#The Honourable Gentlemen and Others# and #Wings: Tales of the Psychic#, by
_Achmed Abdullah_ (G. P. Putnam's Sons, and the James A. McCann
Company). In the first of these two volumes, Mr. Abdullah has gathered
the Pell Street stories of New York's Chinatown which have appeared in
American magazines during the past few years. As contrasted with Thomas
Burke's "Limehouse Nights," these stories reflect the oriental point of
view with its characteristic fatalism and equability of temper. Four of
these stories are told with the utmost economy of means and a grim
pleasure in watching events unshape themselves. "A Simple Act of Piety"
seemed to me one of the best short stories of 1918. The other volume is
of more uneven quality, and psychic stories do not furnish Mr. Abdullah
with his most natural medium, but contains at least three admirable
stories.
#Hand-Made Fables#, by _George Ade._ (Doubleday, Page & Company.) Mr.
Ade's new series of thirty fables are a valuable record of the war years
in American life. They are written in a unique idiom full of color, if
unintelligible to the foreigner. I think one may fairly say that Mr.
Ade's work is thoroughly characteristic of a large section of American
culture, and this section he has portrayed admirably. Undoubtedly he is
our best satirist.
#Joy in the Morning#, by _Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews_ (Charles
Scribner's Sons). This uneven collection includes two admirable stories,
"The Ditch" and "Dundonald's Destroyer," to which I drew attention when
they first appeared in magazines. The latter is one of the best realized
legends suggested by the war, while the former is technically
interesting as a thoroughly successful short story written entirely in
dialogue. The other stories are of slighter content, and emotionally
somewhat overtaut.
#Youth and the Bright Medusa#, by _Willa Cather_ (Alfred A. Knopf).
Fifteen years ago, Miss Cather published a volume of short stories
entitled "The Troll Garden." This volume has long been out of print,
although its influence may be seen in the work of many contemporary
story writers. The greater part of its contents is now reprinted in the
present volume, together with four new stories of less interest. These
eight studies, dealing for the most part with the artistic temperament,
are written with a detached observation of life that clearly reveals the
influence of Flaubert on the one hand and of Henry James on the other,
but there is a quality of personal style built up out of nervous rhythms
and an instinctive reticence of personal attitude which Miss Cather only
shares with Sherwood Anderson among her American compatriots. She is
more assured in the traditional quality of her work than Anderson, but
hardly less astringent. I regard this book as one of the most important
contributions to the American short story published during the past
year, and personally I consider it more significant than her four
admirable novels.
#From Place to Place#, by _Irvin S. Cobb_ (George H. Doran Company). I
have frequently had occasion to point out in the past that Mr. Cobb's
work, in depth of conception and breadth of execution, makes him the
legitimate successor of Mark Twain as a painter of the ampler life of
the American South and Middle West. In his new collection of nine
stories, there are at least three which I confidently believe are
destined to last as long as the best stories of Hawthorne and Poe. The
most noteworthy of these is "Boys Will Be Boys," which I printed in a
previous volume of this series. "The Luck Piece" and "The Gallowsmith,"
though sharply contrasted in subject matter, reveal the same profound
understanding of American life which makes Mr. Cobb almost our best
interpreter in fiction to readers in other countries. Like Mark Twain,
Mr. Cobb is quite uncritical of his own work, and two of these stories
are of merely ephemeral value. I should like no better task than to
edite a selection of Mr. Cobb's stories in one volume for introduction
to the English public, and I think that such a volume would be the best
service American letters could render to English letters at the present
moment.
#The Life of the Party#, by _Irvin S. Cobb_ (George H. Doran Company). I
shall claim no special literary quality for this short story which Mr.
Cobb has reprinted from The Saturday Evening Post, but America usually
shows such poverty in producing humorous stories that the infectious
quality of this wildly improbable adventure makes the story seem better
than it really is. It cannot be regarded as more than a diversion from
Mr. Cobb's rich human studies of American life.
