12 h 1 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 1 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when tall talk meets ordinary mistakes—and life refuses to follow anyone’s plans?
The Best American Humorous Short Stories, edited by Alexander Jessup, gathers comic tales that show a country learning to laugh at itself. Each story stands alone. Together, they explore the quirks of American life through exaggeration, dry understatement, and the small mistakes that turn ordinary people’s expectations upside down.
The collection ranges from gentle humor to biting satire, bringing writers from different decades together. Its central pleasures include the tall tale, irony, and sharp turns of fortune. As the setting of American life shifts from farms and frontier towns toward cities, the humor changes too, revealing a comic voice of its own.
What you’ll discover
- Tall tales and bigger claims Discover exaggeration rooted in frontier storytelling, where each teller tries to outdo the last.
- Expectations turned upside down Enjoy the irony that makes a small trouble or sudden reversal into a comic surprise.
- Ordinary people, familiar mistakes Find humor in everyday missteps, where human quirks give the stories their warmth and bite.
- A changing comic landscape Follow American humor as life moves from farms and frontier towns toward the city.
- A story at a time Choose a self-contained tale and enjoy a different shade of humor with each sitting.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy short stories with a smile in them, from tall tales to courtroom farce. It also suits anyone curious about how American humor grew from the frontier to the vaudeville stage.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Humor must serve a good story
- Other people's profits awaken greed
- Certainty makes a man easy to humble
- Strange devices reveal the social mask
- A serious voice carries the joke
- Small uncertainties grow into social trouble
- Sincere people can carry the comedy
- Wanting to win fuels comic behavior
- Desire and voice unite the collection
Who’s who
- Monsieur PoopooA contented French toy seller in New York who gives up his shop to speculate in Long Island real estate.
- Master William HornerA stiff, solemn young village schoolmaster who boards round and hopes to win the farmer's daughter Ellen Kingsbury.
- Elder BrownA gaunt church leader who rides his donkey Balaam to Macon on errands for his strong-willed wife Hannah.
- Colonel StarbottleA courtly, humorless Southern lawyer who takes up Zaidee Hooker's breach-of-promise suit against Deacon Hotchkiss.
- Major Pendleton TalbotA proud old Alabama gentleman in an antique frock coat, finishing his book of anecdotes in a Washington boarding house.
- Uncle Billy TuttA shrewd country innkeeper who sees a flood as his chance to outbid and outwit his wealthy guests.
- Simon WheelerA calm old tavern teller of tales who answers a question about one man with a long story about another.
- GideonA vaudeville comedian, watched over by his manager, who grows weary of fame and longs for his Florida home.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 13 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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The Best American Humorous Short Stories
A ruined man, a lawyer in a ruffled shirt and a jumping frog enliven eighteen American comic stories.
Medium level5–10 hours to read16 languages
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In short
What would you do if a minister hired a double to sit through his meetings, or a stranger asked you to bet on a jumping frog? These are the small disasters that fill The Best American Humorous Short Stories, edited by Alexander Jessup.
The Best American Humorous Short Stories at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 55 min5 h 30 min fast, 8 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 99,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Humor must serve the story, never replace it
Alexander Jessup begins with a test for every story. Imagine choosing the best American short stories of all, with one extra rule: each must contain real humor. The story standard comes first, and the humor standard follows close behind.
This test explains who is left out. He passes over the platform comics of the nineteenth century, such as Josh Billings and Artemus Ward, because nothing of theirs works both as comedy and as a tight story. He adds that no book is duller than a book of jokes, since what refreshes in small doses sickens in large ones.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 50 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
The Best American Humorous Short Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-best-american-humorous-short-stories.
The best American humorous short stories. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-best-american-humorous-short-stories
The Best American Humorous Short Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-best-american-humorous-short-stories.
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title = {The Best American Humorous Short Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-best-american-humorous-short-stories}
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What is The Best American Humorous Short Stories about?
It is a collection of eighteen comic short stories from 1839 to 1914, chosen by Alexander Jessup. The tales cover frontier schoolrooms, city drawing rooms, Georgia villages, Western courtrooms and vaudeville, all selected for both good story craft and humor.
Which authors appear in the collection?
Contributors include Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, O. Henry, Frank Stockton, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Cuyler Bunner, Eliza Leslie and Caroline Kirkland, along with lesser-known writers such as William James Lampton and Wells Hastings.
What is the rule Jessup used to pick the stories?
Each piece had to be a good short story first, with humor a close second. Jessup avoided professional joke writers, since a book of jokes tires the reader, and preferred humor mixed with pathos, local color and a wide view of life.
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