_Her Country_, by _Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews_ (Charles Scribner’s
Sons). In this short story by Mrs. Andrews there is a fine emotional
quality, and the spiritual values, though nowhere overstressed, will
remind the reader of “The Perfect Tribute,” which still remains Mrs.
Andrews’ best story. Written to assist the last Liberty Bond campaign,
its significant interest is independent of its timeliness.
_In the Midst of Life_ and _Can Such Things Be?_ by _Ambrose Bierce_
(Boni & Liveright). To an Englishman, the lack of familiarity we show
with Ambrose Bierce’s stories is a mystery. If he were asked to mention
our foremost short story writers, he would think of Poe, Hawthorne,
Harte, O. Henry, and Bierce. Yet the name of Ambrose Bierce is almost
unknown in this country. His publishers are to be congratulated on the
critical acumen that prompted them to reissue Bierce’s stories in a new
popular edition. No writer, with the possible exceptions of Stephen
Crane and Henri Barbusse, has written of war with more passionate
vividness. Such stories as “The Horseman in the Sky,” “An Occurrence at
Owl Creek Bridge,” and “Chickamauga” are among the best stories ever
written by an American, and in the field of the macabre Bierce at his
best is very nearly the equal of Poe. I suppose that “In the Midst of
Life” is the better volume, but “Can Such Things Be?” almost rivals it
in interest.
_Helen of Troy_, and _Rose_, by _Phyllis Bottome_ (The Century Company).
These two novelettes are studies in national and temperamental
contrasts. Their deft characterization, subtle humor, and sense of place
entitle them to a place beside the best novels of Ethel Sidgwick. They
reveal a disciplined sense of poetry and a tolerance of outlook which
spring from an older background than most American work.
_The Flying Teuton and Other Stories_, by _Alice Brown_ (The Macmillan
Company). Last year I had occasion to express my belief that “The Flying
Teuton” was the best short story that had been inspired by the war up to
that time. It comes to us now in book form with a collection of Miss
Brown’s other stories of war and peace, revealing the old qualities of
courage, imagination, poetry, and dramatic irony which we have come to
associate with the name of Miss Brown. I regard the book as her most
satisfying contribution to the short story since “Meadow Sweet.”
_John O’May_, by _Maxwell Struthers Burt_ (Charles Scribner’s Sons). The
wish which I expressed last year that Mr. Burt’s stories should be
collected in book form is now gratified by the appearance of this
volume. It is one of the few indispensable collections of the year by an
American author, and gives Mr. Burt a place among American short story
writers beside that of Mrs. Gerould, Wilbur Daniel Steele, H. G. Dwight,
and Charles Caldwell Dobie. Few writers have a more thoughtful technique
or a more unerring sense of dramatic values.
_Home Fires in France_, by _Dorothy Canfield_ (Henry Holt & Company).
Here is a homely record of the new spirit that the war has developed in
the homes of France, and of the human intercourse so rapidly cemented
between the French people and ourselves. There is a quiet glow in these
stories which idealizes the sufferings of France, and brings home to us
poignantly the present realities of her sufferings. If the volume lacks
the conscious art of “Hillsboro People,” its substance has been shaped
by a personal experience so intense that the book should live as a
memorial long after the incidents which it records have passed.
_Rush-Light Stories_, by _Maud Chapin_ (Duffield & Company). These
poetic studies in place, though reminiscent of Gautier, are freshly told
in a style that adequately mirrors the backgrounds of which they treat.
I find them to be delicately wrought, with a prismatic beauty of
phrasing, which errs slightly on the side of preciosity.
_The Thunders of Silence_, by _Irvin S. Cobb_ (George H. Doran Company).
When this short story appeared in the Saturday Evening Post this year,
it was discussed widely as a polemic. It is not literature, but it is
journalism at its very best, and has fine story values.
_Free and Other Stories_, by _Theodore Dreiser_ (Boni & Liveright). This
collection of stories is uneven, but the best of it is the best of Mr.
