VM220: Finding Public Domain Short Stories Guide
In general, any story published before 1923 is in the public domain and may be adapted and used freely. Specific authors whose works are in the public domain include Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorn, Ambrose Bierce, O. Henry, Jack London, and Stephen Crane.
In the Library
General Collections
Classic American Short Stories, PS 645.C58 1989
Note: Works by Katharine Anne Porter, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway are NOT in the public domain.
The Golden Argosy: A Collection of the Most Celebrated Short Stories in the English Language,
PN 6104 .G7 G6
Note: Some of the newer stories are not in the public domain.
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain, PS 1303 1957
Edgar Allan Poe
Tales of Mystery and Imagination, PS 2612 .A1 1986
Herman Melville
Billy Budd and other Tales, PS 2384 .B16 1979
Washington Irving
Complete Tales of Washington Irving, PS 2050 1998
Jack London
The Complete Short Stories of Jack London, PS 3523 .O46 A6 1993b
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Complete Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne, PS 1853 .C6 1959
Ambrose Bierce
The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce, PS 1097 .A15 1984
O. Henry (William Sydney Porter)
The Best Short Stories of O. Henry, PS 2649 .P5 A6 1945
Online
Texts
Project Gutenberg
A large collection of public domain texts and audio, searchable and browseable by title and author. Contains many stories by the authors named above. Some examples:
- Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
- Edgar A. Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher
- O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi
The English Server Short Fiction Collection
Many public domain short stories by the greats of the genre. The main page also includes criticism and biographies.
Page Images
Google Book Search
In the advanced search, you can check off “full view” and search for a particular author to find scanned books that may include short stories. (Try, for instance, search “gift of the magi” in the first box under Advanced Search, check off “full view” and put in the author box “o. henry”) Your results will include scanned pages of that story.
Internet Archives: Texts
This search is similar to the Google Book Search, but the main search only searches Author and Title, and not the full text of the work. (Though your results will be a full scanned version of a book).
