This work usually appears on lists of the ten most important books of detective stories published in the United States. The tales of Uncle Abner take place in what is now West Virginia, in the 1840's or 1850's. Melville Davisson Post (1869-1930) was a lawyer, political insider, and candidate for President of the United States (Democrat, 1924). He was one of the really great writers of the detective short story and is ranked in the same class as Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.