Dreiser. In “The Lost Phœbe,” which I reprinted as one of the best short
stories of 1917, a new legend was added to American letters which had
much of the glamor of leisureliness of Hawthorne. Such a story as
“McEwen of the Shining Slave Makers” is a fine imaginative projection
into a new world, mirroring ironically our human passions in the warfare
of two tribes of ants under the blades of a grass forest. Of the social
studies in this volume, all show the exact observation and conscientious
accumulation of detail for which Mr. Dreiser is noted, and the absence
of selective power in many cases which often weakens his best work.
_Battles Royal Down North_ and _Harbor Tales Down North_, by _Norman
Duncan_ (Fleming H. Revell Company). These two collections contain the
last stories which we shall have from the pen of Norman Duncan.
Reverting as they do to the Labrador shores of which he is the chief
interpreter, they show no flagging in Mr. Duncan’s power. No other
writer has portrayed so vividly the wet gray shores of the Labrador, nor
interpreted so sympathetically the character of the Labrador “Liveyere.”
Such a story as “The Little Nipper o’ Hide-an’-Seek Harbor” has not been
surpassed by Mr. Duncan in his earlier books, and as one who knows the
Labrador personally, I can testify to the reality and imaginative truth
of Mr. Duncan’s epic chronicles.
_Tales of Giants from Brazil_, by _Elsie Spicer Eells_ (Dodd, Mead &
Company). These adaptations from the collections of Romero and others
are an excellent introduction to the Portuguese folk lore of Brazil.
They are told by Mrs. Eells in a simple style which preserves their folk
quality without any attempt to refine upon it.
_Cheerful—By Request_, by _Edna Ferber_ (Doubleday, Page & Co.). Miss
Ferber is at her best in such a story as “The Tough Old Dog.” In this
story she has not sentimentalized her substance, but has accepted the
sentimental values inherent in the theme and chronicled them faithfully.
Such a story as this is the product of regionalism in its best sense. In
other stories in this volume Miss Ferber’s characterization is of
varying degrees of success. In the best of these stories her characters
are individualized; in those which are less successful they remain
types. But the volume is an important addition to the year’s books by
virtue of three or four stories included in it.
_Edgewater People_, by _Mary E. Wilkins Freeman_ (Harper & Brothers).
While this volume does not as a whole represent Mrs. Freeman’s art at
its best, it contains two fine stories in “The Ring With the Green
Stone” and “A Retreat to the Goal,” while “The Old Man of the Field” has
much of Mrs. Freeman’s familiar charm. These stories have the unity of
New England village life.
_Great Ghost Stories_, edited by _Joseph Lewis French_ (Dodd, Mead &
Company). This collection is fairly representative of the best ghost
stories that can be gathered, though one misses “The Canterville Ghost”
and “The Apparition of Mrs. Veal,” as well as any representation of Poe,
de Maupassant, or Bierce. But it does contain twelve stories which may
fairly be regarded as classics in their field, and there is not one of
them which is not of absorbing interest.
_Mimi_, by _J. U. Giesy_ (Harper & Brothers). This novelette is an idyl
of the Latin quarter of Paris during the first year of the Great War.
Written in the tradition of Murger, it has his qualities and defects. It
is slightly overstressed and somewhat carelessly written, but it has the
human touch and good characterization. I commend it to the reader for
its quiet emotional appeal.
_Hindu Fairy Tales_, by _Florence Griswold_ (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard
Co.). These fairy tales retold for children from the “Jataka” are
narrated in a simple style which is unpretentious but effective. The
legends upon which they are based are among the oldest of the human
race, but they retain much of their freshness in this version.
_Uncle Remus Returns_, by _Joel Chandler Harris_ (Houghton, Mifflin
Co.). This volume falls into two parts. It includes six new folk stories
by Uncle Remus as told to the son of the little boy who was the eager
listener in the earlier volumes. These stories rank with the best of
their predecessors. To these have been added five sketches from
newspaper files, which are purely ephemeral.