#Hiker Joy#, by _James B. Connolly_ (Charles Scribner's Sons). This series
of stories about a little New York wharf-rat which Mr. Connolly has
reprinted from Collier's Weekly are less important than the admirable
stories of the Gloucester fishermen which first made his reputation.
They are told by the wharf-rat in dialect with a casual reportorial air
which is tolerably convincing, and it is clear that they are based on a
background of first-hand experience. Mr. Connolly's hand is not entirely
subdued to the medium in which he has chosen to work, but the result is
a certain monotony of interest.
#Twelve Men#, by _Theodore Dreiser_ (Boni & Liveright). These twelve
portraits which Mr. Dreiser has transferred to us from life represent
his impressions of life's crowded thoroughfares and his reactions to
many human contacts. More than one of these portraits can readily be
traced to its original, and taken as a group they represent as valuable
a cross-section Of our hurrying civilization as we have. Strictly
speaking, however, they are not short stories, but discursive causeries
on friends of Mr. Dreiser. They answer to no usual concepts of literary
form, but have necessitated the creation of a new form. They reflect a
gallic irony compact of pity and understanding. The brief limitations of
his form prevent Mr. Dreiser from falling into errors which detract
somewhat from the greatness of his novels, and as a whole I command this
volume to the discriminating reader.
#The Emperor of Elam, and Other Stories#, by _H. G. Dwight_ (Doubleday,
Page & Company). Those who read Mr. Dwight's earlier volume entitled
"Stamboul Nights" will recall the very real genius for the romantic
presentation of adventure in exotic backgrounds which the author
revealed. Every detail, if studied, was quietly set down without undue
emphasis, and the whole was a finished composition. In the title story
of the present volume, and in "The Emerald of Tamerlane," written in
collaboration with John Taylor, Mr. Dwight is on the same familiar
ground. I had occasion three years ago to reprint "The Emperor of Elam"
in an earlier volume of this series, and it still seems to be worthy to
set beside the best of Gautier. There are other stories in the present
collection with the same rich background, but I should like to call
particular attention to Mr. Dwight's two masterpieces, "Henrietta
Stackpole Rediviva" and "Behind the Door." The former ranks with the
best half-dozen American short stories, and the latter with the best
half-dozen short stories of the world. I regard this volume as the most
important which I have encountered since I began to publish my studies
of the American short story.
#The Miller's Holiday: Short Stories From the North Western Miller#,
Edited by _Randolph Edgar_ (The Miller Publishing Company: Minneapolis).
These fourteen stories reprinted from the files of the North Western
Miller between 1883 and 1904 recall an interesting episode in the
history of American literature. The paper just mentioned was the first
trade journal to publish at regular intervals the best short stories
procurable at the time, and out of this series was born "The Bellman,"
which for many years was the best literary weekly of general interest
in the Middle West. The North Western Miller printed the best work of O.
Henry, Howard Pyle, Octave Thanet, James Lane Allen, Hamlin Garland,
Edward Everett Hale, and many others, and it was here that Frank R.
Stockton first printed "The Christmas Wreck," which I should agree with
the late Mr. Howells in regarding as Stockton's best story. I trust that
the success of this volume will induce Mr. Edgar to edite and reprint
one or more series of stories from "The Bellman." Such an undertaking
would fill a very real need.
#Half Portions#, by _Edna Ferber_ (Doubleday, Page & Company). Edna Ferber
shares with Fannie Hurst the distinction of portraying the average
American mind in its humbler human relations. Less sure than Miss Hurst
in her ability to present her material in artistic form, her observation
is equally keen and accurate, and in at least two stories in the present
volume she seems to meet Miss Hurst on equal ground. "The Maternal
Feminine," in my opinion, ranks with "The Gay Old Dog" as Miss Ferber's
best story.
