In addition to novels, Hughes was a prolific writer of short stories, with varying numbers well over one hundred credited to him. "In a Little Town" (1917) allowed Hughes to draw on his small-town roots with fourteen short stories about fictionalized people around Keokuk. In 1920 Harper published "Mama and other Unimportant People", a collection of short stories and novelettes which contained the critically acclaimed short story "The Stick-in-the-Muds" Also in the collection was "The Father of Waters", which would be designated as, and republished in, "The World's 50 Best Short Novels", a ten-volume compilation published by Funk & Wagnalls in 1929.