The article reviews an important moment in Chilean Literature: The Chilean 50s Generation. The analysis considers aspects related to the emergence of the Chilean 50s Generation, the literary polemic of which its members are the protagonists, and their installation in the national literary field with the Antología del nuevo cuento chileno (Anthology of New Chilean Short Stories, 1954), and Cuentos de la Generación del 50 (Short Stories by the 50s Generation, 1959), both promoted and edited by Enrique Lafourcade. The authors and the short stories in these two collections, together with their earliest critics, are examined and valued with the distance imposed by the time passed.