Edgar Allan Poe

The American Experience Edgar Allan Poe

Publisher Marketing: Ten classic stories from authors who have masterfully captured the American experience. Irving's incredible and amusing tale of the archetypal "Rip Van Winkle" relates the story of a man who slept through history. Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage" tells of a young soldier who must struggle with his conscience no matter what the consequences. "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is Mark Twain's hilarious story of a contest to end all contests in the rowdy days of the Forty-Niners. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Man of the Crowd" tells of one man's strange fascination with another. "The Ransom of Red Chief" is O. Henry's tale of a kidnapping that goes horribly, horribly, wrong. "Miss Tempy's Watchers" by Sarah Orne Jewett speaks of the power of friendship. Kate Chopin's lovely "Desiree's Baby" tells the poignant story of one woman's search for her past. Jack London's acclaimed "The Call of the Wild" is a thrilling adventure of nature and survival. Edith Wharton pens a chilling ghost story in the atmospheric "The Eyes." And "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is F. Scott Fitzgerald's wry and amusing tale of a young lady's struggle for social success. Contributor Bio:  Poe, Edgar Allan Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) wrote tales of the macabre, and invented or contributed to inventing the detective and science fiction genres. Contributor Bio:  Wharton, Edith Edith Wharton (1862-1937), American novelist and short-story writer, was born in New York City. Strongly influenced by Henry James, she is best known for her subtle and su-perbly crafted studies of the tragedies and ironies in the lives of members of middle-class and artistocratic New York soci-ety in the the nineteenth century. She was educated in New York and Europe, and married Edward Wharton, a Boston banker, in 1885. When her husband became mentally ill, she cared for him until 1913, when she settled permanently in France and divorced him. Among her best and most characteristic works are The House of Mirth (1905) and The Age of Innocence (1920), for which she received a Pultizer prize. Contributor Bio:  Fitzgerald, F Scott F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. Contributor Bio:  London, Jack Jack London (1876-1916) was an American writer who produced two hundred short stories, more than four hundred nonfiction pieces, twenty novels, and three full-length plays in less than two decades. His best-known works include The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf, and White Fang. Contributor Bio:  Chopin, Kate SHERI METZGER is an experienced author and lecturer who teaches regular and honors Literature and Composition classes at the University of New Mexico. Contributor Bio:  Twain, Mark Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), best known to the world by his pen-name Mark Twain, was an author and humorist, noted for his novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which has been called "the Great American Novel," and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876, among many others.