First published by Random House, 1966 

Consisting of eight stories first published in various journals between 1959 and 1965, Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers came out two years after Elkin’s first novel, Boswell: A Modern Comedy. Apropos of the title, Criers and Kibitzers is full of complainers and meddlers—ordinary people capitulating to repressive if mundane realities. Because of their shorter length and the stage in his writing career, the stories were more linear than Elkin’s novels. Some won awards, were adapted into plays, and/or continued to be anthologized into the 1990s.