#The Best Psychic Stories#, Edited by _Joseph Lewis French_, with an
Introduction by _Dorothy Scarborough_ (Boni & Liveright). This very
badly edited collection of stories is worth having because of the fact
that it reprints certain admirable short stories by Algernon Blackwood,
Ambrose Bierce, and Fiona Macleod. If it attains to a second edition,
the volume would be tremendously improved by omitting the compilation of
irrelevant theosophical articles on the subject, and the substitution
for them of other stories which lie open to Mr. French's hand in rich
measure.
#Fantastics, and Other Fancies#, by _Lafcadio Hearn_, Edited by _Charles
Woodward Hutson_ (Houghton Mifflin Company). This collection of stories,
portraits, and essays which Mr. Hutson's industry has rescued from the
long-lost files of The New Orleans Daily Item and The Times-Democrat
belong to Hearn's early manner, when he sought to set down brief colored
impressions of the old, hardly lingering Creole life which is now only a
memory. In many ways akin to the art of Hérédia, they show a less
classical attitude toward their subject-matter, and are frankly
experimental approaches to the method of evocation by sounds and
perfumes which he achieved so successfully in his later Japanese books.
In these stories we may see the influence of Gautier's enamelled style
already at work, operating with more precision than it was later to
show, more fearful of the penumbra than his later ghost stories, and
with a certain hurried air which may be largely set down to the
journalistic pressure of writing weekly for newspapers. Notwithstanding
this, many of the stories and sketches are a permanent addition to
Hearn's work.
#Waifs and Strays: Twelve Stories#, by _O. Henry_ (Doubleday, Page &
Company). This volume of collectanea is divided into two parts. First of
all, twelve new stories have been recovered from magazine files. Three
of these are negligible journalism, and six others are chiefly
interesting either as early studies for later stories, or for their
biographical value. "The Cactus" and "The Red Roses of Tonia," however,
rank only second to "O. Henry's" best dozen stories. The second part of
the book is a miscellany of critical and biographical comment, including
also some verse tributes to the story writer's memory and a valuable
index to the collected edition of "O. Henry's" stories.
#O. Henry Memorial Prize Stories#, 1919, Chosen by the _Society of Arts
and Sciences_, with an introduction by _Blanche Colton Williams_
(Doubleday, Page & Company). The Society of Arts and Sciences of New
York City has had the admirable idea of editing an annual volume of the
best American short stories, and awarding annual prizes for the two best
stories as a memorial to the art of "O. Henry." The present volume
reprints fifteen stories chosen by the society, including the two prize
stories,--"England to America," by Margaret Prescott Montague, and "For
They Know Not What They Do," by Wilbur Daniel Steele. Five other stories
by Mrs. Frances Gilchrist Wood, Miss Fannie Hurst, Miss Louise Rice,
Miss Beatrice Ravenel, and Miss G. F. Alsop are admirable stories. The
selection represents a fair cross-section of the year's short stories,
good, bad, and indifferent, but the two prizes seem to me to have been
most wisely awarded, and I conceive this formal annual tribute to be the
most significant and practical means of encouraging the American short
story. Toward this encouragement the public may contribute in their
measure, as I understand that the royalties which accrue from the sale
of this volume are to be applied to additional prizes in future years.
#The Happy End#, by _Joseph Hergesheimer_ (Alfred A. Knopf). Mr.
Hergesheimer's new collection of seven stories is largely drawn from the
files of The Saturday Evening Post, and represents to some degree a
compromise with his public. The book is measurably inferior to "Gold and
Iron," but shows to a degree the same qualities of studied background
and selective presentation of aspects in character which are most
satisfyingly presented in his novels. In "Lonely Valleys," "Tol'able
David," and "The Thrush in the Hedge," Mr. Hergesheimer's art is more
nearly adequate than in the other stories, but they lack the
authoritative presentation which made "The Three Black Pennys" a
landmark in contemporary American fiction. They show the author to be a
too frank disciple of Mr. Galsworthy in the less essential aspect of the
latter's art, and their tone is too neutral to be altogether convincing.
