Début_, signed O.W.H. _The Story of Iris_ in _The Professor at the
Breakfast Table_, which ran in _The Atlantic_ throughout 1859, and _A
Visit to the Asylum for Aged and Decayed Punsters_ (January, 1861,
_Atlantic_) are his only other brief fictions of which I am aware. The
last named has been given place in the present selection because it is
characteristic of a certain type and period of American humor,
although its short story qualities are not particularly strong.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), who achieved fame as "Mark
Twain," is only incidentally a short story writer, although he wrote
many short pieces of fiction. His humorous quality, I mean, is so
preponderant, that one hardly thinks of the form. Indeed, he is never
very strong in fictional construction, and of the modern short story
art he evidently knew or cared little. He is a humorist in the large
sense, as are Rabelais and Cervantes, although he is also a humorist
in various restricted applications of the word that are wholly
American. _The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County_ was his
first publication of importance, and it saw the light in the Nov. 18,
1865, number of _The Saturday Press_. It was republished in the
collection, _The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and
Other Sketches_, in 1867. Others of his best pieces of short fiction
are: _The Canvasser's Tale_ (December, 1876, _Atlantic Monthly_), _The
£1,000,000 Bank Note_ (January, 1893, _Century Magazine_), _The
Esquimau Maiden's Romance_ (November, 1893, _Cosmopolitan_),
_Traveling with a Reformer_ (December, 1893, _Cosmopolitan_), _The Man
That Corrupted Hadleyburg_ (December, 1899, _Harper's_), _A
Double-Barrelled Detective Story_ (January and February, 1902,
_Harper's_) _A Dog's Tale_ (December, 1903, _Harper's_), and _Eve's
Diary_ (December, 1905, _Harper's_). Among Twain's chief collections
of short stories are: _The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras