Humorous American Short Stories: Selections from Mark Twain, O. Henry, James Thurber, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and more (Dover Thrift Editions: Short Stories)

Includes James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," a 2013 motion picture!

Spanning nearly 300 years of American humor, this anthology of entertaining tales ranges from the inventive mind of Benjamin Franklin and his 1732 story, "Alice Addertongue," to Simon Rich's 2012 fable, "Center of the Universe." More than 30 witty short stories include works by Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, O. Henry, Langston Hughes, and other masters of the genre.
Nineteenth-century stories include Washington Irving's classic, "Rip Van Winkle: A Posthumous Tale of Diedrich Knickerbocker," "A Jersey Centenarian" by Bret Harte, and Lucretia P. Hale's "The Peterkins Decide to Learn the Languages." From later eras come Ring Lardner's "The Golden Honeymoon," "A Telephone Call" by Dorothy Parker, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber, Philip Roth's "The Conversion of the Jews," and "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Bob Blaisdell is professor of English at the City University of New York's Kingsborough Community College and the editor of twenty-two Dover literature and poetry collections.