"The humorous story is strictly a work of art—high and delicate—and only an artist can tell it."—Mark Twain, "How to Tell a Story"For nearly two decades before Mark Twain published his finest novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he was refining his craft and winning tremendous popularity with his short stories and sketches. This richly entertaining and comprehensive collection presents sixty-five of the very best of Mark Twain's short pieces, from the classic frontier sketch "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" to the richly imaginative fable "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven." Compiled by Pulitzer Prize–winning Twain scholar and biographer, Justin Kaplan, this collection represents some of Mark Twain's wittiest and most insightful writing.

Contains:

The notorious jumping frog of Calaveras County --
The story of the bad little boy --
Cannibalism in the cars --
Niagara --
The Capitoline Venus --
Journalism in Tennessee --
A curious dream --
The facts in the case of the great beef contract --
How I edited an agricultural paper --
A medieval romance --
My watch --
Political economy --
Science vs luck --
The story of the good little boy --
A mysterious visit --
The great landslide case --
Buck Fanshaw's funeral --
Captain Ned Blakely --
His grandfather's old ram --
Dick Baker's cat --
A letter from Horace Greeley --
A true story --
Experiences of the McWilliamses with membranous croup --
Mrs. McWilliams and the lightning --
The McWilliamses and the burglar alarm --
The facts concerning the recent carnival of crime in Connecticut --
The canvasser's tale --
The loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton --
Edward Mills and George Benton: a tale --
Jim Baker's blue-jay yarn --
The man who put up at Gadsby's --
A curious experience --
The invalid's story --
The stolen white elephant --
A dying man's confession --
The professor's yarn --
A burning brand --
The private life of a campaign that failed --
A ghost story --
Luck --
Playing courier --
The Californian's tale --
Extracts from Adam's diary --
Eve's diary --
The Esquimau maiden's romance --
Is he living or is he dead? --
The Ł1,000,000 bank-note --
John Brown and Mary Taylor --
Cecil Rhode's shark --
Why Ed Jackson called on Commodore Vanderbilt --
The man that corrupted Hadleyburg --
The death disk --
Two little tales --
The belated Russian passport --
A double-barreled detective story --
The five boons of life --
Was it Heaven? or Hell? --
A dog's tale --
A horse's tale --
The $30,000 bequest --
The war prayer --
Hunting the deceitful turkey --
Extract from Captain Stormfield's visit to Heaven --
A fable --
How to tell a story.