Rudder Grange, a humorous story by Frank R. Stockton, appeared serially in 1879. It was the first of the author's books to establish for him a wide reputation. A slight thread of story suffices to connect a series of humorous episodes which result from the efforts of a young couple-Euphemia, and her husband who tells the story in the first person-to establish themselves in a summer home at once desirable and inexpensive. They hit upon the plan of securing an old canal-boat, which they fit up and name Rudder Grange. The droll sayings and original doings of Pomona, the servant; the courting of...

The Floating Prince and Other Fairy Tales 10 short fairy tales from an "American writer and humorist, best known today for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular during the last decades of the 19th century. The Bee-Man of Orn and Other Fanciful Tales A collection of nine enchanting short stories filled with curious beasts and unexpected endings. Included are The Bee-Man of Orn; The Griffin and the Minor Canon; Old Pipes and the Dryad; The Queen's Museum; Christmas Before Last: Or, The Fruit of the Fragile Palm; Prince Hassak's March; The Battle of the Third...

It has often been prophesied that the advance of science will make war impossible. Even now nations are less inclined than formerly to embark lightly on hostilities, and when means are found to annihilate a whole army in five minutes, it may well be that none of the ordinary inducements will prove strong enough to bring about a breach of the peace. Stockton gives us a sketch of a future war between Great Britain and the United States, in which such newly-discovered engines of destruction are brought to bear for the first time. It is conceived with very great ingenuity, and told with...

Frank Richard Stockton was an American writer and humorist, best known today for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular during the last decades of the 19th century. Stockton avoided the didactic moralizing common to children's stories of the time, instead using clever humor to poke at greed, violence, abuse of power and other human foibles, describing his fantastic characters' adventures in a charming, matter-of-fact. His work "The Griffin and the Minor Canon" was the winner of the "Lewis Carroll Shelf Award" in 1963.