Commentary
Writer of minor stories reflects 小説の作者. Though there are no furigana, the graphs 小説 would most likely have been marked to be read せうせつ (seusetsu), though しょうせつ (shōsetsu), the reading today, would also have been possible at the time.
Tentendō Dondon was one of several pen names used by the gesaku writer Takabatake Ransen. He also styled himself as a "writer of minor stories" on TNS-1046 and TNS-1054.
For more about the "minor story" he wrote in 1874 and published in 1875, see TNS-876 Mysterious incidents. For a closer look at changes in the meaning of "minor story" at the time, see "Minor stories" and style: The essence of "shōsetsu" and news nishikie.