As the title claims, the book is a real collection of the best examples of the American humorous literature.
The editor gathers valuable pieces by the prominent authors like Washington Irving, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain and many more.
It was compiled at the turn of the 19th and 20th century and its aim was to bring relaxing notes into the craze for moral seriousness in all literature, which was characteristic of that period.
CONTENTS
AGNES REPPLIER - A Plea for Humor
MARIETTA HOLLEY - An Unmarried Female
FITZHUGH LUDLOW - Selections from a Brace of Boys
ROBERT JONES BURDETTE - Rheumatism Movement Cure
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES - An Aphorism and a Lecture
JOSHUA S. MORRIS - The Harp of a Thousand Strings
SEBA SMITH - My First Visit to Portland
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT - The Mosquito
JOHN CARVER - Country Burial-places
DANFORTH MARBLE - The Hoosier and the Salt-pile
ANNE BACHE - The Quilting
FITZ-GREENE HALLECK - A Fragment Domestic Happiness
CHARLES F. BROWNE - ("Artemus Ward") One of Mr. Ward's Business Letters On "Forts"
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL - Without and Within
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT - Street Scenes in Washington
ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE - Mis' Smith
JAMES JEFFREY ROOHE - A Boston Lullaby
CHARLES GRAHAM HALPINE - Irish Astronomy
SAMUEL MINTURN PEOK - Bessie Brown,
M. D. ROBERT C. SANDS - A Monody
CAROLYN WELLS - The Poster Girl
JAMES GARDNER SANDERSON - The Conundrum of the Golf Links
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE - The Minister's Wooing
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS - Mrs. Johnson
ANONYMOUS - The Trout, the Cat and the Fox The British Matron
