Uncle Abner
ISBN: 9781940425412
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / West Virginia University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters



First published in 1918, Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries is an anthology of detective stories written by Melville Davisson Post. The popular stories within this collection were serialized in national magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post in the early 20th century.

Uncle Abner is an amateur detective in present-day Harrison County, West Virginia. Throughout his journeys around this antebellum wilderness, long before the nation had a proper police system, the honest Uncle Abner is confronted by murders and mysteries that cannot be ignored. With uncanny intuition, impressive logic, and keen observation of human actions, Uncle Abner is Melville Davisson Post's most celebrated literary creation and is considered to be one of the most important texts in American detective and crime fiction.

This new edition contains an introduction by Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire novels.


Melville Davisson Post (1869-1930) was a native of Harrison County, West Virginia. He is the author of The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason, the Randolph Mason series, the Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries series, the Monsieur Jonquelle series, and the Walker of the Secret Service series, as well as many articles, essays, and treatises.

Craig Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire novels, which are the basis for Longmire, the hit A&E-TV drama, the highest rated scripted series in the network's history. The Cold Dish is the Le Prix du Polar Noir winner, Death Without Company is the winner of the Wyoming Historical Association's Book of the Year, and Another Man's Moccasins is the winner of both the Western Writers of America's Spur Award and the Mountains and Plains Book of the Year.

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