Mark Twain (1835-1910): How to tell a story
The notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
The story of the good little boy
The McWilliamses and the burglar alarm
William Dean Howells (1837-1920): Christmas every day
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914 ?): Curried cow
An imperfect conflagration
George Ade (1866-1944): The wonderful meal of vittles
The patient toiler who got it in the usual place
The fable of how the fool-killer backed out of a contract
The fable of the copper and the jovial undergrads
Everybody's friend and the line bucker
Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936): On war preparations
Frank McKinley "Kin" Hubbard (1868-1930): The people
The Amy Purviance murder case
Don Marquis (1878-1937): Introducing the Old Soak
Look out for crime waves!
Ring Lardner (1885-1933): Alibi Ike
Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951): George F. Babbitt begins his day
James Thurber (1894-1961): The night the bed fell
Ruth McKenney (1911-1972): A loud sneer for our feathered friends
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996): Don't worry . . . I'll manage
Mike Royko (1932-1997): A pitch for opening day
Donald Kaul (1925- ): House calls and other folk medicine
Eat your heart out, Luther Burbank
Calvin Trillin (1935- ): Alice, let's eat
Garrison Keillor (1942- ): Home
P. J. (Patrick Jake) O'Rourke (1947- ): Intellectual wilderness, Ho
A visit to Harvard's 350th anniversary celebration
Bill Bryson (1951- ): Des Moines.