The Devil and Daniel Webster
He tells of a New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul to the devil and is later defended by a fictionalized Daniel Webster, a noted 19th-century American statesman, lawyer and orator.
The story appeared in The Saturday Evening Post (October 24, 1936) and was published in book form by Farrar & Rinehart the following year.
The author also adapted it in 1938 as a folk opera, with music by Douglas Stuart Moore, a fellow Yale University alumnus.
Farmer Jabez Stone, from the small town of Cross Corners, New Hampshire, is plagued with unending bad luck.
To this Mr. Scratch insists on his own citizenship, citing his presence at the worst events in the history of the U.S., concluding, "though I don't like to boast of it, my name is older in this country than yours".
He admits the wrongs done in the course of American history but points out that something new and good had grown from them and that "everybody had played a part in it, even the traitors".
Webster then grabs the stranger/Satan and twists his arm behind his back, "for he knew that once you bested anybody like Mr. Scratch in fair fight, his power on you was gone."
Webster makes him agree "never to bother Jabez Stone nor his heirs or assigns nor any other New Hampshire man till doomsday!"
It was only the tip of his shoe that caught the stranger, but he went flying out of the door with his collecting box under his arm ... And he hasn't been seen in the state of New Hampshire from that day to this."
[citation needed] However, in reality many of the jury would not have classed themselves as Americans, as Governor Dale, Morton, Hathorne, and Blackbeard were English, and King Phillip was a Wampanoag.
Classifying the jurors as "Americans" involves a wider definition, including all who had a part in its history – even those who lived and died as English subjects before 1775, the Loyalists who actively opposed the creation of the U.S., and those Indians (like King Philip) who interacted with the new civilization.
The narrator also expresses sympathy for King Philip when he tells us that one juror "heard the cry of his lost nation" in Webster's eloquent appeal.
Shortcut to Happiness is a modernized version set in the publishing world, starring Anthony Hopkins as a publisher named Daniel Webster, Alec Baldwin as a best-selling (via the devil) but terrible author named Jabez Stone, and Jennifer Love Hewitt as a female version of the devil.
Phil Reisman, Jr. adapted the story for a live televised performance of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" on the Breck Sunday Showcase (NBC, February 14, 1960, 60 min), starring Edward G. Robinson (Daniel Webster), David Wayne (Mr. Scratch), and Tim O'Connor (Jabez Stone).
Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, and James Craig reprised their 1941 film roles in the "All That Money Can Buy" episode of Cavalcade of America (NBC Red Network, October 20, 1941, 30 min).
Jean Holloway's adaptation aired on Hallmark Playhouse (CBS, June 10, 1948, 30 min); cast: John McIntire (Daniel Webster), Alan Reed (Mr. Scratch), Frank Goss (Jabez Stone).
Edward Arnold again played Daniel Webster for the Prudential Family Hour of Stars (CBS, Sept. 18, 1949, 30 min).
Walter Huston again reprised his 1941 film role in the "All That Money Can Buy" episode of Theatre Guild on the Air (NBC, April 30, 1950, 60 min); Cornel Wilde and Martha Scott co-starred.
Archibald MacLeish, a friend and associate of Benét's in the 1930s and until his death in 1943, also adapted the story as a play: Scratch (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971).
