Jack Finney, "The Third Level"

In the 1950s, people were scared. The possibility of the atom bomb was fresh in everyone's mind. Kids had to do duck and cover drills at school. The Sputnik had been launched into the skies by the Russians. The Cold War was heating up. Demagogues were saying communists may be hiding in our own government.
In this atmosphere, Jack Finney wrote a book about escape. In "The Third Level," a collection of short stories, Finney writes about people who are upset with the world they live in, they seek some idyllic place in the country's recent past. In the story "The Third Level," it's a mysterious level of Grand Central Station that leads to a town in Ohio in 1894; in "Second Chance" a restored car brings a man back to the 1920s; and in "Of Missing Persons" offers an escape into 'romantic Verna' a planet of paradise.
In most of the stories, Finney indulges in the pleasures of escape. Everyone wants out and many people find it. In a couple of stories, he views escape in a different way. In "I'm Scared" the collective wish to escape has fractured Time and strange things begin to happen. In the final story of the book, "Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket," Finney turns the concept of escape around. A man loses a piece of paper on a ledge high above a New York City street. Dedicated to his work, he goes out there, only to succumb to fear after the window of his apartment closes. From then on, he's desperately trying to escape into his own life.
The stories do suffer a bit in that all the themes have been used time and again since then. The "The Twilight Zone" used some of these same ideas in a couple of episodes. Stephen King upped the tension a bit and rewrote "Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket" as "The Ledge." (By the way, in "Danse Macabre," King talks a lot about Finney, including a comparison with "Twilight Zone" in which Finney comes out on top.) And time travel has become a cliche in so many stories.
Nevertheless, it's a charming book and well worth your time. I don't think "The Third Level" is in print anymore, but the collection "About Time" includes most of his time travel stories. It's a shame "Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket" isn't in print, however.