Owen Wister

The foreman of a large cattle ranch on the Wyoming frontier lives by the honor code of the West even though it means helping lynch a friend or possibly losing the girl he is to marry.

The author reanimates "The Virginian" in these short tales lamenting the passing of the wild American west: "The smell of the sage-brush! After several years it was getting to me again. All day long it breathed a welcome and a sigh, as if the desert whispered: 'Yes, I look as if I were here, but I am a ghost, too, there's no coming back.'" —Owen Wister, "Members of the Family."

Owen Wister's wry humor enlivens this comedic story of three sophomores during exam week at Harvard. Two frowning boys sat in their tennis flannels beneath the glare of lamp and gas. Their leather belts were, loosened, their soft pink shirts unbuttoned at the collar. They were listening with gloomy voracity to the instruction of a third. They sat at a table bared of its customary sporting ornaments, and from time to time, they questioned, sucked their...

The following complete books of Mark Twain are included in this volume: Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Tom Sawyer abroad, Mysterious stranger, and Exerpt from Captain Stormfield's visit to heaven. Other complete selections and extracts are included.