布雷特·哈特多以描写加利福尼亚州的矿工、赌徒、娼妓而负盛名，他的写法颇具特色，被称为“西部幽默说家”、“乡土文学作家”等。本书收录的小说均能体现他创作上的这一特色。

Selected Stories is a short story collection. It contains 21 short stories of Bret Harte, including his most famours story The Luck of Roaring Camp.

Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1836–May 5, 1902) was an American author and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, fiction, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction. As he moved from California to the eastern U.S. to Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters into his stories, but his Gold Rush tales have been most often reprinted, adapted, and admired.