AMERICAN STORIES EDITED BY EDWARD EVERETT HALE, JR., PH.D. PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND LOGIC IN UNION COLLEGE GLOBE SCHOOL BOOK COMPANY NEW YORK AND CHICAGO PREFATORY NOTE THE general idea of this series has been so often stated in other volumes, that it will be enough now to say that we have here put together such examples as will show the general character of the short story and also some of the special directions in which it has been developed. With this view, the particular stories to be chosen were in most cases not only natural, but necessary. With Hawthorne, it was not possible to represent all the different forms in which his genius found expression; with Poe, it seemed just as well not to choose a detective story or a tale of horror. But "The Gold Bug" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" are so familiar that most readers will be glad of a chance to have one of Poe's less known stories. |