Marjorie Daw and Other Stories was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1873. The title story had originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1873 and caused an immediate sensation. It is told entirely through letters between two friends: John Flemming, bedridden in New York, and Edward Delaney, summering in a New Hampshire village. Delaney’s letters describe a beautiful neighbor, Marjorie Daw, in increasingly rapturous detail, and Flemming falls in love with her through the correspondence. The final revelation — which readers in 1873 genuinely did not see coming — is that Marjorie Daw does not exist; Delaney invented her to amuse his bored friend.
The story’s twist ending was hugely influential, anticipating O. Henry by thirty years. But its real achievement is structural: the epistolary form means the reader only has access to the same information Flemming has, making the deception equally effective on both the character and the audience. It is a story about the power of narrative itself to create reality — a remarkably modern theme for 1873.
The collection includes other stories that demonstrate Aldrich’s range: “A Rivermouth Romance,” drawing on his New Hampshire material; “Miss Mehetabel’s Son,” a tale of small-town scandal; and several pieces that combine Aldrich’s characteristic wit with genuine emotional depth. The collection established him, alongside Bret Harte and Mark Twain, as one of the leading American short story writers of the Gilded Age.
Collecting Marjorie Daw and Other Stories
First edition (James R. Osgood & Co., Boston, 1873): Cloth binding.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $75–$200
- Very good: $30–$80