This chapter gives attention to individual short story writers and collections or their work from the 1890s to about 1950 and 'their literary, geographic and historical contexts'. Special attention is given to newspaper and periodical publications as well as books, and responses to them by readers and critics, including the issue of quality judgements and commercial considerations. Subsections include: Predecessors, 1850s to 1880s; The 1890s legend revisited; National and international influences: The Bulletin and Louis Becke; Australian pasts revisited: Ernest Favenc, Price Warung; Lawson and legend; Expatriate writers, editors; Humour and nostalgia: Steele Rudd's selectors; Immigrants and travellers; Indigenous pioneer: David Unaipon; Realists and romantics: Katharine Susannah Prichard and Vance Palmer; Women at crossroads: Richardson, Stead, Barnard; Men at work: Herbert, Casey, Davison, Marshall; Looking backwards and forwards: Peter Cowan.