The short story collection The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches, Twain's first book, contains 27 short stories and sketches.[2] It was published by the American News Company in 1867 under the editorship of Twain's friend Charles Henry Webb.[13] Privately, to his colleague Bret Harte, Twain wrote it was "full of damnable errors of grammar and deadly inconsistencies of spelling in the Frog sketch because I did not read the proofs".[14] After its May release, the book suffered from lackluster sales.[15] The collection included:
- "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
- "Aurelia's Unfortunate Young Man"
- "A Complaint about Correspondents, Dated in San Francisco"
- "Answers to Correspondents"
- "Among the Fenians"
- "The Story of the Bad Little Boy Who Didn't Come to Grief"
- "Curing a Cold"
- "An Inquiry about Insurances"
- "Literature in the Dry Diggings"
- "'After' Jenkins"
- "Lucretia Smith's Soldier"
- "The Killing of Julius Caesar 'Localized'"
- "An Item which the Editor Himself could not Understand"
- "Among the Spirits"
- "Brief Biographical Sketch of George Washington"
- "A Touching Story of George Washington's Boyhood"
- "A Page from a Californian Almanac"
- "Information for the Million"
- "The Launch of the Steamer Capital"
- "Origin of Illustrious Men"
- "Advice for Good Little Girls"
- "Concerning Chambermaids"
- "Remarkable Instances of Presence of Mind"
- "Honored as a Curiosity in Honolulu"
- "The Steed 'Oahu'"
- "A Strange Dream"
- "Short and Singular Rations"
