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Great American Stories by Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce & Jack London
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Great American Stories

10 Unabridged Classics

$17.96

Retail price: $19.95

Discount: 9%

This title is not eligible for purchase with membership credits. Why?

Length 5 hours 28 minutes
Language English
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These ten treasured stories from the most influential authors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are selected for their literary importance as well as their dramatic, oral qualities. The following stories are included in this collection:

“The One-Million-Pound Bank Note” by Mark Twain

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain

“A Visit to Niagara” by Mark Twain

“Mysterious Visit” by Mark Twain

“The Blue Hotel” by Stephen Crane

“The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” by Stephen Crane

“The Eyes of the Panther” by Ambrose Bierce

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce

“The Love of Life” by Jack London

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, Mark Twain spent his youth in Hannibal, Missouri, which forms the setting for his two greatest works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Trying his hand at printing, typesetting and then gold-mining, the former steam-boat pilot eventually found his calling in journalism and travel writing. Dubbed 'the father of American literature' by William Faulkner, Twain died in 1910 after a colourful life of travelling, bankruptcy and great literary success.

American author Stephen Crane (1871-1900) won international fame with The Red Badge of Courage, which was acclaimed as the first modern war novel. Crane's works introduced realism into American literature, but his innovative technique and use of symbolism gave much of his best work a romantic rather than a naturalistic quality. Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1871, the fourteenth child of a Methodist minister. He started to write stories at the age of eight, and at sixteen he was writing articles for the New York Tribune. Crane studied at Lafayette College and Syracuse University, then moved to New York, where he lived a bohemian life and worked as a freelance writer and journalist. While Crane supported himself by writing, he lived among the poor in the Bowery slums to research his first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Later, he became a war correspondent and traveled to Greece, Cuba, Texas, and Mexico to report on war events. His short story "The Open Boat" is based on his personal experience aboard a ship that sank en route to Cuba in 1896. Crane spent several days drifting in an open boat with a few other passengers before being rescued. Unfortunately, this experience permanently impaired his health. In 1898, Crane settled in Sussex, England, where he lived with an author and the proprietress of a well-known brothel. In 1899, while in Greece, Crane wrote Active Service, which was based on the Greco-Turkish War. He then returned to Cuba to cover the Spanish-American War. However, shortly thereafter, the tuberculosis and malarial fever that he contracted during his Cuban shipwreck experience overcame him. Crane died on June 5, 1900, at the age of twenty-nine in Badenweiler, Germany.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–ca. 1914) was an American journalist, short-story writer, and poet. Born in Ohio, he served in the Civil War and then settled in San Francisco. He wrote for Hearst’s Examiner, his wit and satire making him the literary dictator of the Pacific coast and strongly influencing many writers. He disappeared into war-torn Mexico in 1913.

Jack London (1876-1916) was born John Chaney in California USA. In 1896 he was caught up in the gold rush to the Klondike river in north-west Canada, which became the inspiration for The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906). Jack London became one of the most widely read writers in the world.

Patrick Fraley has created voices for over four thousand characters, placing him among the top ten performers of all time to be cast in animated programs. He holds an MFA in acting from Cornell University and is the author of the only character-voice curriculum ever to be accredited at the university level.

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