Franklin Book Programs, Inc., a private non-profit corporation, was established in 1952 and continued until 1978 as a joint-venture between the American Library Association's International Relations Committee and publishers from the American Book Publishers Council Foreign Trade Committee. The expressed purpose of the initiative was to "assist developing countries in the creation, production, distribution, and use of books and other educational materials" ("Gift Aids Center For the Book," News from the Library of Congress Press Release, January 10, 1979). The program involved approximately fifteen countries and as many languages. Over the course of more than two decades, Franklin Book Programs helped facilitate the publication of approximately 3,000 titles in languages such as Arabic, Armenian, Bangla, Chinese, English, Hausa, Igbo, Indonesian, Malay, Persian, Pushtu, Urdu, and Yoruba.

This selection of Mark Twain's stories translated to Armenian was published by the "Alik" printing house in Tehran in 1963, with the support of the Franklin Book Program. Translated from the English original by Zorik Mirzayean, the collection features eight short stories, including "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" "Was It Heaven? Or Hell?" "Luck" and "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg". The book opens with a short biography of Twain, penned by the translator.

All Armenian materials including the items listed here may be accessed in the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room.