SOURCE: "The Short Fiction," in Joel Chandler Harris, Twayne Publishers, 1978, pp. 104-29.
An American educator and critic, Bickley is the author of Joel Chandler Harris (1978) and Joel Chandler Harris: A Reference Guide (1978) and the editor of Critical Essays on Joel Chandler Harris (1978). In the following excerpt, he surveys Harris's realistic short stories, published in collections between 1884 and 1902.