Contains:
A reminiscent introduction / William Dean Howells --
My double; and how he undid me / Edward Everett Hale --
Circumstance / Harriet Prescott Spofford --
The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County / Mark Twain --
A passionate pilgrim / Henry James --
Mlle. Olympe Zabriski / T.B. Aldrich --
A prodigal in Tahiti / Charles Warren Stoddard --
The outcasts of Poker Flat / Francis Bret Harte --
The Christmas wreck / Frank Stockton --
The mission of Jane / Edith Wharton --
The courting of Sister Wisby / Sarah Orne Jewett --
The revolt of mother / Mary E. Wilkins Freeman --
Told in the poorhouse / Alice Brown --
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge / Ambrose Bierce --
The return of a private / Hamlin Garland --
Striking an average / Henry B. Fuller --
Effie Wittlesy / George Ade. The lost Phoebe / Theodore Dreiser --
A failure / Edith Wyatt --
The yellow wall paper / Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman --
The little room / Madelene Yale Wynne --
Aunt Sanna Terry / Landon R. Dashiell --
The lotus eaters / Virginia Tracy --
Jean-Ah Poquelin / G.W. Cable --
Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and the Tar Baby / Joel Chandler Harris --
Biographical notes and bibliography (p. 419-432).