Best American series.

An unparalleled treasury of crime, mystery, and murder from the genre's founding century With stories by Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, L. Frank Baum, Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, and Jack London, The Best American Mystery Stories of the Nineteenth Century is an essential anthology of American letters. It's a unique blend of beloved writers who contributed to the genre and forgotten names that pioneered the form, such as Anna Katharine Green, the godmother of mystery fiction, and the African-American writer Charles W. Chesnutt. Of course, Penzler includes "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," recognized as the first detective story, and with thirty-three stories spanning the years 1824'1899, nowhere else can readers find such a surprising, comprehensive take on the evolution of the American mystery story

Story of the young robber / Washington Irving -- Rifle / William Leggett -- Mr. Higginbotham's catastrophe / Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Murders in the Rue Morgue / Edgar Allan Poe -- Purloined letter / Edgar Allan Poe -- Remarkable case of arrest for murder / Abraham Lincoln -- Fatal secret / Daniel Webster -- Danseuse / Thomas Bailey Aldrich -- A double tragedy: an actor's story / Louisa May Alcott -- Two sisters; or, The avenger / Allan Pinkerton -- Lady, or the tiger? and The discourager of hesitancy / Frank Stockton -- A thumb-print and what came of it / Mark Twain -- My favorite murder / Ambrose Bierce -- Sheriff's children / Charles W. Chesnutt -- Gallegher / Richard Harding Davis -- 'Round the opium lamp / William Norr -- Lingo Dan / Percival Pollard -- Nameless man and the Montezuma emerald / Rodrigues Ottolengui -- Doctor, his wife, and the clock / Anna Katharine Green -- A very strange case / William M. Hinkley -- Long arm / Mary E. Wilkins -- Mysterious card and The mysterious card unveiled / Cleveland Moffett -- Tom Sawyer, detective / Mark Twain -- Corpus delicti / Melville Davisson Post -- Suicide of Kiaros / L. Frank Baum -- Purple emperor / Robert W. Chambers -- At Pinney's ranch / Edward Bellamy -- Blue hotel / Stephen Crane -- A cup of cold water / Edith Wharton -- Detective's pretty neighbor / Nicholas Carter -- A point in morals / Ellen Glasgow -- A thousand deaths / Jack London