How to Tell a Story and Other Essays



How to Tell a Story and Other Essays (March 9, 1897) is a series of essays by Mark Twain. All except one of the essays were previously published in magazines. In the essays, Twain describes his own writing style, attacks the idiocy of a fellow author, defends the virtue of a dead woman, and tries to protect ordinary citizens from insults by railroad conductors. The essays contained are the following:


 * How to Tell a Story (originally published October 3, 1895).
 * In Defence of Harriet Shelley (August 1894).
 * Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences (July 1895).
 * Travelling with a Reformer (16 December 1893).
 * Private History of the "Jumping Frog" Story (April 1894).
 * Mental Telegraphy Again (September 1895).
 * What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us (January 1895).
 * A Little Note to M. Paul Bourget (first published in this book).