About this episode
Frank Stockton not only gave us some great short stories but also some very well-loved children's tales. Frank Stockton (1854 - 1902) was an American writer and humorist, best known for his allegorical fairy tales for all ages. Rather than moralizing, he tended to poke fun at qualities like greed, violence, and abuse of power. The Lady, or the Tiger?, his most famous story (published in 1882), offers a compelling choice for the reader because there is no right answer. It is a fascinating illustration of the conflict between determinism and free-will, an increasingly popular choice for middle school language arts teachers to include in their persuasive writing lessons. His story, The Griffin and the Minor Canon (1885) received renewed interest in 1963, with an edition illustrated by Maurice Sendak. We feature both works on our Fairy Tales Guide. Stockton also offers a different storytelling style, a more subtle element of surprise, as in The Widow's Cruise, a slow-paced conversation between widows and visiting seafaring men, in which one widow tells the most dramatic sea story of all.