_The Ransom of Red Chief and Other Stories_, by _O. Henry_, as chosen
for boys by _Franklin K. Mathiews_ (Doubleday, Page & Co.). It was a
happy thought which inspired Mr. Mathiews to make his selection. In it
the reader will find many old favorites well balanced by less familiar
stories. Mr. Mathiews knew well that no coaxing was necessary to
introduce these stories to boys, and has wisely dispensed with any
educational apparatus.
_Gold and Iron_, by _Joseph Hergesheimer_ (Alfred A. Knopf). In these
three careful studies in time and place Mr. Hergesheimer has sought to
reproduce certain aspects of our American tradition. With a meticulous
attention to detail, and a keen eye for salient incident, he has slowly
built up three portraits which rank with the best that American fiction
has given us in the past few years. The comparison with Mr. Galsworthy
is an obvious one, but emphasizes a difference rather than a
resemblance. There is a certain asceticism of color and emotion in these
novelettes alien to Mr. Galsworthy’s romantic temperament.
_Long Ever Ago_, by _Rupert Hughes_ (Harper & Brothers). During the past
few years I have had frequent occasion to comment upon these admirable
studies of Irish American life as they first appeared in the magazines.
I regard them as the definitive chronicle of the first Irish American
generation in its process of assimilation by New York. But it is more
than this, for it is a series of richly humorous little dramas, with an
inimitable flavor of their own.
_Tales From a Famished Land_, by _Edward Eyre Hunt_ (Doubleday, Page &
Co.). Mr. Hunt has been a prominent official of the American Relief
Commission in Belgium, and these poignant stories, continuing as they do
the record of Mr. Hunt’s earlier book, “War Bread,” are largely based on
actual happenings. But the author has looked upon events with the
imaginative eye of a born story writer, and it is hard to forget such
finely wrought pictures as “Ghosts” and “Saint Dympna’s Miracle.”
_Gaslight Sonatas_, by _Fannie Hurst_ (Harper & Brothers). I have
expressed my opinion so frequently as to the permanent human values of
Miss Hurst’s work that I can only remark here that “Gaslight Sonatas” is
one of the very few permanent short story books. Of the seven stories in
the volume two have been previously published in volumes of this annual.
_Abraham’s Bosom_, by _Basil King_ (Harper & Brothers). This short
story, now republished in book form from the Saturday Evening Post, is
an imaginative rendering of spiritual experience independent of sensory
phenomena. Its effectiveness is due to its direct sense of reality and
incisive characterization.
_Modern Short Stories_: _A Book for High Schools_, Edited with
Introduction and Notes by _Frederick Houk Law_ (Century Company). This
collection of twenty-two stories drawn entirely from contemporary work
is a most persuasive introduction of the short story to young readers.
The selection is catholic, and should make the student familiar with
many types of plot, characterization and style. The selection ranges
from Lafcadio Hearn to Tolstoy, and from Richard Harding Davis to Fiona
Macleod. Such notable stories of the past year or two as Phyllis
Bottome’s “Brother Leo” and Stacy Aumonier’s “A Source of Irritation”
afford a refreshing change from the conventional routine. Mr. Law has
succeeded almost admirably in coating the educational pill.
_The Land Where the Sunsets Go_, by _Orville H. Leonard_ (Sherman,
French & Company). This volume was published in 1917 somewhat obscurely,
but it has certain remarkable qualities which would make me sorry to
neglect it. These sketches of the American desert are divided somewhat
evenly between verse and prose. The verse is very bad, and the prose is
very good. While the prose sketches are not short stories in the strict
sense of the word, they contain much fine characterization and a
pictorial value which place them easily first among all imaginative
records of the American desert.
_The Red One_, by _Jack London_ (The Macmillan Company). These four
short stories include the best of the work upon which Mr. London was
engaged at the time of his death. “Like Argus of the Ancient Times” is a
true saga full of the open spaces and the zest of youth lingering on
into old age. “The Hussy” also takes its place among the best of Mr.
