As the title claims, the book is a real collection of the best examples of the American humorous literature. The editor gathers valuable pieces by the prominent authors like Washington Irving, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain and many more. It was compiled at the turn of the 19th and 20th century and its aim was to bring relaxing notes into the craze for moral seriousness in all literature, which was characteristic of that period.

Thomas Masson (Tom Masson) (1866-1934) was an American editor writer and journalist. He was born at Essex, Connecticut, and educated in the public schools of New Haven. At some period of his life he was working as a literary editor of "Life" in 1893 and a regular contributor of humorous articles to various magazines. His most famous collections are for Humorous Masterpieces of American Literature (1904); In Merry Measure (1905); The Humor of Love in Verse and Prose (1906); The Best Stories in the World (1914)