Happy birthday, Guy de Maupassant

It is the birthday of French writer Guy de Maupassant (1850), who is credited with helping to develop the literary form of the short story. He wrote more than 300 short stories as well as a poetry collection, three travel books, and six novels. Perhaps his most famous short story was Dumpling (1880), a story set during the Franco-Prussian War. It tells of a group of travelers on their way to La Havre by stagecoach. The story is included in de Maupassant’s collection Dumpling and Other Stories of the War. John Ford’s film Stagecoach (1939) was heavily influenced by de Maupassant’s story.