August Nemo & O. Henry 
7 best short stories – Courage [EPUB ebook] 

Stephen Crane, born in New Jersey on November 1, 1871, produced works that have been credited with establishing the foundations of modern American naturalism. His Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage (1895) realistically depicts the psychological complexities of battlefield emotion and has become a literary classic.
*
William Sydney Porter, writing as O. Henry, wrote in a dry, humorous style and, as in ’The Gift of the Magi, ’ often ironically used coincidences and surprise endings. Released from prison in 1902, Porter went to New York, his home and the setting of most of his fiction for the remainder of his life. Writing prodigiously, he went on to become a revered American writer.
*
Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri. She began to write after her husband’s death. Among her more than 100 short stories are ’Désirée’s Baby’ and ’Madame Celestin’s Divorce.’ The Awakening (1899), a realistic novel about the sexual and artistic awakening of a young mother who abandons her family, was initially condemned for its sexual frankness but was later acclaimed. Chopin died in St. Louis, Missouri, on August 22, 1904.
*
Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin (14 February 1855 5 April 1888) was a Russian author of short stories.
*
Frederick Douglass, original name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, (born February? 1818, Tuckahoe, Maryland, U.S.died February 20, 1895, Washington, D.C.), African American who was one of the most eminent human rights leaders of the 19th century.
*
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (born November 11, 1821, Moscow, Russiadied February 9, 1881, St. Petersburg), Russian novelist and short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the darkest recesses of the human heart, together with his unsurpassed moments of illumination, had an immense influence on 20th-century fiction.