The Lock and Key Library The most interesting stories of all nations: American

by Julian Hawthorne (Editor), F. Marion Crawford, Melville Davisson Post

By The Waters Of Paradise - F. Marion Crawford
The Shadows On The Wall - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
The Corpus Delicti - Melville D. Post
An Heiress From Redhorse - Ambrose Bierce
The Man And The Snake - Ambrose Bierce
The Oblong Box - Edgar Allan Poe
The Gold-Bug - Edgar Allan Poe
Wolfert Webber, Or Golden Dreams - Washington Irving
Adventure Of The Black Fisherman - Washington Irving
Wieland'S Madness - Charles Brockden Brown
The Golden Ingot - Fitzjames O'Brien
My Wife'S Tempter- Fitzjames O'Brien
The Minister'S Black Veil - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Horror: A True Tale - Anonymous

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Classics

315 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

Julian Hawthorne was the son of Nathaniel Hawthorne. He wrote poetry, novels, non-fiction, a series of crime novels based on the memoirs of New York's Inspector Byrnes, and edited several collections of short stories. He attended Harvard, without graduating, and later studied civil engineering.

In 1898, Julian submitted an eyewitness account of the destruction of the United States battleship, Maine off of the island of Cuba for William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal (although it has been proven that Julian was in the United States at the time of the explosion). Hawthorne's eyewitness testimony of foul play and aggression by Spain was taken as fact and helped steer the United States towards war.

In 1908 Hawthorne was invited by a college friend to join him in Canada selling shares in silver mines that did not exist. They were tried, convicted of mail fraud, and served one year in prison.

There is also at least one other author named Julian Hawthorne, who writes about unexplained mysteries.

Reviews

[Zsak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more mystery than detective. Hawthorne in his introduction uses the term Riddle.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.23⭐

Introduction "Riddle Stories" by Julian Hawthorne 5⭐

Volume I American Stories
By the Waters of Paradise by Francis Marion Crawford 4⭐
The Shadow on the Wall by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 4.25⭐
The Corpus Delicti by Melville Davisson Post 4⭐
An Heiress from Redhorse by Ambrose Bierce 3⭐
The Oblong Box by Edgar Allan Poe 4.5⭐
The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe 5⭐
Wolfert Webber, or Golden Dreams by Washington Irving 4⭐
Adventure of the Black Fisherman by Washington Irving 5⭐
Wieland's Madness by Charles Brockden Brown 3.5⭐

[Lori Killion · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've listened to the audiobook version of this via Librivox. I kept asking myself "wtf is this". Not all are really mystery nor detective stories. None are the best stories in any category from any region. After many I wondered "Did the story really just end or did I miss something" & then I went over the story again. The answer was always that the story did end & should never have started in the 1st place. At best I can say that out of all of them a couple of stories were fair

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some quality pieces - Poe, obviously (though not the Dupin stories for some reason). The Brockden Brown was confusingly excerpted (though it is probably very difficult to excerpt Brockden Brown).

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

As one wrote, a good mystery is kinda-sorta a mind exercise which is a part of the entertainment value I believe.