Snelling's Tales of the Northwest was first published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1936. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. This reissue of an extremely rare collection, first published anonymously in Boston in 1830, rescues from undeserved oblivion, a story-teller rivaling James Fenimore Cooper. William Joseph Snelling (1803-48), son of Colonel Josiah Snelling, for whom Fort Snelling was named, spent seven years of the 1820's among the Indians in the territory now occupied by Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. As an outgrowth of his experience, he wrote Tales of the Northwest, subtitled "Tales of Indian Life and Character by a Resident beyond the Frontier". This was the first work of fiction to deal with the Northwest and one of the earliest short story collections published in America. "In 1830 no American save Cooper wrote better narrative than Snelling at his peak", says John T. Flanagan, who made an extensive study of the life and writings of Snelling and who writes the Introduction to this second edition of Tales of the Northwest. The original University of Minnesota Press edition was selected by the American Institute of Graphic Arts to be exhibited as one of the "Fifty Best Books" of 1936.