story is character that is a product of its own environment. Dialogue
that has an accent is not enough to separate one nation from another;
it is the kind of person that is expressed through an accent that is
significant. The dialogue must be born in the soul; otherwise the
impression given is irritatingly superficial and sometimes absurd.
So you see, observation is not enough for fiction writing, however
searching; nor experience, however varied; nor style, however
distinguished. There must be power to discern truth, and imagination
to fashion for it a garment of shining loveliness. I have grown to
believe that the very words used in writing should carry a weight of
emotionalism. It is not enough to feel drama or to talk about drama
when you are writing. Drama must pass through the actual words and
drench them with fervor.
MARY FANTON ROBERTS.
_The Touchstone._
1 West 47th Street,
New York City.
WESTERN STORY MAGAZINE
_Western Story Magazine_ is a weekly publication. It is therefore a
large fiction market, constantly in need of short stories of 2,500
to 6,000 or 7,000 words, novelettes of 12,000 or 15,000, and novels
of 25,000 words. Serials should run from 36,000 to 100,000 words in
length, and break up approximately in about 12,000-word installments.
All stories for _Western Story Magazine_ must deal with incidents in
the West, Canada, Alaska. If possible, they must be written in such a
way as to urge readers to want to lead a life in the open. While many
readers realize that conditions have changed in the West, the stories
should be written so that the reader who knows that these conditions
have changed will understand that what the author means is that such
and such was the case in the good old days, and that on the other hand
the reader who does not know that conditions have changed will assume
that they are to-day as the author states.
No story is acceptable for _Western Story Magazine_ which contains an
unpleasant sex element.
F. E. BLACKWELL.
_Western Story Magazine._
79 Seventh Avenue,
New York City.
THE WOMAN’S HOME COMPANION
Fiction is a very large element in our program. We publish not less
than five short stories in each issue and not less than six serials a
year.
These are the requirements which make a fiction manuscript available:
It must tell a story.
It must tell it well--that is, according to accepted standards of good
writing.
The story must be worth telling.
The theme must be interesting to the average normal human being.
It may be a story of love, mystery, humor, pathos, childhood, youth,
old age, men, women, home life, business life; its scene may be laid
anywhere on earth, in the past, present or future. It may have plot and
action, or merely atmosphere. It may be by an unknown writer or by the
most famous. We merely want to be convinced that a great number of our
readers will enjoy reading it.
Of all the stories the _Woman’s Home Companion_ published in 1920, I
put at the head of the list, “According to Ruskin,” by Harriet Welles.
It answers the requirements I have outlined. It tells a story, a
poignant and appealing story. It tells it well, with skill, directness
and restraint, and with power. The theme is that of sacrifice, one that
has held its appeal for hundreds of years, a theme around which many of
the greatest stories of all times have been written. It has both plot
and atmosphere.
It was not altogether easy to choose the best story of the year’s
issues, and it would not be easy to choose the second or third in rank.
But there are several that I wish to mention as illustrative of what we
consider good stories and the kind of fiction we like to publish.
“The Neighbor” by Katharine Holland Brown is a difficult thing well
done. Written with less skill and feeling it would lack the beauty that
distinguishes it. It is a type of story that is seldom successful, but
in Miss Brown’s skilful hands it is a masterly piece of work.
“Shooting Stars” is one of Alice Brown’s New England tales, well told
and absorbing in its carefully-presented setting and its analysis of
character.
“The Boy in the Corner” by M. C. L. Pickthall is a story of the West,
of a mining town, in its setting and atmosphere. In plot it is a study
in spiritual values simply and dramatically related.
Two stories, dealing in widely different ways with love and poverty
in the relation of a mother to a young daughter, are “The Genius” by
Sophie Kerr, and “A Sweater for Mabel” by Elsie Singmaster. They are
both admirable examples of narrative, woven around plots of universal
interest.
“The Master Passion” by Mary Heaton Vorse is a piece of work that is
distinguished by its keen realization of situations and values and by
the mingling of emotion and reason which the story discloses.
Of lighter tone and somewhat slighter structure is “Thursday and the
King and Queen” by Theodora DuBois. This is an excellent example of a
pleasing humorous story, with a real plot and real people, plenty of
incident and amusing situations, the kind of story we delight in.
“The Torch” by Anna Branson Hillyard is an example of a serious and
sincere story dealing with one of the problems of present day young
people. It is earnest without being preachy, and it has a purpose
without being propaganda.
