I haven't read Bebergal's book (yet), but my understanding is that it received some criticism for its title/description ("the literary influences that shaped Dungeons & Dragons") and then including stories that weren't in Gary's original appendix in the DMG, essentially asserting that those stories helped shape the game despite a lack of evidence to that effect (and, I think, not including some other stories from the original Appendix N?).
Can anyone who's read the book confirm that?
I have it, have read it, and can confirm. The criticisms are to my view largely baseless or at least misguided. And oft made in bad faith, like Jeffro's.
Bebergal gave a good interview on Wandering DMs (no doubt among other places) explaining his editorial selections. In short, from what I can recall, he made his selections primarily from two suggested reading lists- the original Appendix N from the 1979 AD&D DMG, and the list in 1981's Moldvay Basic. He also admits in his own comments IN the book that his own taste and influences played some role.
The original Appendix N is MOSTLY comprised of full length novels. A lot of it wouldn't fit or make sense to put in a compilation of short stories. I think he did excerpt ONE longer novel in the collection, but he wanted to avoid excerpts of longer works in general. Some authors/estates were just too expensive or uncooperative for him to get the stories he wanted, even though he wanted to and tried.
The authors & stories he chose, if I recall correctly, DO all pre-date D&D*. While Gary not mentioning a given story or author in the official original Appendix N may mean that to some folks, it doesn't really count, Gary himself expanded on the list and recommended other stuff he would have, in retrospect, included. Both in his 2000s-era Q&A threads online, and in at least one of his editorials in Dragon, as I recall.
There are also other stories in general which IMO and other analysis has indicated are certainly or very likely influences on D&D, which are not specifically mentioned in Appendix N. In particular some by authors who ARE mentioned in the original appendix N, which definitely look like uncredited influences on D&D. For two examples off the top of my head, I think of what appear to me to be fairly clear antecedents of the D&D Bard- Poul Anderson's Cappen Varra (first appearance, The Valour of Cappen Varra, 1957) and Manley Wade Wellman's Silver John the Balladeer (first appearance 1963). Both authors are referenced in Appendix N but these stories aren't. The original Appendix N definitely isn't an exhaustive list of inspirational fiction, and Gary said so himself.
I have at least a LITTLE sympathy for folks who feel like "Appendix N" is a misnomer when the collection draws both from authors in the actual Appendix N and the list in Moldvay Basic, but given the role Moldvay Basic serves in the history and evolution of D&D, cleaning up and fixing oversights from the original game, with Moldvay's remarkably competent and skilled editorial hand (which Gary and Mike Carr must have and should have envied, considering their own sketchy efforts) filling in gaps and missing pieces, I don't think touching on his supplementary/expanded reading list is at all inappropriate.
(*Now that I'm looking, I am reminded that Bebergal's book includes
Straggler from Atlantis, another Manley Wade Wellman story of another Bard, but I think only dating back to 1975. This doesn't predate OD&D, though it certainly predates AD&D and IIRC Gary specifically includes the short story collection it was from in Appendix N, though he doesn't name that specific story).
