Stephen Vincent Benet

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stephen Vincent Ben t was one of America's greatest storytellers, most famous for his witty and moving tribute to American history, The Devil and Daniel Webster, where a trial for a man's soul becomes a trial of America itself, of all that is best and worst in a great and tumultuous new country. In addition, this collection includes six more of Ben t's best short stories, which in a similar vein, depict compelling and diverse elements in America's great social tapestry, with memorable and often amusing characters: a man whose toothache leads him to encounter Paul Revere on the eve of the American Revolution; a Jewish immigrant who discovers a new experience of life as a trader on the American frontier; a woman brought from Africa as a slave who teaches her grandson the price of freedom; an old confederate colonel, hateful and unwilling to accept the loss of his old world; and an adventurous young man who discovers the folly in all walks of human life. The stories included are: The Devil and Daniel Webster Jacob and the Indians A Tooth for Paul Revere Freedom's a Hard-Bought Thing O'Halloran's Luck The Die-Hard Johnny Pye and the Fool-Killer

This short piece, written by Stephen Vincent Ben t, is a modern drama of the Nativity originally written for broadcasting on the radio. It was originally published in 1942 and is now republished here with a new introductory biography. Ben t was an accomplished writer at an early age, having had his first book published at 17. His best known works are the book-length narrative poem American Civil War, John Brown's Body (1928), and two short stories, The Devil and Daniel Webster (1936) and By the Waters of Babylon (1937).