In this volume, the stories written by John Hay are collected for the first time, with a substantial Introduction by Hay scholar George Monteiro. Included are "The Blood Seedling," "Shelby Cabell," "The Foster Brothers," "Kane and Abel," "Red, White, and Blue," and "The Minstrel," as well as additional manuscript material. Although Hay is best known as private secretary to Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State under Theodore Roosevelt, he was also a well-known writer whose literary works include the ten-volume Abraham Lincoln: A History (with John G. Nicolay), the novel The Bread-winners, poetry and the stories collected here.