Publisher's Synopsis
In this anthology, Dr Pitcher has illustrated and partially defined the beginnings of short fiction in America in the period before the emergence of our modern understanding of the short story. These beginnings are to be found in the gradual coming together of forms such as anecdote, fable, tall-tale and sentimental story with the increasingly diverse aspirations, images, character types, and historical incidents of a people linked by language and culture to Britain and Europe. There is a second volume, with the ISBN 0-7734-7844-2.