#War Stories#, Selected and Edited by _Roy J. Holmes_ and _A. Starbuck_
(Thomas Y. Crowell Company). This anthology of twenty-one American short
stories about the war would have gained measurably by compression. At
least five of the stories are unimportant, and six more are not
specially representative of the best that is being done. But "Blind
Vision," "The Unsent Letter," "His Escape," "The Boy's Mother" and "The
Sixth Man" are now made accessible in book form, and give this anthology
its present value.
#The Great Modern American Stories: An Anthology#, Compiled and edited
with an introduction by _William Dean Howells_ (Boni & Liveright). This
is the best anthology of the American short story from about 1860 to
1910 which has been published, or which is likely to be published. It
represents the mellow choice of an old man who was the contemporary,
editor, and friend of most American writers of the past two generations,
and in his reminiscent introduction Mr. Howells relates delightfully
many of his personal adventures with American authors. Several of these
stories will be unfamiliar to the general reader, and I am specially
glad to observe in this volume two little-known masterpieces,--"The
Little Room" by Madelene Yale Wynne, and "Aunt Sanna Terry," by Landon
R. Dashiell. Mr. Howells' choice has been studiously limited to short
stories of the older generation, and without infringing on his ground,
it is to be hoped that a second series of "Great Modern American
Stories" by more recent writers should be issued by the same publishers.
The present volume contains an excellent bibliographical chapter on the
history of the American short story, and an appendix with biographies
and bibliographies of the writers included, which calls for more
accurate revision.
#Bedouins#, by _James Huneker_ (Charles Scribner's Sons). While this is
primarily a volume of critical essays on painting, music, literature and
life, it concludes with a series of seven short stories which serve as a
postlude to Mr. Huneker's earlier volume, "Visionaries." They are
chiefly interesting as the last dying glow of symbolism, derivative as
they are from Huysmans and Mallarme. I cannot regard them as successful
stories, but they have a certain experimental value which comes nearest
to success in "The Cardinal's Fiddle."
#Humoresque#, by _Fannie Hurst_ (Harper & Brothers). Miss Hurst's fourth
volume of short stories shows a certain recession from her previous high
standard, except for the title story which is told with an economy of
detail unusual for her. All of these eight stories are distinctive, and
six of them are admirable, but I seem to detect a tendency toward the
fixation of a type, with a corresponding diminishment of faithful
individual portrayal. The volume would make the reputation of a lesser
writer, but Miss Hurst is after all the rightful successor of "O Henry,"
and we are entitled to demand from her nothing less than her best.
#Legends#, by _Walter McLaren Imrie_ (The Midland Press, Glennie, Alcona
Co., Mich.). I should like to call special attention to this little book
by a medical officer in the Canadian army, because it seems to me to be
a significant footnote to the poignant records of Barbusse, Duhamel,
and Élie Faure. So far as I know, this is the only volume of fiction
written in English portraying successfully from the artist's point of
view the acrid monotony of war. I believe that it deserves to be placed
on the same bookshelf as the volumes of the others whom I have just
mentioned.
#Travelling Companions#, by _Henry James_ (Boni & Liveright). These seven
short stories by Henry James, which are now collected for the first time
with a somewhat inept introduction by Albert Mordell, were written at
the same time as the stories in his "Passionate Pilgrim." While they
only serve to reveal a minor aspect of his genius, they are of
considerable importance historically to the student of his literary
evolution. Published between 1868 and 1874, they represent the first
flush of his enthusiasm for the older civilization of Europe, and
especially of Italy. He would not have wished them to be reprinted, but
the present editor's course is justified by their quality, which won the
admiration at the time of Tennyson and other weighty critics. Had Henry
James reprinted them at all, he would have doubtless rewritten them in
his later manner, and we should have lost these first clear outpourings
of his sense of international contrasts.
