Stories by American Authors (Volume 4)

H. C. (Henry Cuyler) Bunner

1855–1896

Best remembered for witty, polished writing about New York life, this 19th-century poet, novelist, and editor helped shape the voice of Puck, one of America’s early comic weeklies. His work mixed humor, social observation, and a light, graceful style that still feels lively today.

John William De Forest

1826–1906

Best known for a Civil War novel that many critics see as ahead of its time, this American writer brought a soldier’s firsthand experience to realistic fiction. He also helped popularize the phrase “the Great American Novel.”

Mary Hallock Foote

1847–1938

An accomplished author and illustrator, she brought the mining camps and rough landscapes of the American West to life with unusual warmth and clarity. Her fiction and drawings grew out of firsthand experience, giving her work a vivid, lived-in quality.

Nathaniel Parker Willis

1806–1867

A celebrity man of letters in his own time, he mixed poetry, travel writing, and sharp-edged journalism with an easy, social style that helped define American magazine culture in the 1800s. Though less widely read now, he was once one of the best-paid and most talked-about writers in the country.