atively
still-born. The truly astounding short story successes, after Poe and
Hawthorne, then, were Spofford, Bret Harte and Aldrich. Next came
Frank Richard Stockton (1834-1902). "The interest created by the
appearance of _Marjorie Daw_," says Prof. Pattee, "was mild compared
with that accorded to Frank R. Stockton's _The Lady or the Tiger?_
(1884). Stockton had not the technique of Aldrich nor his naturalness
and ease. Certainly he had not his atmosphere of the _beau monde_ and
his grace of style, but in whimsicality and unexpectedness and in that
subtle art that makes the obviously impossible seem perfectly
plausible and commonplace he surpassed not only him but Edward Everett
Hale and all others. After Stockton and _The Lady or the Tiger?_ it
was realized even by the uncritical that short story writing had
become a subtle art and that the master of its subtleties had his
reader at his mercy."[8] The publication of Stockton's short stories
covers a period of over forty years, from _Mahala's Drive_ (November,
1868, _Lippincott's_) to _The Trouble She Caused When She Kissed_
(December, 1911, _Ladies' Home Journal_), published nine years after
his death. Among the more notable of his stories may be mentioned:
_The Transferred Ghost_ (May, 1882, _Century_), _The Lady or the
Tiger?_ (November, 1882, _Century_), _The Reversible Landscape_ (July,
1884, _Century_), _The Remarkable Wreck of the "Thomas Hyke"_ (August,
1884, _Century_), _"His Wife's Deceased Sister"_ (January, 1884,
_Century_), _A Tale of Negative Gravity_ (December, 1884, _Century_),
_The Christmas Wreck_ (in _The Christmas Wreck, and Other Stories_,
1886), _Amos Kilbright_ (in _Amos Kilbright, His Adscititious
Experiences, with Other Stories_, 1888), _Asaph_ (May, 1892,
_Cosmopolitan_), _My Terminal Moraine_ (April 26, 1892, Collier's
_Once a Week Library_), _The Magic Egg_ (June, 1894, _Century_), _The
Buller-Podington Compact_ (August, 1897, _Scribner's_), and _The
Widow's Cruise_ (in _A Story-Teller's Pack_, 1897). Most of his best
work was gathered into the collections: _The Lady or the Tiger?, and
Other Stories_ (1884), _The Bee-Man of Orn, and Other Fanciful Tales_
(1887), _Amos Kilbright, His Adscititious Experiences, with Other
Stories_ (1888), _The Clocks of Rondaine, and Other Stories_ (1892),
_A Chosen Few_ (1895), _A Story-Teller's Pack_ (1897), and _The
Queen's Museum, and Other Fanciful Tales_ (1906).

After Stockton and Bunner come O. Henry (