Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1902 — FRANK STOCKTON DIES. [ARTICLE]

FRANK STOCKTON DIES.

Well-Known Novelist Passes Away in Washington.

Frank R. Stockton, the story writer, died suddenly in Washington, D. C., Sunday morning. The cause of Mr. Stock; tons’ death was paralysis immediately resulting from a hemorrhage in th* brain.

The author was a guest at the banquet of the National Academy of Sciences Wednesday night, and at the banquet he was taken suddenly and mysteriously ill. The ailment did not at that time appear to be serious, and for a while the sufferer seemed to be improving. By his bedside when the end came were his wife, who was a Miss Tuttle of Virginia, and her sister. He was 68 years of age. For thirty yean Mr. Stockton had been a prominent figure in the literary life of America. In that time he produced a remarkable quantity of surprisingly good fiction. His general recognition by ths public may be said to have begun witS the publication of "Rudder Grange," which for drollery, sweetness and simplicity opened up an entirely new and original field of humorous writing peculiarly American. He was next in public note by a long series of short stories of the most fanciful conceit and puzxllfig realism, chief of which was the farfamed “The Lady or the Tiger?” a tale the elusive and tickling charm of which promises to make it a permanent part of our native literature. Hardly less successful were "The Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine,’’ "The Hundredth Man," and "Squirrel Inn.” He was born on April 5, 1834, in Philadelphia, and was educated at the common schools. He intended to be a physician* but took up engraving, and supported himself by that means for several years. He assisted his brother John as editor of the Philadelphia Post, and did the first work under his own name for ths Southern Literary Messenger. His magexine experience began In 1870, Irately he bad lived on a fine old estate in West Virginia, once owned by Washington.