“But I Knew You’d Understand” by Ruth Comfort Mitchell is a graphic
and sympathetic picture of young married life. It has a variety of
well-drawn characters and an atmosphere that bears the sure touch of
reality.
These are the stories that I feel I cannot pass over without mention.
These stories come up to our requirements for a good piece of fiction
and in every case they offer to the story-reader value that is pressed
down and running over.
I am glad to have had the opportunity to publish these stories and I am
happy to recommend them as examples of good contemporary fiction.
GERTRUDE B. LANE.
_Woman’s Home Companion._
381 Fourth Avenue,
New York City.
YOUNG’S MAGAZINE
For about thirty years _Young’s Magazine_ has been purveying fiction
for the entertainment of the public. It has many readers and some
contributors of twenty years’ standing. Of its fellows--all-fiction
magazines that started with or shortly after it--what remnant is left!
It is good philosophy, as well as common sense, that such survival
testifies to an inhering excellence or usefulness. In the case of
_Young’s Magazine_ the quality making for survival is that not only has
it given to the public what was wanted--good stories, but it has helped
to create them; it has been the arena where many, now famous, perfected
the use of their medium--where some have learned first principles,
too--and it has helped all by criticism and advice.
Allowing full weight to _manner_--graces of style, diction and what
not--_Young’s_ has steadfastly worked from the standpoint that _matter_
comes first. The story’s the thing; what the reader wants. This
insistence on “meat” in the story--something cogent, logical, properly
articulated--has won for the magazine a standing and a place with
writers that is emphasized by its popular success.
Looking back over the index, familiar names are everywhere; selecting
haphazard: Jeffery Farnol, Mary Roberts Rinehart, “Ouida,” Charles
Hanson Towne, Marcel Prevost, Margaret Pedler, Mrs. Justin H. McCarthy,
Tom Gallon, Richard Le Gallienne, Dale Drummond, Berton Braley,
Hildegarde Hawthorne, Rita Weiman, Harry Kemp, Doctor Frank Crane,
Octavus Roy Cohen, Nalbo Bartley, Reginald Wright Kauffman, Homer
Croy, Mabel Wagnalls, Henry Payson Dowst, Martha M. Stanley, William
Le Queux, Oliver Sandys, Nina Wilcox Putnam, Elizabeth Jordan, Grace
MacGowan Cooke, Julian Hawthorne, Achmed Abdullah, Hapsburg Liebe,
Jules Eckert Goodman, Roi Cooper Megrue, Clarence L. Cullen, Jeanne
Judson, Channing Pollock, Percival Weil, Louise Winter, Martha Morton,
Temple Bailey, Gertrude Brooke Hamilton, Maude Fulton.
Take it how you will--whether the fact be welcome or not--“sex,” as
it is called (with the quotation marks), shares with one or two other
big things the distinction of being a primal force in the life of
the world. It is real; it is vital. And as _Young’s Magazine_ and
_Breezy Stories_ want vital fiction, they seek stories of love and
its attendant emotions as they affect and as they are expressed in
life as it is lived; not the tenuous sentimentalism of the “mushy”
love-story--moonshine and bubbles, beautiful airy nothings that touch
_life_ at not a single point.
CASHEL POMEROY.
_Young’s Magazine._
_Breezy Stories._
THE C. H. YOUNG PUBLISHING CO., INC.,
377 Fourth Avenue,
New York City.
Footnotes
[1] Copyright by _Ainslee’s Magazine_.
[2] Copyright by _The American Magazine_.
[3] Copyright, 1917, by _The Century Co._
[4] Copyright, 1920, by _Collier’s, The National Weekly_.
[5] Copyright, 1919, by _The Cosmopolitan Magazine_.
[6] Copyright by _Everybody’s Magazine_.
[7] Copyright by _McClure’s Magazine_
[8] Copyright by _Metropolitan Magazine_
[9] Copyright _The People’s Home Journal_.
[10] Copyright _Pictorial Review_.
[11] Copyright by _Short Stories_
[12] Copyright _The Woman’s Home Companion_.
[13] Copyright, by Courtland H. Young
Transcriber’s Notes
• Italic text denoted by _underscores_.
• Small capitals converted to ALL CAPS.
• Footnotes renumbered consecutively and moved to the end of the text.
• Obvious typographic errors corrected silently.
• Variations in hypenation and spelling (especially between authors)
kept as in the original.
• References to the Footnotes and Transcriber’s Notes added to the
Table of Contents for user convenience.