Susan Rich has edited a frightening number of books, including those in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Gloria Whelan's National Book Award-winning Homeless Bird, and the series Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures. Born in Winnipeg, she attended McGill University in Montreal and received her master's degree in children's literature from Simmons College in Boston. She has haunted old publishing houses in New York and then Toronto, where she now lives with her devilish husband and ghastly children.

Twelve popular storytellers of the early-twentieth century contributed to this collection published for the Boy Scouts of America. Among the most notable are: Zane Grey, a bestselling author of adventure novels and stories set in the American West; Jack London, a novelist, journalist, and short story writer who wrote powerful works of adventure and science fiction and was a pioneer of literary naturalism; Irvin S. Cobb, an American humorist and editor who contributed to Joseph Pulitzer's New York World; and W.H.H. "Adirondack" Murray, a clergyman and author of books set in Upstate New York's Adirondack Mountains.