CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgements

Washington Irving (1783–1859)
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64)
YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49)
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

Herman Melville (1819–91)
BARTLEBY

Mark Twain (1835–1910)
THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG

Francis Bret Harte (1836–1902)
THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT

Ambrose Bierce (1842–?1914)
ONE OF THE MISSING

Henry James (1843–1916)
THE REAL THING

O. Henry (1862–1910)
AN UNFINISHED STORY

Stephen Crane (1871–1900)
THE BRIDE COMES TO YELLOW SKY

Willa Cather (1873–1947)
NEIGHBOR ROSICKY

Jack London (1876–1916)
TO BUILD A FIRE

Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941)
DEATH IN THE WOODS

Ring Lardner (1885–1933)
WHO DEALT?

Katherine Anne Porter (b. 1890)
FLOWERING JUDAS

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
THE RICH BOY

William Faulkner (1897–1962)
DELTA AUTUMN

Ernest Hemingway (1898–1961)
THE BATTLER

Bernard Malamud (1914–1986)
THE JEWBIRD

Truman Capote (1924–1984)
CHILDREN ON THEIR BIRTHDAYS

John Updike (b. 1932).
WIFE-WOOING