"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" appears at first glance to be a simple, humorous story, but actually is a complex satire of American literature, social conventions, and politics. Like the land around the mining settlement of Angel's Camp, it has riches under the surface, and the patient and careful reader can tap into this vein.
Inspired by an anecdote Mark Twain heard while traveling in the western United States, the sketch was published in various forms and under various titles, including" Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" and "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," but the basic story remains the same in all versions (Baender, 1963). The narrator, apparently from the eastern part of the nation, finds himself in a western mining camp listening to a rustic character tell stories about a habitual gambler named Jim Smiley and the animals that were the subject of Smiley's bets.
In a handsomely printed and tastefully bound little volume, called the Jumping Frog, which is the initial venture of Mr. C. H. Webb as a publisher "Mark Twain" presents himself a candidate for the honors of a humorist. "Mark Twain" is, we believe, the nom de plume of Mr. Samuel Clements, [sic] who, although a Missourian by birth, has for the last year had his residence in California. There his contributions to the weekly journals secured him a wide popularity, and this volume serves to introduce him to the lovers of humor in the Atlantic States.
The sketch from which the book takes its name was first published several years ago, and at that time was widely circulated through the newspapers. It is a fair specimen of the whimsical fancies in which the book abounds, and, although there are other sketches nearly equal to it in merit,
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