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AMERICAN SHORT STORIES
CHARLES SEARS BALDWIN, A.M., PH.D.
AMERICAN
SHORT STORIES
SELECTED AND EDITED
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON
THE SHORT STORY
BY
CHARLES SEARS BALDWIN, A.M., PH.D.
PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
_NEW IMPRESSION_
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
1921
_Copyright, 1904_,
BY LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
_All rights reserved._
First Edition, August, 1904
Reprinted, May, 1906, October, 1909
October, 1910, January, 1912, April, 1916
June, 1921
TO
G. E. B.
_In the brief tale, however, the author is enabled to carry out the
fulness of his intention, be it what it may. During the hour of
perusal the soul of the reader is at the writer’s control. There
are no external or extrinsic influences resulting from weariness or
interruption._
_A skilful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has
not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having
conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to
be wrought out, he then invents such incidents, he then combines such
events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If
his very initial sentence tend not to the out-bringing of this effect,
then he has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there
should be no word written of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is
not to the one pre-established design._--EDGAR ALLAN POE.
PREFACE
The object of this volume is not to collect the best American short
stories. So delicate a choice may the more readily be left to
time, since it must include some authors now living. That dramatic
concentration which is the habit of a hundred writers for our magazines
to-day was extremely rare before 1835; it was not common before 1870;
it has become habitual within the memory of its younger practitioners.
This collection, then, seeks to exhibit, and the introductory essay
seeks to follow and formulate, a development. The development from
inchoate tales into that distinct and self-consistent form which, for
lack of a distinctive term, we have tacitly agreed to call the short
story is a chapter of American literary history.
Influences from abroad and from the past, though they could not be
displayed at large, have been indicated in the aspects that seemed
most suggestive for research. The significance in form of Boccaccio’s
experiments, for example, because it has hardly been defined before,
is proposed in outline to students of comparative literature. But
the American development is so far independent that it may be fairly
comprehended in one volume. To exhibit this by typical instances,
from Irving down, did not preclude variety alike of talents and
of scenes. Indeed, that the collection should thus express many
tempers--Knickerbocker leisure, Yankee adaptability, Irish fervor;
and many localities, from elder New England to the new coast of gold,
from the rude Michigan frontier to the gentle colonies of the lower
Mississippi--makes it the more American.
It is a pleasure to record my obligation to Walter Austin, Esq., for
the rare edition of his grandfather’s literary papers, and to the
publishers whose courtesy permits me to include some stories valuable
in copyright as in art.
C. S. B.
[NOTE.--The story entitled ‘The Eve of the Fourth’ is printed here
(page 305) by permission of Mr. William Heinemann, publisher of
‘The Copperhead, and Other Stories, etc.,’ by Harold Frederic.]
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION Page
I. The Tale in America before 1835 1
II. Poe’s Invention of the Short Story 15
III. A Glance at Derivation: Ancient Tales, Mediæval Tales,
The Modern French Short Story 23
PART I. THE TENTATIVE PERIOD
Chapter
I. WASHINGTON IRVING
_Rip Van Winkle_ _1820_ 39
II. WILLIAM AUSTIN
_Peter Rugg, the Missing Man_ _1824_ 61
III. JAMES HALL
_The French Village_ _1829_ 99
IV. ALBERT PIKE
_The Inroad of the Nabajo_ _1833_ 115