To repeat what I have said in these pages in previous years, for
the benefit of the reader as yet unacquainted with my standards and
principles of selection, I shall point out that I have set myself the
task of disengaging the essential human qualities in our contemporary
fiction, which, when chronicled conscientiously by our literary
artists, may fairly be called a criticism of life. I am not at all
interested in formulæ, and organized criticism at its best would be
nothing more than dead criticism, as all dogmatic interpretation of
life is always dead. What has interested me, to the exclusion of other
things, is the fresh, living current which flows through the best
American work, and the psychological and imaginative reality which
American writers have conferred upon it.
No substance is of importance in fiction, unless it is organic
substance, that is to say, substance in which the pulse of life
is beating. Inorganic fiction has been our curse in the past, and
bids fair to remain so, unless we exercise much greater artistic
discrimination than we display at present.
The present record covers the period from October, 1924, to September,
1925, inclusive. During this period I have sought to select from the
stories published in American magazines those which have rendered life
imaginatively in organic substance and artistic form. Substance is
something achieved by the artist in every act of creation, rather than
something already present, and accordingly a fact or group of facts in
a story only attains substantial embodiment when the artist’s power
of compelling imaginative persuasion transforms them into a living
truth. The first test of a short story, therefore, in any qualitative
analysis, is to report upon how vitally compelling the writer makes his
selected facts or incidents. This test may be conveniently called the
test of substance.
But a second test is necessary if the story is to take rank above other
stories. The true artist will seek to shape this living substance
into the most beautiful and satisfying form by skilful selection and
arrangement of his materials, and by the most direct and appealing
presentation of it in portrayal and characterization.
The short stories which I have examined in this study, as in previous
years, have fallen naturally into four groups. The first consists of
those stories which fail, in my opinion, to survive either the test of
substance or the test of form. These stories are listed in the yearbook
without comment or qualifying asterisk.
The second group consists of those stories which may fairly claim
that they survive either the test of substance or the test of form.
Each of these stories may claim to possess either distinction of
technique alone, or more frequently, I am glad to say, a persuasive
sense of life in them to which a reader responds with some part of his
own experience. Stories included in this group are indicated in the
yearbook index by a single asterisk prefixed to the title.
The third group, which is composed of stories of still greater
distinction, includes such narratives as may lay convincing claim to a
second reading, because each of them has survived both tests, the test
of substance and the test of form. Stories included in this group are
indicated in the yearbook index by two asterisks prefixed to the title.
Finally, I have recorded the names of a small group of stories
which possess, I believe, the even finer distinction of uniting
genuine substance and artistic form in a closely woven pattern with
such sincerity that these stories may fairly claim a position in
American literature. If all of these stories by American authors were
republished, they would not occupy more space than six or seven novels
of average length. My selection of them does not imply the critical
belief that they are great stories. A year which produced one great
story would be an exceptional one. It is simply to be taken as meaning
that I have found the equivalent of six or seven volumes worthy of
republication among all the stories published during the period under
consideration. These stories are indicated in the yearbook index by
three asterisks prefixed to the title, and are listed in the special
“Rolls of Honor.” In compiling these lists, I have permitted no
personal preference or prejudice to influence my judgment consciously.
Several stories which I dislike personally are to be found on the
“Rolls of Honor.” The general and particular results of my study will
be found explained and carefully detailed in the supplementary part of
this volume.