#The Best American Humorous Short Stories#, Edited by _Alexander Jessup_
(Boni & Liveright). This collection of eighteen humorous short stories
furnish a tolerable conspectus of the period between 1839 and the
present day. They are prefaced by an informative historical introduction
which leaves little to be desired from the point of view of information.
The general reader will find the book less interesting than the
specialist, since a large portion of the volume is devoted to the
somewhat crude beginnings of humor in our literature. Apart from the
stories by Edward Everett Hale, Mark Twain, Frank R. Stockton, Bret
Harte, and "O. Henry," the comparative poverty of rich understanding
humor in American fiction is remarkable. The most noteworthy omission in
the volume is the neglect of Irvin S. Cobb.
#John Stuyvesant Ancestor and Other People#, by _Alvin Johnson_ (Harcourt,
Brace & Howe). This collection of sketches, largely reprinted from the
New Republic, is rather a series of studies in social and economic
relations than a group of short stories. But they concern us here
because of Mr. Johnson's penetrating analysis of character, which
constitutes a document of no little value to the imaginative student of
our institutions, and "Short Change" has no little value as a vividly
etched short story.
#Under the Rose#, by _Arthur Johnson_ (Harper & Brothers). With the
publication of this volume, Mr. Johnson at last takes his rightful place
among the best of the American short story writers who wish to continue
the tradition of Henry James. In subtlety of portraiture he is the equal
of Edith Wharton, and he excels her in ease and in his ability to
subdue his substance to the environment in which it is set. He
surpasses Mrs. Gerould by reason of the variety of his subject matter,
and as a stylist he is equal to Anne Douglas Sedgwick. I have published
two of these stories in previous volumes of this series, and there are
at least four other stories in the volume which I should have liked to
reprint.
#Going West#, by _Basil King_ (Harper & Brothers). We have in this little
book a reprint of one of the best short stories produced in America by
the war. While it is emotionally somewhat overtaut, it has a good deal
of reticence in portrayal, and there is a passion in it which transcends
Mr. King's usual sentimentality.
#Civilization: Tales of the Orient#, by _Ellen N. La Motte_ (George H.
Doran Company). Miss La Motte is the most interesting of the new
American story writers who deal with the Orient. She writes out of a
long and deep background of experience with a subtle appreciation of
both the Oriental and the Occidental points of view, and has developed a
personal art out of a deliberately narrowed vision. "On the Heights,"
"Prisoners," "Under a Wineglass," and "Cosmic Justice" are the best of
these stories. So definite a propagandist aim is usually fatal to
fiction, but Miss La Motte succeeds by deft suggestion rather than
underscored statement.
#Short Stories of the New America#, Selected and Edited by _Mary A.
Laselle_ (Henry Holt and Company). While this is primarily a volume of
supplementary reading for secondary schools, compiled with a view to the
"americanization" of the immigrant, it contains four short stories of
more or less permanent value, three of which I have included in previous
volumes of this series. It also draws attention to the admirable Indian
stories of Grace Coolidge. The volume would be improved if three of
these stories were omitted.
#Chill Hours#, by _Helen Mackay_ (Duffield and Company). We have come to
expect from Mrs. Mackay a somewhat tense but restrained mirroring of
little human accidents, in which action is of less importance than its
effects. She has a dry, nervous, unornamented style which sets down
details in separate but related strokes which build up a picture whose
art is not altogether successfully concealed. The present volume, which
reflects Mrs. Mackay's experiences in France during the war, is more
even in quality than her previous books, and "The Second Hay," "One or
Another," and "He Cost Us So Much" are noteworthy stories.
#Children in the Mist#, by _George Madden Martin_ (D. Appleton & Company),
and #More E. K. Means# (G. P. Putnam's Sons). Both of these volumes
represent traditional attitudes of the Southern white proprietor to the
negro, and both fail in artistic achievement because of their excessive
realization of the gulf between the two races. Mrs. Martin's book is the
more artistic and the less sympathetic, though it has more professions
of sympathy than that of Mr. Means. They both display considerable
talent, the one in historical portraiture of reconstruction times, and
the other in genial caricature of the more childish side of the
less-educated negro. The negroes whom Mr. Means has invented have still
to be born in the flesh, but there is an infectious humor in his
nightmare world which he may plead as a justification for the misuse of
his very real ability.
