Children's lit again...

October 2, 2009 2:06 PM

I'm looking for the title of an action/adventure short story collection that I read in middle school (early 90s). It included The Most Dangerous Game and Leningen Versus the Ants.

There were a number of other stories, but I can only remember the plots of two of them:

The first was about two men trapped under a tree in the woods. The come from rival families but as they wait for help to arrive, they grow friendly and each assures the other that if his family comes first, he will help the other. It ends with them seeing movement in the woods but to their dismay, it's a pack of wolves.

The second was about a man who falls into a pit of some kind and can't get out. He's stuck in it for several days and every night, it fills up with large, furry spiders. It ends with a rainstorm that kills the spiders and allows him to escape.

posted by anonymous78 to media & arts (9 comments total)

Leningen Versus the Ants appeared in The Most Dangerous Game and Other Stories of Adventure, Berkley 1957.

Both stories are also in, The Greatest Survival Stories Ever Told: Seventeen Incredible Tales
posted by ActingTheGoat at 2:28 PM on October 2 [1 favorite has favorites]

I read this as well, much earlier than you, so it could be The Most Dangerous Game and Other Stories of Adventure, Berkley 1957 cited above. Did it have a Jack London story (the dog running off at the end to join the wolves) in it as well?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:44 PM on October 2

Yea, I can't help with a specific book, but the plotline you're describing with the hunters and wolves above is Saki's "The Interlopers", so maybe that'll help narrow down your search? It could be one of those books filled with stories with twist ending as well, I vaguely remember either reading a book similar to this theme or it was a chapter in a literature book from my childhood.
posted by kkokkodalk at 2:52 PM on October 2

Great Tales of Action and Adventure, edited by George Bennett. This could be it.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:53 PM on October 2 [2 favorites has favorites]

The story about the wolves was definitely The Interlopers.
posted by anonymous78 at 3:04 PM on October 2

I've wanted to reread this for a long time!

posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:19 PM on October 2 [1 favorite has favorites]

Did it also have "The Gold Bug"?

Yellow hardback...It might be at my parents to this day.
posted by mearls at 4:09 PM on October 2

I'd swear I read the same book, mine also had The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by Thurber.
I am pretty sure there was a Saki story in there as well, but, it pains me to say this was forty years ago. I am voting for the Berkley edition.
posted by archaic at 5:36 PM on October 2

TWinbrook8 has it, I'm sure. I own this book, it has all 4 of the stories you mention. Oh, and it's a terrific collection, great for longish readalouds for older kids (10- 16). A couple of the stories (Leningen...) are marred by a tinge of racism, but that's what you get.
posted by carterk at 7:09 PM on October 2