The Ablest Man in the World

"The Ablest Man in the World" is a short story by American journalist and author Edward Page Mitchell. It was written in 1879 and published unattributed on page two of the New York Sun on May 4 of that year. It was reprinted in Stories by American Authors, Vol. 10. in 1884. It was later included in the modern collection The Crystal Man: Stories by Edward Page Mitchell, edited by Sam Moskowitz in 1973.