#The Gift, England to America#, and #Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge#, by
_Margaret Prescott Montague_ (E.P. Dutton & Company, and Doubleday, Page
& Company). These three short stories are all spiritual studies of human
reactions and moods generated by the war, set down with a deft hand in a
neutral style, somewhat over-repressed perhaps, but thoroughly
successful in the achievement of what Miss Montague set out to do. The
second and best of these won the first prize offered last year as a
memorial to "O. Henry" by The Society of Arts and Sciences of New York
City. Good as it is, I am tempted to disagree with its interpretation of
the English attitude toward America in general, although it may very
well be true in many an individual case. Miss Montague suffers from a
certain imaginative poverty which is becoming more and more
characteristic of puritan art and life in America. From the point of
view of style, however, these stories share distinction in the Henry
James tradition only with Katharine Fullerton Gerould, Anne Douglas
Sedgwick, Arthur Johnson and H. G. Dwight.
#From the Life#, by _Harvey O'Higgins_ (Harper & Brothers). This volume
should be read in connection with "Twelve Men," by Theodore Dreiser.
Where Mr. Dreiser identifies himself with his subjects, Mr. O'Higgins
stands apart in the most strict detachment. These nine studies in
contemporary American life take as their point of departure in each case
some tiny and apparently insignificant happening which altered the whole
course of a life. Artists, actors, politicians, and business men all
date their change of fortune from some ironic accident, and in three of
these nine stories the author's analysis merits close re-reading by
students of short story technique. Behind the apparent looseness of
structure you will find a new and interesting method of presentation
which is as effective as it is deliberate. I regard "From the Life" as
one of the more important books of 1919.
#The Mystery at the Blue Villa#, by _Melville Davisson Post_ (D. Appleton
and Company), and #Silent, White and Beautiful#, by _Tod Robbins_ (Boni
and Liveright). These two volumes furnish an interesting contrast. The
subject-matter of both is rather shoddy, but Mr. Post displays a
technique in the mystery story which is quite unrivalled since Poe in
its inevitable relentlessness of plot based on human weakness, while Mr.
Robbins shows a wild fertility of imagination of extraordinary promise,
although it is now wasted on unworthy material. I think that both books
will grip the reader by their quality of suspense, and I shall look
forward to Mr. Robbins' next book with eager interest.
#The Best Ghost Stories.# Introduction by _Arthur B. Reeve_ (Boni and
Liveright, Inc.). Mr. French's new collection of ghost stories
supplements his volume entitled "Great Ghost Stories," published in the
previous year. I consider it the better collection of the two, and
should particularly like to call attention to the stories by Leopold
Kompert and Ellis Parker Butler. The latter is Mr. Butler's best story
and has, so far as I know, not been reprinted elsewhere. For the rest,
the volume ranges over familiar ground.
#High Life#, by _Harrison Rhodes_ (Robert M. McBride & Co.). Setting aside
the title story which, as a novelette, does not concern us here, this
volume is chiefly noteworthy for the reprint of "Spring-Time." When I
read this story for the first time many years ago, it seemed to me one
that Mr. Arthur Sherburne Hardy would have been proud to sign. It is not
perhaps readily realized how difficult it is to write a story so deftly
touched with sentiment, while maintaining the necessary economy of
personal emotion. "The Sad Case of Quag" exemplifies the gallic aspect
of Mr. Rhodes' talent.
#The Red Mark#, by _John Russell_ (Alfred A. Knopf). This uneven volume of
short stories by a writer of real though undisciplined talent is full of
color and kaleidoscopic hurrying of events. Apart from "The Adversary,"
which is successful to a degree, the book is uncertain in its rendering
of character, though Mr. Russell's handling of plot leaves little to be
desired.