London’s later stories. While the other stories are distinctive I cannot
report upon them so favorably.
_Canadian Wonder Tales_, by _Cyrus Macmillan_ (John Lane Company). These
stories are drawn from all parts of Canada and include both Indian and
French Canadian legends. While they lack the naïve reality of the folk
storyteller’s method, the selection is excellent, and should prove a
revelation to the American reader of the rich, though neglected,
treasures which lie at our back door. Until Mr. C. M. Barbeau of Ottawa
renders his invaluable collections accessible in more popular form, this
collection will be practically the only introduction of these treasures
to the general reader.
_Famous Ghost Stories_, edited by _J. Walker McSpadden_ (The Thomas Y.
Crowell Company). This selection follows more conventional lines than
that of Mr. French, which I spoke of above, but it contains Defoe’s
“True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal,” which is perhaps the
best ghost story ever written, and which has the advantage of relative
unfamiliarity. The other thirteen stories are by Sir Walter Scott, Mrs.
Gaskell, Bulwer-Lytton, H. B. Marryat, Fitz-James O’Brien, Hawthorne,
Irving, Poe, Kipling, and Dickens. The publisher should be congratulated
on the best piece of bookmaking of the year.
_E. K. Means_ (G. P. Putnam’s Sons). This book is so good that it needs
no title, but raises the question as to what its successor will be
called. It is a series of negro farces in narrative form chronicling the
joys and tribulations of Vinegar Atts, Figger Bush, Pap Curtain, Hitch
Diamond and other Louisiana negroes. The town of Tickfall will have its
pilgrims some day if this book finds the audience it so richly deserves.
_Shandygaff_, by _Christopher Morley_ (Doubleday, Page & Co.). Mr.
Morley says that this book contains short stories and I will leave to
the reader the delightful task of hunting them. Meanwhile I beg the
question and step aside after introducing the reader to good discourse
on many subjects by a man who knows how to talk.
_Uncle Abner_, by _Melville Davisson Post_ (D. Appleton and Company).
Few writers have so conscientious a technique as Mr. Post, or such a
fine sense of plot. This collection of mystery stories is woven around
the personality of Uncle Abner, whose Greek sense of justice is
inflexible. All of these stories are masterly examples of the
justifiable surprise ending, yet have the logic and dramatic power which
we have come to associate with Athenian tragedy. Their effectiveness is
largely due to the value of under statement.
_Sketches in Duneland_, by _Earl H. Reed_ (John Lane Company). These
studies of the dune country of Lake Michigan fall into two groups. The
second and larger group consists of character studies drawn from the
quaint denizens of this district with skilful humor and fine
characterization. “Holy Zeke,” “The Love Affair of Happy Cal,” and “The
Resurrection of Bill Saunders” are the best stories in this collection,
though the whole is very good indeed.
_Miss Mink’s Soldier_, by _Alice Hegan Rice_ (Century Company). This is
a pleasant collection of Mrs. Rice’s better short stories. They will
give quiet pleasure to the reader who is not too exacting and show a
wide range of human interest.
_The Key of the Fields_ and _Boldero_, by _Henry Milner Rideout_
(Duffield & Company). These two picaresque novelettes have the magical
glamor of fairy tales set in Maxfield Parrish landscapes. They have
given me great pleasure by reason of their prismatic quality and their
whimsical humor. Mr. Rideout is a conscious stylist who never falls into
preciosity, but we must accept his world without qualification if we are
to enter properly into the spirit of his work.
_The Best College Short Stories_, edited by _Henry T. Schnittkind_ (The
Stratford Company). Mr. Schnittkind aims to consider annually the best
short stories in college magazines, following the same principles which
I have adopted in the present series of volumes. The idea is excellent,
and the results are surprisingly good. I find in this collection three
stories which would have won a place on my annual Roll of Honor: “The
Tomte Gubbe” by Alma P. Abrahamson, “The Dead City” by Isidor Schneider,
and “Angèle” by John Jones Sharon. The volume includes a large amount of
valuable illustrative material, including contributions by many magazine
editors and successful writers.
