Excerpt from The Best American Humorous Short Stories The Nice People, by Henry Cuyler Bunner, is republished from his volume, Short Sixes, by permission Of its publish ers, Charles Scribner's Sons. The buller-podington Com pact, by Frank Richard Stockton, is from his volume, A field and Afloat, and is republished by permission Of Gnarles Scribner's Sons. Colonel Starbottle for the Plaintifi, by Bret Harte, is from the collection of his stories entitled Openings in the Old Trail, and is republished by permission of the Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers of Bret Harte's complete works. The Duplicity of Hargraves, by 0. Henry, is from his volume, Sixes and Sevens, and is republished by permission Of its publishers, Doubleday, Page co. These stories are fully protected by copyrignt, and should not be republished except by permission of the pub lishers mentioned. Thanks are due Mrs. Grace macgowan Cooke for permission to use her story, A Call, republished here from Harper's Magazine; Wells Hastings, for permission to reprint his story, Gideon, from The Century Magazine; and George Randolph Chester, for permission to include Bargain Day at Tutt House, from M cclure's Magazine. I would also thank the heirs Of the late lamented Colonel William J. Lanpton for permission to use his story, How the Widow Won the Deacon, from Harper's Bazaar. These stories are all copyrighted, and cannot be republished except by authorization Of their authors or heirs. The editor regrets that their publishers have seen fit to refuse him per mission to include George W. Cable's story, Posson and Irvin S. Cobb's story, The Smart Aleck. He also regrets he was unable to Obtain a copy of Joseph C. Duport's story, The Wedding at Timber Hollow, in time for inclusion, to which its merits - as he remembers them - certainly entitle it. Mr. Duport, in addition to his literary activities, has started an interesting back to Nature experiment at Westfield, Massachusetts. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Best American Humorous Short Stories Alexander Jessup - A Different Kind of Humor The Best American Humorous Short Stories is a collection of 19th-century and early 20th-century stories written by the likes of Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, George William Curtis, Bret Harte or O. Henry. These stories aren't humorous in the sense of our modern understanding, they present a different kind of humor like jokes about men who don't wear hats and ridiculous notions about the African-Americans and about women. This Collection Includes: INTRODUCTION Alexander Jessup THE LITTLE FRENCHMAN AND HIS WATER LOTS (1839) George Pope Morris THE ANGEL OF THE ODD (1844) Edgar Allan Poe THE SCHOOLMASTER'S PROGRESS (1844) Caroline M.S. Kirkland THE WATKINSON EVENING (1846) Eliza Leslie TITBOTTOM'S SPECTACLES (1854) George William Curtis MY DOUBLE; AND HOW HE UNDID ME (1859) Edward Everett Hale A VISIT TO THE ASYLUM FOR AGED AND DECAYED PUNSTERS (1861) Oliver Wendell Holmes THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY (1865) Mark Twain ELDER BROWN'S BACKSLIDE (1885) Harry Stillwell Edwards THE HOTEL EXPERIENCE OF MR. PINK FLUKER (1886) Richard Malcolm Johnston THE NICE PEOPLE (1890) Henry Cuyler Bunner THE BULLER-PODINGTON COMPACT (1897) Frank Richard Stockton COLONEL STARBOTTLE FOR THE PLAINTIFF (1901) Bret Harte THE DUPLICITY OF HARGRAVES (1902) O. Henry BARGAIN DAY AT TUTT HOUSE (1905) George Randolph Chester A CALL (1906) Grace MacGowan Cooke HOW THE WIDOW WON THE DEACON (1911) William James Lampton GIDEON (1914) Wells Hastings

Featuring James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," the basis of the 2013 motion picture, this anthology of 30 entertaining tales includes works by Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, O. Henry, Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker, Langston Hughes, and others.

I have tried to keep a certain unity of aim and impression in selecting these stories. In the first place I determined that the pieces of brief fiction which I included must first of all be not merely good stories, but good short stories. I put myself in the position of one who was about to select the best short stories in the whole range of American literature, but who, just before he started to do this, was notified that he must refrain from selecting any of the best American short stories that did not contain the element of humor to a marked degree. But I have kept in mind the wide boundaries of the term humor, and also the fact that the humorous standard should be kept second--although a close second--to the short story standard. (Edited by Alexander Jessup.)Notice: This Book is published by Historical Books Limited (www.publicdomain.org.uk) as a Public Domain Book, if you have any inquiries, requests or need any help you can just send an email to [email protected] This book is found as a public domain and free book based on various online catalogs, if you think there are any problems regard copyright issues please contact us immediately via [email protected]

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