#The Pagan#, by _Gordon Arthur Smith_ (Charles Scribner's Sons). It was
expected that when Mr. Smith's first volume of short stories should
appear, it would take its place at once as pre-eminent in the romantic
revival which is beginning to be apparent in the American short story.
This volume does not disappoint our expectations, although it would have
gained in authority had it been confined to the five Taillandy Stories,
"Jeanne, the Maid," and "The Return." Mr. Smith's output has always been
wisely limited, and "The Pagan" represents the best work of nine years.
These stories are only second in their kind to those of James Branch
Cabell and Stephen French Whitman.
#The Elder's People#, by _Harriet Prescott Spofford_ (Houghton, Mifflin
Company). Mrs. Spofford has collected in this volume the best among the
short stories which she has written since 1904, and the collection shows
no diminution in her powers of accurate and tender observation of New
England folk. These fourteen prose idyls have a mellow humanism which
portrays the last autumn fires of a dying tradition. They rank with the
best work of Miss Jewett and Mrs. Spofford herself in the same kind, and
are a permanent addition to the small store of New England literature. I
wish to call special attention to "An Old Fiddler," "A Village
Dressmaker," and "A Life in a Night."
#The Valley of Vision#, by _Henry van Dyke_ (Charles Scribner's Sons).
This volume of notes for stories rather than stories themselves calls
for no particular comment save for two admirable fugitive studies
entitled "A Remembered Dream" and "The Broken Soldier and the Maid of
France." These seem to me creditable additions to the small store of
American legends which the war produced, but the other stories and
sketches are rather bloodless. They are signs of the spiritual anæmia
which is so characteristic of much of American life.
#The Ninth Man#, by _Mary Heaton Vorse_ (Harper & Brothers). When this
story was published in Harper's Magazine six years ago, it attracted
wide attention as a vividly composed presentment of human passions in a
mediæval scene. The allegory was not stressed unduly, and was perhaps
taken into less account then than it will be now. But events have since
clarified the story in a manner which proves Miss Vorse to have been
curiously prophetic. In substance it is very different from what we have
come to associate with her work, but I think that its modern social
significance will now be obvious to any reader. Philosophy aside, I
commend it as an admirably woven story.
#Anchors Aweigh#, by _Harriet Welles_ (Charles Scribner's Sons). I think
the chief value of this volume is as a quiet record of experience
without any remarkable qualities of plot and style, but it is full of
promise for the future, and in "Orders" Mrs. Welles has written a
memorable story. The introduction by the Secretary of the Navy rather
overstates the case, but I think no one will deny the genuine feeling
and truth with which Mrs. Welles has presented her point of view.
#Ma Pettengill#, by _Harry Leon Wilson_ (Doubleday, Page & Company). I
must confess that temperamentally I am not inclined to rank these
humorous stories of American life as highly as many critics. I grant
their sincerity of portraiture, but they show only too plainly the signs
of Mr. Wilson's compromise with his large audience in The Saturday
Evening Post. They are written, however, with the author's eye on the
object, and Ma Pettengill herself is vividly realized.
#Hungry Hearts#, by _Anzia Yezierska_ (Houghton Mifflin Company). When I
reprinted "Fat of the Land" last year I stated that it seemed to me
perhaps the finest imaginative contribution to the short story made by
an American artist last year. My opinion is confirmed by Miss
Yezierska's first collection of stories, and particularly by "Hunger,"
"The Miracle," and "My Own People." I know of no other American writer
who is driven by such inevitable compulsion to express her ideal of what
America might be, and it serves to underscore the truth that the chief
idealistic contribution to American life comes no longer from the anæmic
Anglo-Saxon puritan, but from the younger elements of our mixed racial
culture. Such a flaming passion of mingled indignation and love for
America embodies a message which other races must heed, and proves that
there is a spiritual America being born out of suffering and oppression
which is destined to rule before very long.