After marrying Mary Ann Edwards Tuttle, he and his wife moved to Burlington, New Jersey,[1] where he produced some of his first literary work.

Instead, he humorously poked fun at greed, violence, abuse of power and other human foibles, describing his fantastic characters' adventures in a charming, matter-of-fact way in stories like "The Griffin and the Minor Canon" (1885) and "The Bee-Man of Orn" (1887).

That quandary has made the story a staple in English classes in American schools, especially since Stockton was careful never to hint at what he thought the ending would be (according to Hiram Collins Haydn in The Thesaurus of Book Digests, ISBN 0-517-00122-5).

Other stories included "The Griffin and the Minor Canon", "Old Pipes and The Dryad", "The Queen's Museum", "Christmas Before Last", "Prince Hassak's March", "The Battle of the Third Cousins", "The Banished King", and "Philopena".

One Sunday, following a scolding from his overbearing wife, he stands at the pulpit and tells his parishioners, "the Bible declared that every woman in this world was possessed by seven devils".

The women are incensed, and after prolonged discussions, the community resolves to dismiss him from his unpaid post unless he provides Biblical authority for his claim.

An American syndicate made up of some of America's richest men and ablest scientists conducts the war on behalf of the United States.

It does so through a few inventions, especially a remarkable motor-bomb which can—much like the nuclear bombs developed by an Anglo-American alliance a half a century later—level entire cities.