Cruel Shoes is a collection of essays and short stories by Steve Martin and is also the title of one of the essays included, a satirical short-short story about a woman in a shoe store. Cruel Shoes was Martin’s first book, released in 1977 as a handmade limited edition of 750 signed and numbered books published by Press of the Pegacycle Lady (Victoria Dailey). The cover is just pale paper over pressboard. It only contained 48 pages and many of the stories that appeared in the trade version were not included.

Table of contents

1979 edition

The works included in the 1979 trade edition of the book are:

Limited 1977 edition