Francis Richard Stockton Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Francis Richard Stockton

An author whose best-sellers were discussed from California to India in his time, Frank Stockton is known today mainly for "The Lady, or the Tiger"" (Century, November 1882; collected in The Lady, or the Tiger? and Other Stories, 1884), fairy tales such as "The Bee-Man of Orn" (originally published as "The Bee-Man and His Original Form" in the November 1883 issue of St. Nicholas ) and "The Griffin and the Minor Canon" (St. Nicholas, October 1885)--both collected in The Bee-Man of Orn and Other Fanciful Tales (1887) and republished with illustrations by Maurice Sendak in the 1960s--and for his science fiction novels such as The Great War Syndicate (1889) and The Great Stone of Sardis (1898), which were widely imitated. The writings of this genteel humorist will probably never regain the popularity and critical respect accorded them during Stockton's lifetime. Even in his own time his refusal to belong to any literary movement puzzled--as Stockton records in "The Pilgrim's Packets" (Scribner's Monthly, January 1873) and "Plain Fishing" (first published in Amos Kilbright, 1888)--the various realists, rationalists, materialists, and naturalists of his era.

Read the rest of this Biography with our Francis Richard Stockton Access Pass.