'Laughter,' as James Thurber recently remarked, 'need not be cut out of anything, since it improves everything.' It is a claim marvelously borne out in The Folio Book of Comic Short Stories. Thurber himself contributes a cautionary tale of matrimony, romance blossoms in Damon Runyon's 'Piece of Pie' as Miss Violette Shumberger eats valiantly for America, Evelyn Waugh sends up the movies in 'Excursion in Reality', Stella Gibbons mocks the world of journalism in 'The Great Mammoth Story', and human vanity and hypocrisy are mercilessly skewered in Saki's 'The Byzantine Omelette', From simple slapstick to cool sophistication, these stories share a genius for setting off life's fireworks. Also featuring the work of Oscar Wilde, O. Henry, V.S. Pritchett and Kingsley Amis.