_The Scar that Tripled_, by _William G. Shepherd_ (Harper & Brothers).
In this short story Mr. Shepherd relates with vivid detail the true
story of the lad whose meeting with Richard Harding Davis at Salonica
suggested to the latter the story of “The Deserter.” To my mind it is a
better story than “The Deserter,” and one which will have a quiet life
of its own for some time.
_Land’s End and Other Stories_, by _Wilbur Daniel Steele_ (Harper &
Brothers). I consider this the best volume of short stories by an
American author published this year. It rightly claims a place in our
literature by virtue of Mr. Steele’s sensitive fidelity to the more
abiding romance of ordinary life. These stories have a quality of
romantic escape which is rare. Behind the complications which his men
and women weave for one another looms the eternal but ever-changing
pattern of the sea. Few writers show such economy in the use of their
material. These stories will last because of their imaginative reality,
their warm color, and their finality of artistic execution.
_Mr. Squem and Some Male Triangles_, by _Arthur Russell Taylor_ (George
H. Doran Company). These sketches have an American philosophy with more
background than the casual reader may at first realize. They help to
interpret much that would bewilder the foreigner, and their unassuming
excellence is noteworthy.
_Atlantic Narratives_ (First and second series), edited with an
Introduction by _Charles Swain Thomas_ (The Atlantic Monthly Press).
These two volumes are a well chosen selection from the rich store of
short stories published in the Atlantic Monthly during the past few
years. Edited for college and high school use, the second series is
specially adapted to younger readers. Speaking generally, I should say
that these collections would be of more use in classes in English
narrative than in short story classes, but my personal emphasis would be
on the special pleasure they will give the general reader, who will find
such old favorites as “Little Selves” by Mary Lerner, “In No Strange
Land” by Katharine Butler, “The Garden of Memories” by C. A. Mercer, and
“Babanchik” by Christina Krysto reprinted in a format which is a delight
to the eye. It would be pleasant if these collections should prove to be
the forerunners of an annual series of Atlantic stories.
_The Rose-Bush of a Thousand Years_, by _Mabel Wagnalls_ (Funk &
Wagnalls Company). When the first part of this book was published in a
magazine during 1916 its story value instantly attracted my attention,
and later it became familiar to a wider public through the screen
version in which Madame Nazimova took the principal part. The present
reprint has been long called for, and would have gained if the crude and
inartistic second part had been omitted. It forms no essential part of
the story and is clearly an addition dictated by supposed moving picture
demands.
_A Book of Short Stories_, edited by _Blanche Colton Williams_ (D.
Appleton and Company). This collection of thirteen stories for high
schools is an admirable collection along well-trodden paths, and to it
is added a wealth of biographical and critical material, well-ordered
and clearly exposed. The general reader will wish to have the volume on
his shelves, because it renders accessible for the first time in book
form Major Frederick Stuart Greene’s remarkable story, “Molly McGuire,
Fourteen.” It is the finest testimony I know of the quality of Dr.
Williams’ teaching that a pupil of hers should have produced so notable
a story in her classrooms.
_A Gray Dream_, by _Laura Wolcott_ (Yale University Press). This
collection of short stories and reminiscences has all the quiet glow of
Indian summer, dreaming over the past with serene conviction and an
unconquerable youth of the spirit. The best that New England Puritanism
had to reveal is chronicled in these stories, which will remind more
than one reader of Emily Dickinson. They have a finished style which
achieves its end without undue pomp and circumstance.
_The Scarecrow and Other Stories_, by _G. Ranger Wormser_ (E. P. Dutton
& Company). These stories by Miss Wormser are the most interesting short
story discovery of the year. They are subtle studies in unfamiliar
regions of the spirit, and their vivid imaginative quality is not unlike
that of Algernon Blackwood, though Miss Wormser’s style is somewhat more
self-conscious. I believe that this volume heralds a remarkable future.