This edited volume aims to provide a systematic analysis of more than one hundred German translations of American short stories written between 1792 and 1987. The main goal hereby is to shed some light on their reception in the German language system. Benjamin Franklin, Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe and Mark Twain are but a few examples of authors discussed. Some of the more specific issues discussed include landscape descriptions in Washington Irving’s Rip van Winkle, the reaction of German translators to American humour, some issues in literary stylistics and other topics.