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A heapin' helpin' of humor from the heartland

Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction

Mark Twain (18351910)
How to Tell a Story
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
The Story of the Good Little Boy
The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm

William Dean Howells (18371920)
Christmas Every Day

Ambrose Bierce (18421914 ?)
Curried Cow
An Imperfect Conflagration

George Ade (18661944)
The Wonderful Meal of Vittles
The Patient Toiler Who Got It in the Usual Place
The Fable of How the Fool-Killer Backed Out of a Contract
The Fable of the Copper and the Jovial Undergrads
Everybody's Friend and the Line Bucker

Finley Peter Dunne (18671936)
On War Preparations
On His Cousin George
On Reform Candidates

Frank McKinley "Kin" Hubbard (18681930)
The People
Gossip
The Amy Purviance Murder Case

Don Marquis (18781937)
Introducing the Old Soak
Look Out for Crime Waves!
The Barroom and the Arts

Ring Lardner (18851933)
Alibi Ike
Haircut

Sinclair Lewis (18851951)
George F. Babbitt Begins His Day

James Thurber (18941961)
The Night the Bed Fell
University Days

Ruth McKenney (19111972)
A Loud Sneer for Our Feathered Friends

Erma Bombeck (19271996)
Don't Worry... I'll Manage
The Garage Sale
The Ides of May
"Mom and Dad! I'm Home"

Mike Royko (19321997)
A Pitch for Opening Day
View from Hoosierdome
Indiana's Not Alone

Donald Kaul (1925 )
House Calls and Other Folk Medicine
Eat Your Heart Out, Luther Burbank

Calvin Trillin (1935 )
Alice, Let's Eat
Missouri Uncompromised
Pinko Problems

Garrison Keillor (1942 )
Home

P. J. (Patrick Jake) O'Rourke (1947 )
Intellectual Wilderness, Ho—A Visit to Harvard's 350th Anniversary Celebration

Bill Bryson (1951 )
Des Moines

About the Author

Chris Lamb is Associate Professor of Communication at the College of Charleston. He is author of Blackout: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training and Drawn to Extremes: The Limits of Editorial Cartoons in the United States (forthcoming). He lives in Charleston, South Carolina.