches and Seizures (1973) (U.K. title: Eligible Men (1974)) Van Gogh's Room at Arles (1993) Other works "A Prayer for Losers", from the Why Work Series (edited by Gordon Lish) (1966) Stanley Elkin's Greatest Hits (anthology; foreword by Robert Coover) (1980) The Six-Year-Old Man (screenplay) (1987) Pieces of Soap (collected essays) (1992) Limited editions The First George Mills (Part One of George Mills; 376 copies, all signed by Elkin and the illustrator, Jane E. Hughes) (1980) Why I Live Where I Live (essay; 30 unnumbered copies) (1983) The Coffee Room (radio play; 95 copies, all signed by Elkin and the illustrator, Michael McCurdy) (1987) Audio "A Poetics for Bullies", read by Jackson Beck, with comments by Elkin, in New Sounds in American Fiction, Program 10. (edited by Gordon Lish) (1969) As editor Stories From the Sixties (1971) The Best American Short Stories 1980 (with Shannon Ravenel) (1980) Awards 1995 – National Book Critics Circle Award for Mrs. Ted Bliss 1994 – PEN Faulkner Award finalist for Van Gogh's Room at Arles 1991 – National Book Award finalist for Fiction for The MacGuffin 1982 – National Book Critics Circle Award for George Mills References External links The Stanley Elkin Papers at Washington University in St. Louis Interview at the Dalkey Archive (formerly the Center for Book Culture) Full Bibliography via Loyola University Stanley Elkin interviewed by Stephen Banker, circa 1978 20th-century