Edith Wharton was an American novelist, poet and short story writer whose works display her mastery over the realistic fiction genre. Although she grew up in a world of refined manners and fashionable people, she was also aware of its superficiality, a theme that frequently appeared in her works. She began writing short stories and poetry at a young age, impressing such literary figures as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and William Dean Howells. Her stories range widely from powerful social commentary to titillating ghost stories that made Wharton extremely popular beyond her living years. This collection includes: The Early Uncollected Stories (1891-1896), The Greater Inclination (1899), Early Uncollected Stories (1900), Crucial Instances (1901), The Descent of Man (1904), Uncollected Stories (1904-1908), The Hermit and The Wild Woman and Other Stories (1908), Tales of Men and Ghosts (1910), Xingu (1916), and an Uncollected Story (1919).