Francis Richard Stockton

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Stockton, Frank R. (Francis Richard Stockton) (1834–1902),Philadelphia novelist and short‐story writer, was first known as an author of children's stories, some of which were contributed to St. Nicholas, of which he was an editor (1873–81). His juvenile stories are collected in Ting‐a‐Ling (1870), The Floating Prince and Other Fairy Tales (1881), and The Bee Man of Orn and Other Fanciful Tales (1887). After the publication of his whimsically fantastic novel Rudder Grange (1879), he began to write for adults, although continuing the same use of absurd situations that had made his juvenile tales popular. His chief books, after Rudder Grange, were the volume of short stories (1884) whose title piece was the sensationally popular “The Lady or the Tiger?” and the amusing novel The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine (1886), and its sequel The Dusantes (1888). The public also clamored for sequels to his first novel, which he furnished in The Rudder Grangers Abroad (1891) and Pomona's Travels (1894). His lively fancy continued to create many other tales and novels, but in later life took a somewhat different direction in such works as The Great War Syndicate (1889), The Great Stone of Sardis (1898), and A Vizier of the Two Horned Alexander (1899), which are sometimes humorously, sometimes seriously, concerned with pseudo‐scientific matters. The comic Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coast (1898) indicates another interest, continued in Kate Bonnet (1902), a satirical novel of 17th‐century piracy, ridiculing conventional romances on the subject. During the last three years of his life, Stockton lived in West Virginia, which he had already known and described in his novels The Late Mrs. Null (1886) and Ardis Claverden (1890). A collected edition of his fiction was published (23 vols., 1899–1904).

Francis Richard Stockton (Frank R. Stockton), 1834–1902, American humorist and story writer, b. Philadelphia. He wrote several children's books including Ting - a - Ling (1870) and The Floating Prince and Other Fairy Tales (1881). Most notable among his many humorous books for adults were Rudder Grange (1879) and its sequels, The Rudder Grangers Abroad (1891) and Pomona's Travels (1894), and the famous title story of The Lady or the Tiger? (1884). His works were collected in 23 volumes (1899–1904).