Short Stories

by Collection & Author

The Children's Library


Children's stories bless us twice. The first time they are read to us. The second time, we read them to a child.

The Velveteen Rabbit

Favorite Fairy Tales


Recommended by age group, enjoy!

Favorite Fairy Tales: The Reluctant Dragon

Useful Idioms


Over six hundred figurative phrases English students should know.

Idioms for English Learners

Hans Christian Andersen


The magical author of The Ugly Duckling, The Princess and the Pea, and The Brave Tin Soldier, Andersen also wrote poignant short stories enjoyed by readers of all ages, including The Last Dream of Old Oak and the tender, bittersweet Christmas classic The Little Matchstick Girl.

Christmas Stories and Books

American Biographies


Stories and background about authors you love, for kids & adults.

American Biographies, featuring Abraham Lincoln

Halloween Stories


A collection of great stories, especially about ghosts-- scary stories to lift your spirits for Halloween! Enjoy not-scary Halloween Stories for Children.

Halloween Ghost Stories and Scary Books

Pre-K Read-Aloud Stories


Wonderful stories to read with your beginner reader so they will become confident, life-long readers!

Read-Aloud Stories for Pre-K, The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Lullabies


Favorite Lullabies from around the world to relax children & parents!

Lullabies from around the world
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Civil War Stories


Short Stories, poems, novels, letters, by authors who were there.

Civil War Battle

Japanese Fairy Tales


A fanciful collection of Fairy Tales collected and translated by Grace James. These imaginative and original fables are interesting reading for grown-ups rather than children.

Book of Japenese Fairy Tales

The Brothers Grimm


Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm wrote some of the most famous children's stories and fairy-tales of all time, including; The Brave Little Tailor, Little Briar-Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty), Rapunzel, The Elves and the Shoemaker, Rumplestiltskin, & more See our Favorite Fairy Tales by Age.

A picture from Sleeping Beauty, aka Little Briar-Rose

Ghost, Gothic & Horror


A collection of great stories featuring ghosts, ghouls, vampires, and other supernatural phenomena.

Horror Stories and Books

World War I Stories


Short Stories, poetry, novels, and interesting propaganda conveying the cruel realities of a new kind of war.

In Flanders Fields

75 Short Short Stories


Great stories to enjoy when you have five minutes: witty, introspective, morality tales, sci-fi, feel-good, drama, and farce.

Short Short Stories, featuring James Baldwin's Androclus and the Lion

Short Story Authors


Here is an abbreviated list of short story writers that you can find at this site:

Hans Christian Andersen
Sherwood Anderson
T.S. Arthur
L. Frank Baum
Ambrose Bierce
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Algernon Blackwood
Giovanni Boccaccio
Robert W. Chambers
Anton Chekhov
Kate Chopin
Stephen Crane
Roald Dahl
Philip K. Dick
Charles Dickens
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Edna Ferber
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
Bret Harte
W. F. Harvey
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ernest Hemingway
O. Henry
Washington Irving
Shirley Jackson
W. W. Jacobs
Henry James
M.R. James
Langston Hughes
Rudyard Kipling
Stephen Leacock
Jack London
H. P. Lovecraft
Arthur Machen
Guy de Maupassant
Herman Melville
H.H. Munro (SAKI)
Liam O'Flaherty
Edgar Allan Poe
Frank Stockton
Ivan S. Turgenev
Mark Twain
H.G. Wells
Edith Wharton
Oscar Wilde

Yeah, there's more . . . All Authors

Mystery Stories


Great mystery stories by Poe, Doyle, Rinehart, Christie, Glaspell, Harvey.

Great mystery stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, R. Austin Freeman, and Richard Connell

Pulitzer Prize Winners


Pulitzer Prize winning novels, poetry, drama, and biographies in the public domain and author profiles.

Pulitzer Prize Winners

Dystopian Stories


Science Fiction stories where everything goes wrong: bad technology, lost freedom, environmental destruction.

Dystopian Stories, featuring The Land That Time Forgot

Russian Writers


Enjoy some of the best stories by great Russian writers, and author anecdotes.

Russian Writers, featuring Anna Akhmatova's poetry
{# Time Line of American Literature #}

Short Story of The Day


We select a new short story to feature every day of the year -- well, almost every day!
Follow us on Twitter @amlitreader

The Short Story of the Day, follow on Twitter @amlitreader

Christmas Stories


Favorite Christmas stories for you and your family to enjoy during the holidays.

Christmas Stories and Books, featuring O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi


Looking for more great stories?

Find what you are looking for in our Short Story Library

The Little Match GirlThe Reluctant DragonThe Repairer of Reputations, The King in Yellow

Return to American Literature Home Page

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