Poe's Tales: the art of the impossible / by Michael Wood -- Washington Irving and the Land of Wars / by Howell Daniels -- Authorship and authoritarianism in Hawthorne's Tales / by David Timms -- Voices off and on: Melville's Piazza and other stories / by A. Robert Lee -- Reporting reality: Mark Twain's short stories / by Andrew Hook -- Stephen Crane / by Harold Beaver -- Our bedfellow death: the short stories of Ambrose Bierce / by Herbie Butterfield -- Kate Chopin / by Judie Newman -- The infected air and The guilt of interference: Henry James's short stories / by Eric Mottram.