Humorous Stories and Sketches
Chapters (12)
Title Page
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DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS
GENERAL EDITOR: STANLEY APPELBAUM
EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: PHILIP SMITH
Bibliographical Note
This Dover edition, first published in 1996, is a new collection of stories, reprinted, unabridged, as they originally appeared in the following books and periodicals: “The Notorious jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old (The American Publishing Company, Hartford, 1875; the earliest version of this story was first published as “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” in the New York Saturday Press, November 18,1865); “Journalism in Tennessee,” the Buffalo Express, September 4,1869; “About Barbers,” Galaxy, August 1871; “A Literary Nightmare,” Atlantic Monthly, February 1876; “The Stolen White Elephant,” The Stolen White Elephant Etc. (James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1882); “The Private History of a Campaign that Failed,” Century Magazine, December 1885; “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences,” North American Review, July 1895; “How to Tell a Story,” Youth’s Companion, October 3, 1895. A new introductory Note has been specially prepared for this edition.
Copyright Page
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Twain, Mark, 1835-1910.
Humorous stories and sketches / Mark Twain : [edited by Philip Smith]. p. cm.—(Dover thrift editions)
Contents: The notorious jumping frog of Calaveras County—Journalism in
Tennessee—About barbers—A literary nightmare—The stolen white elephant—A private history of the campaign that failed—Fenimore Cooper’s literary offences—How to tell a story.
9780486111186
I. Smith, Philip, 1967— . II. Title. III. Series.
PS1302.S54 1996
813’.4—dc20 96-19752
CIP
Note
The outstanding humorist of the United States, Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835—1910) attained tremendous popularity as a writer and speaker, beginning with the publication of the first version of his “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” in a New York newspaper in 1865. Twain’s prolific output included novels, travel writings, stories and sketches. In all of these forms he excelled, infusing his narratives with a distinctive comic personality. This volume contains a selection of Twain’s most noteworthy short humorous works, and illustrates the range of his writings.