Frank Richard Stockton (1834 -1902) was an American writer and humorist, best known today for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular during the last decades of the 19th century. 1895 adventure novel The Adventures of Captain Horn was the third-best selling book in the United States in 1895. Born in Philadelphia in the year 1834, Stockton was the son of a prominent Methodist minister who discouraged him from a writing career. After he married Mary Ann Edwards Tuttle, they moved to Burlington, New Jersey. where he produced some of his first literary work. The couple then moved to Nutley, New Jersey.